A whole-person approach to mental health: Coaching in a time of COVID

The stresses of the current crisis – both for coaches and for their clients – mean that we need to be more mindful than ever of mental health. The combined effects of the fear of illness, of possible bereavement, of social isolation, and of severe uncertainty about the future will have a significant effect on many people.

Put your own mask on first…

When you fly in a passenger plane, the safety brief always includes the instruction to put your own oxygen mask on first, before helping others. Both parts of that instruction are important. You need to attend to yourself first, so that you do not become an additional problem in the situation. And you should attend to others, as well, both from reasons of humanity, and also because it is actually good for our own well-being to help others.

So as coaches, we need to ensure that we are keeping ourselves well, and in particular that we are open with our supervisor about how we are doing, and attentive to any feedback that she or he may have for us about our fitness to coach at a particular time.

Stress, Distress and Post Traumatic Stress

As we consider those whom we are coaching, we need to be aware of the different degrees of stress and distress that we may encounter. It is natural that clients will be experiencing a degree of stress, and possibly of distress, in these times; and a coaching conversation can be a valuable way of addressing either or both of those responses.  However, if a client is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), then some coaching interventions may do more harm than good, and we as coaches must recognise the boundaries of our competence, and refer such clients on for the appropriate counselling or therapeutic support.

Some of the warning signs of PTSD are hyper-arousal (hypervigilance, for example), hypo-arousal (dissociation or severe loss of energy), as well as distressing recollections (flashbacks etc), the systematic avoidance of people, situations or places that remind of the trauma, and negative cognitions and disturbances in mood (changes in belief systems, which may be accompanied by anger, guilt, or shame). On encountering these, unless we are trained in trauma therapy, we should concentrate on the client’s safety in the here-and-now, and then consider what kind of referral or support is appropriate.  For the rest of this post, I will assume that PTSD is not indicated.

A healthy mind…

There is an old Latin phrase: mens sana in corpore sano which means ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body.’ It is widely used as a motto by educational institutions and the like to emphasise the importance of both mental and physical health, and the inter-relationship between the two.

However, that is not without its problems. One is the risk that it perpetuates a dichotomy between the mind and the body that is neither accurate nor helpful; and another is that it omits other important aspects that contribute to our well-being.

A more holistic approach

The more we understand about mental health, the more we realise how interdependent it is, not only with physical, but also with emotional well-being.

Further, when one considers both the extraordinary work of Viktor Frankl, on the one hand, and the growing body of evidence about the positive health benefits of meditation, on the other, it seems appropriate to add a fourth, less tangible, arena to consider: the existential or spiritual aspects of well-being.

So many practitioners now work with a model that looks like this: 

In some ways the separation into four is unhelpful as it suggests (at least visually) a disintegrative model. But the arrows are designed to remind us that each aspect affects each of the others.

Some reflective questions

Building on this understanding, I have developed a set of questions to support my own reflection about my well-being, and which I often share with coaching clients. When sharing it, I always preface it with an explanation, as I do not want the questions to become another source of stress (that would be a sad irony indeed): This is designed as a prompt for thought - not as an additional stressor…  So use it to help identify both the areas you are attending to well, and any that you think would benefit from more attention - and plan accordingly. Don’t worry if you answer some questions ‘No’ - that is entirely normal.  Simply ask yourself, honestly, what your answers suggest to you, and what you choose to do as a result.

Physical
Do I get enough sleep?
Do I eat a balanced diet at appropriate times during the day?
Do I drink sufficient water?
Do I exercise regularly?
Do I have any maladaptive strategies in times of stress? (eg Working all night; eating junk food; using caffeine or other drugs as a stimulant; cutting down on exercise to save time, etc)

Mental
Do I engage in deliberate learning on a regular basis? 
Do I have good problem-solving strategies?
Do I have good mental coping strategies?
Do I cultivate an optimistic outlook?
Do I have any maladaptive strategies in times of stress? (eg Catastrophising; negative self-talk; avoidance; over-indulging in distractions etc)

Social/Emotional
Do I spend regular time with those most important to me?
Do I attend to, and manage, my emotional responses to events?
Do I have a good support network?
Do I have any maladaptive strategies in times of stress? (eg Withdrawing from others; placing too high a value on self-reliance, etc)

Spiritual/Existential
Do I make time for meditation regularly?
Do I take the discipline and practice of the religion or philosophy I adhere to seriously?
Do I make time to commune with nature or the arts?
Do I have any maladaptive strategies in times of stress? (eg Denying that this is an important domain to invest time in; indulging in despair, etc) 

Andrew Scott is a coach and coaching supervisor, and a member both of AC and AOCS, who lives and works (and walks and sails…) in the Lake District.