Avery’s story — Part 1
A client’s well-being vision is like a lighthouse, their beacon. It is something they are moving towards, however, the pathway to the lighthouse is not linear. The beacon not only illuminates the path, it empowers them to stay the course.
This is an analogy that comes to mind when thinking of Avery, a 33-year-old biracial female that entered coaching to explore lifestyle changes to manage her stage 1 hypertension diagnosis; she currently takes no medication and wants to maintain this.
During my initial assessment call with Avery, I learned she recently graduated from grad school and is currently working as a counselor. Doing the work of a full-time plus part-time staff member, her work has started to bleed into her personal life. Along with incremental increases in work responsibilities, came an increase in her output of time and energy.
This has led to Avery feeling burned out and stressed, while stripping her of time to engage in activities that supported her well-being.
As I continued the assessment, I gained an aerial view of Avery’s habits, interests, and hobbies, as well as how she managed the stressors in her life, her social support system, and ways she cares for herself.
Avery disclosed her adoption of the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet to help with blood pressure concerns. She also explained that her nutritional/eating approach was an intuitive one — not restricting calories or certain kinds of foods, yet focusing attention on her sodium intake. Combining cardio, weight training, and yoga three to five times per week, she was also very active.
Regarding sleep, there was room for improvement. Being in the “helping” profession, on-call, and having blurred work boundaries, Avery has to respond to her clients’ needs, ready and prepared to address their concerns; getting insufficient sleep has been the result.
Although maintaining a very hectic work schedule, Avery has been able to find some balance by taking part in such activities as roller skating, listening to live music, socializing with friends, and going on walks. Learning this about her, I felt it was a great time to ask,
“What do you feel is possible for your well-being in the next six to eight months, and how would you craft a possibility statement?”
Feeling unprepared to provide a definitive possibility statement related to what she envisioned for herself, she mentioned words and phrases like “authentically being me,” “self-agency,” “controlling my own narrative,” and “being in my own power.” All of which felt very present for her.
Because Avery was unable to articulate a vision, we paused and I invited her to consider the words and phrases she used and allow them to germinate between our sessions. And the next time we spoke, we would examine anything that came forth as a vision.
Now, remember the analogy?
Avery’s “lighthouse” is her well-being vision. While she is moving towards it, the path has a few bumps and curves, impacting her ability to go straight to it. The good thing is, the light shining from the lighthouse is enabling her to see that something important lies ahead — where her vision becomes clear, therefore enabling it to come into fruition.
After addressing her vision, the assessment shifted to us discussing her goals and what she wanted to achieve, which will be covered in Part 2 of Avery’s story, along with a life-changing event that pushed Avery to think deeper about her well-being goals.
