The Return of the Health Coaching Open Programme

The Heath Coaching Academy is a super company founded by Lesley Thompson and Kaye Burnett. They had a vision many years ago to bring together a group of like-minded professional coaches and take coaching to where it matters. There were lots of other parts to the vision but that was (and still is) at its heart.

I first “met” Lesley on the telephone. A coach friend had just started working as an associate coach with the Health Coaching Academy’s sister company Beyond Coaching who had been supporting GPs and their practice staff. She thought the work she was involved in “had my name all over it!”

It was one of those telephone calls where you can remember exactly where you were and the details of the conversation. I liked her instantly and I liked the mission. I was in.

After coaching GPs and practice staff, a new need emerged. People in healthcare wanted skill training and support to enable them to feel more confident when having conversations with their patients and service users. How could they use a coaching approach to have a more personalised conversation where the focus was on what mattered to a patient or service user rather than what the matter was with them?

And so the first health coaching training programmes were born.

In those early days, I was one of a couple of associate coaches invited to deliver. We delivered in-person sessions all over the UK. When the pandemic hit we worked hard to make the training suitable for the virtual space. Over the last four years, Zoom has enabled us to reach hundreds of people from healthcare professions, from those working in social enterprises and charities to those on the business side.

We were all delighted when the 4-day Health Coaching Open Programme was accredited by the coaching body EMCC and the Personalised Care Institute. A real milestone that sent a message – this stuff is good!

There are a lot of reasons why I love this particular piece of work. One of them is not only the audience I deliver to but who I get to deliver it with. We always co-facilitate. We have some of the finest coaches from around the UK and more recently Europe in the team who all walk their talk.

Committed. Generous. Kind. Compassionate. These are just a selection of words that spring to mind when I think of them.

Last week I got to take the Open Programme out on the road again with the brilliant Sally Beyer.

It was the first time in four years I had delivered it in person. And I got to deliver it to the team of one of my long-term clients We Mind The Gap based in Wrexham. Their team works tirelessly to offer life-changing programmes for 16 – 25 year olds. They provide opportunities to gain new skills, experiences, employment and build a plan for a bright future.

Out came the post-it notes and the flipchart and pens. The virtual space activities were adapted and brought back into the room. Conversation during breaks and as we all ate lunch together strengthened connections and relationships in this inspiring team.

Thank you Lesley and Kaye Burnett (and The Health Coaching Academy) for inviting me to be part of this fulfilling work.

If you are interested in learning more about how a coach approach can help the people in your organisation to improve their communication skills then please get in touch with The Health Coaching Academy.