What Working With a Health Coach Actually Looks Like
It's Not What Most People Expect
By this point, most of us know someone living with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or obesity—or we're managing one of those things ourselves. That reality breaks my heart a little every time I sit with it. While I could spend a lot of time talking about how we got here as a society, I've found that most people aren't particularly interested in the backstory. They're focused on what to do now. I respect that completely.
Here's what I've noticed, though: knowing you need to do something and knowing what to actually do are two very different things. And the gap between a diagnosis and a genuine plan for living differently? That gap is enormous—and almost nobody is standing in it with patients.
You leave the office with a diagnosis, some general guidance along the lines of "eat less, move more," and a prescription to pick up on the way home. Then you're released back into your life. No one catches you. It's a little like catch and release—except the stakes are your long-term health.
That's the problem I built my practice around. The slogan I use is "You've Been Given a Diagnosis—But Nobody Taught You What to Do Next." It's blunt, but it's accurate, and it's the reason health coaching exists.
It Starts With a Conversation—Not a Protocol
The first thing I want prospective clients to understand is that this isn't a program with a predetermined finish line. It's a relationship. And like any meaningful relationship, it starts by actually getting to know each other.
Before anything else, there's a discovery call. No pressure, no commitment—just a chance to ask questions, talk through logistics, and get a feel for whether we're a good fit. Dynamic matters. If the rapport isn't there, the coaching won't work the way it should, and I'd rather know that early than have someone invest time and money into something that isn't clicking.
For those who move forward, the first real order of business is depth. Clients share their health history, current lifestyle, goals, medications, supplements, and the more granular things—sleep quality, stress levels, relationships, and mental health. All of it. Not because I'm collecting data for its own sake, but because I can't build a genuinely personalized approach without understanding the full picture of someone's life.
The Story Behind the Information
Here's where things get a little different from what most people expect from a health-related service.
Once that foundational information is in, we have an initial call—and the point of that call isn't to hand down a plan. It's to listen. The intake documents tell me the facts; the conversation tells me the story behind them. Why certain things have been tried before. What's gotten in the way. What life actually looks like day to day, and what's realistically possible within it.
That distinction—between facts and story—is everything in this work. Two people can have identical diagnoses and completely different lives, completely different barriers, and completely different starting points for change. A plan that ignores that isn't personalized; it's just generic advice with someone's name on it.
We also use that initial call to get into the practical side of things: how to navigate the platform I use to deliver coaching, how to track daily metrics, how we'll communicate and how often, whether blood work or tools like continuous glucose monitors might be useful in your specific situation, and where—if anywhere—supplements might play a supporting role. It's thorough, because getting these things right upfront makes everything that follows smoother.
What Ongoing Looks Like
After the groundwork is laid, the relationship shifts into something more like a steady, open conversation rather than a formal appointment schedule.
Clients can reach out through my platform as frequently as they need—to ask questions, request resources, think something through, or just check in. I keep tabs on how things are going through client-entered metrics and reach out proactively when something warrants a closer look. The goal isn't for clients to need me indefinitely; it's the opposite. I'm trying to build health literacy over time—to help people understand their bodies and their patterns well enough that they become their own best advocate. The coaching relationship, done right, should eventually work itself toward independence.
What determines the length of that relationship isn't a program timeline I set—it's where the client is and what they need. Some people want a shorter engagement with a defined focus. Others want a longer-term collaboration that evolves as their health does. Both are valid. The client is in the driver's seat on that.
What This Is Really About
The technical components of coaching—the platform, the metrics, the calls, the check-ins—matter. But they're infrastructure. What the work actually runs on is something harder to put in a brochure: trust, understanding, and a genuine commitment to meeting people where they are.
I'm not interested in copy/paste plans or rigid frameworks that don't bend to real life. I'm interested in the person in front of me—their circumstances, their history, their capacity, and their goals. That's what shapes everything else.
If you've been handed a diagnosis and sent home without a real roadmap for what comes next, that's not a personal failing. That's a gap in the system. And it's exactly the gap this work is designed to fill.
Rance Edwards is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with over 2,000 clinical hours of experience, specializing in chronic disease management and lifestyle medicine.
