I’m a health coach starting out. I have an approach to health coaching that teaches people who are chronically dieting (yo-yo dieters) to manage their stress around weight so that they lose weight permanently without dieting. I had a client who was following the steps perfectly for the past 2 months and this morning she texted me that she’s going back to dieting because this process is not working for her. I told her I respect her decision and her response was that she will use what she learned from my coaching in pursuing the diet she will follow with a nutritionist.
My problem is that I am now spinning in my thoughts about my program. She is not my only client, and other clients have had success and are now relaxed about weight loss. But, since this particular client was so committed to following the steps and she represented exactly my ideal client avatar, I feel that maybe I need to revamp my program to meet the clients where they are at – which is to see weight loss progress quickly (not necessarily a lot of weight – but just lose something). At the same time, there’s a lot of mental and self discovery work involved in terms of tracking current habits, noticing thought patterns and observation of behaviour that is involved that needs to happen first before going into weight loss mode. So I feel a bit confused about how I can serve them better in the future if the ideal client isn’t getting the results they need…