Why Work with a Cognitive Health Coach?
By Wendy Francis, Board-Certified Health Coach
Reasons People Choose a Cognitive Health Coach
Cognitive health coaching goes beyond typical lifestyle changes like weight loss or quitting bad habits. It helps people optimize their mental performance, build resilience, and rewire unhelpful thought patterns. Here are some reasons people might work with a cognitive health coach:
- Boosting Mental Performance: Improving focus, memory, and learning using evidence-based strategies for brain optimization (Huberman, 2021; Leaf, 2013).
- Managing Stress and Building Resilience: Understanding how stress affects the brain and learning tools like mindfulness and reframing (American Psychological Association, 2018).
- Enhancing Emotional Regulation: Learning brain-based methods to better manage emotions and responses (Siegel, 2012).
- Overcoming Limiting Beliefs: Identifying and rewiring unhelpful thought patterns that hold people back (Dweck, 2006).
- Improving Sleep and Energy: Optimizing sleep hygiene and daily habits to boost energy and focus (Walker, 2017).
- Building Confidence and Motivation: Using neuroscience to set and maintain goals and avoid setbacks (Goggins, 2018).
- Navigating Life Transitions: Adjusting to career changes, health challenges, or new phases in life with mental flexibility (Brown & Grant, 2010).
- Enhancing Creativity and Problem-Solving: Tapping into the brain’s creative potential to overcome challenges (Kaufman, 2013).
- Developing Healthy Habits: Creating sustainable, brain-based habits using neuroplasticity principles (Doidge, 2007).
Cognitive Health Coach vs. Life Coach
Both cognitive health coaches and life coaches can help you set goals and provide accountability, but they differ in their approach and focus:
- Life Coach: Helps clients clarify life goals, improve relationships, develop personal strategies, and build accountability. Typically uses motivational techniques and broad goal-setting frameworks. May not dive deeply into how the brain works or use targeted brain-based interventions (International Coach Federation, 2019).
- Cognitive Health Coach: Specializes in understanding how the brain drives behavior, habits, emotions, and motivation. Uses evidence-based tools from neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to help clients rewire unhelpful thought patterns. Emphasizes mental performance, stress management, and building resilience. Also supports clients in setting goals and creating accountability, but with a focus on changing how their brain processes information and stores habits for more sustainable change (Huberman, 2021; Leaf, 2013).
Final Thoughts
A cognitive health coach empowers clients to optimize their mind, not just their goals. With a deeper understanding of how the brain works, clients often find they can implement change more effectively and sustainably—transforming not just what they do, but how they think.
Sources
- Huberman, A. (2021). Neuroscience of High Performance.
- Leaf, C. (2013). Switch on Your Brain.
- American Psychological Association. (2018). Managing Stress.
- Siegel, D. (2012). The Developing Mind.
- Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
- Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep.
- Goggins, D. (2018). Can't Hurt Me.
- Brown, S., & Grant, A. (2010). From GROW to GROUP: Theoretical issues and a practical model for group coaching in organizations.
- Kaufman, S. (2013). Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined.
- Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself.
- International Coach Federation. (2019). Core Competencies of Coaching.