Scope of Practice

While it important to me to get to the roots of your eating story, as a health coach I am unable to diagnose eating disorders, prescribe diet or exercise plans, treat disordered eating, provide therapy on psychological and mental disorders or trauma, or to diagnose or treat any other conditions. It is never my position to tell you to get off of medications or go against any advice of your healthcare professionals.

I am here to serve as your guide for change in your life and to be your weight loss best friend.

That involves discussing feelings and our whys. It is healing through storytelling and relatability. I will share self-care ideas for you, bridge gaps between knowing and doing, help you to heal your relationship with food, bring you closer to awareness of yourself and your behaviors, and facilitate positive change in your life. I want to help you get unstuck!

If at any point in your program, I feel that I may need to refer you to someone outside of my scope of practice such as a therapist, a nutritionist, or another type of licensed healthcare professional, I will say so and resume the right to discontinue my services until such help is rendered. I am willing to offer my accountability services in partnership with you and your doctor’s plan if that would be beneficial to your growth and health. I am able to offer general recommendations and provide clients with a number of different health approach options, resources, and support methods.

One of the most common misconceptions about health coaching is that it is therapy in disguise — or, worse yet, therapy from an unlicensed practitioner. In reality, coaching is truly its own unique service designed to help people meet the outcomes that will bring them success and fulfillment. Here are some of the differences between coaching and therapy and a guide for when each service is appropriate.

Defining terms:

Therapy, also called counseling or psychotherapy, is a long-term process in which a client works with a healthcare professional to diagnose and resolve problematic beliefs, behaviors, relationship issues, feelings and sometimes physical responses. The idea behind therapy is to focus on past traumas and issues to change self-destructive habits, repair and improve relationships and work through painful feelings. In this sense, therapy focuses on the past and on introspection and analysis.

A health coach is a helper who sets a client up with a process that may be a short or long-term period of an agreed length of time. In coaching, a client works with a coach, who is not a clinical healthcare professional, in order to bring awareness to, clarify and identify obstacles or problematic behaviors in order to create action plans and tools to achieve desired results. The process of health coaching takes the client’s current starting point as an acceptable neutral ground and is action-based from that point onward.

If you are seeking therapy and/or trauma recovery, I will refer you to:

Kim Honeycutt, MSW, LCSW, LCAS, CCFC
Psychotherapist & Trauma Recovery Consultant
[email protected]

icutalks.com
Resources for more counseling options