Bodyways (sometimes called Bodyworks or similar) can be one way for your client to benefit from an often-overlooked method to improve their holistic health. By definition, Bodyways are used in alternative medicine to describe any therapeutic or personal development technique that involves working with the human body in a form involving manipulative therapy, breath work, or energy medicine. In addition bodywork techniques aim to assess or improve posture, promote awareness of the “mind-body connection”, or to manipulate a putative “energy field” surrounding the human body and affecting health.
For some, suffering is a great motivator. Many people first turn to Bodyways because the pain of an injury or a chronic condition forces them to seek alternatives. This can mean interventions without orthodox treatment – or surgery and drugs – to get relief. In some cases, the result has simply made them dependent on medications. Practitioners report that frequently clients come to their doorsteps when they have nowhere else to go. In desperation and in exasperation, they finally try a Bodyway to deal with their arthritis, backaches, repetitive stress syndrome, or other occupational strains, to help heal old football or dance injuries, stress, or for recovery after childbirth or an automobile accident. While a client may come to use Bodyways as it being their last resort, it’s also the first step toward a new awareness of being in their body and thus a new relationship to their lives.
Recommending the appropriate Bodyway can be a challenge for a holistic life coach. Some coaches will know several different types of Bodyways, such as various types of massage, but the Bodyway(s) you choose for your client will depend on their specific needs. A Mind Body Fitness Coach is qualified to direct this part of holistic healthcare extremely well, due to the knowledge they have related to the many Bodyways and the details that lend themselves perfectly for deciphering a clients’ needs.
Many of us, including our clients, have been conditioned to look to authorities and experts rather than to learn for ourselves. The more our client can develop an accurate picture of their body – from within and from without – and the more easily you can coach them to feel different parts, the more you will help them to know what they need in order to take care of themselves. In some cases, this will also help your client learn what they should share with any health care practitioners who are collaborating in their healing.
Other client motivators for turning to Bodyways comes from a more positive frame of mind, and a natural drive toward healthy or optimal functioning. Your client will generally feel good yet they will sense that they can expand beyond their present limitations. Or maybe your client will want to gain greater flexibility or to improve their posture. It doesn’t matter what the client’s reason is for needing to work with Bodyways. Whether they want to just feel better or function better in order to live better, persuading your client to use Bodyways will open a whole new world for them and may bring them not only the relief they long for but also more self-knowledge and power that they may not be aware they had. That’s what fulfilling your potential as a coach is really all about.
If you’d like more information about coach education and online training with a health and wellness focus, consider enrollment in the Spencer Institute Holistic Life Coach Certification and the Wellness Coach Certification.
