I was drawn to the Integrative Wellness framework after years of coaching staff, board members and participants in various nonprofits where I was executive director. One of the first things I learned in a training with the Integrative Wellness Academy was the critical importance of deep listening that allows you to fully express your truth without wanting advice (or interruption). As an executive director, my first instinct was always to jump in and fix problems. It was hard for me to step back.

As an integrative wellness coach, my role is to ride along side and explore the horizon of options and possibilities together. On the horizon are issues of balance and imbalance in four areas: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. The term integrative manifests how each area of the four is connected to all the rest. When we are out of balance in one area, it leads to imbalance in at least one more. Listening carefully quiets the noise of integrated signals among the four.

There are lots of examples of how this works. Many might show up as physical on the surface (e.g. pain in the body, feeling out of shape, carrying the burden of financial debt or disorganization in the home), but when we take a look below the surface we find causal factors in the mental or emotional spheres. So an inside-out and outside-in approach will lay out options for bringing things more into balance. Sad feelings in the emotional sphere or negative self image in the mental sphere can lead to lethargic habits, unhealthy eating patterns, impulsive spending and personal disarray in the home.

If there is a bunch of stuff out of balance in one particular sphere, it is a priority for focus. However, finding the best solutions can include detours into other spheres where subsurface issues are lurking. As we excavate, we listen to the messages that come forth and we listen for the clues that lead us to greater balance and wellness.

This is not therapy. And it is not tough love. It is a sort of co-creation space where the coach and the client imagine and illustrate what’s going on and what could be better.