Long Island NY is a dynamic place to live, with a mix of urban excitement and rural tranquility. It seems the perfect place to work with a holistic health coach for women and get the most out of life. This kind of direction from a health and lifestyle professional is a way to overcome past and present obstacles to happiness and move forward. It's also a very exciting career for those who want to help the many, many people who are in distress in this society.

It's apparent that the cliche is true: money can't buy happiness. How else to explain the millions who have what seems to be a perfect life but are overwhelmed by life's demands. Those with real health problems have even more cause for desperation, which they may hide from friends and family to spare them pain.

A holistic approach to coaching combines the benefits of psychotherapy, social work, alternative medical advice, and sometimes spiritual counseling. The main idea is to help a client move forward, rather than feeling defeated because past attempts at improvement failed. There are many areas where the support and direction of coaching has proved its worth. A few include type II diabetes control, weight loss, and lowering high cholesterol.

Dietary counseling, nutritional supplementation, and setting up a sustainable exercise program enter into this discipline, but the most important technique is proving to be something called 'motivational interviewing'. This in-depth exchange between client and coach helps foster closeness and trust. It allows the person offering help to assess the strengths, desires, and personality of the client and understand what has been holding them back from success.

This success can be in maintaining health, coping with illness, shaking off negative self-talk, defining values and desires, setting goals, and creating a path for improvement. Physical, emotional, mental, and even financial concerns can all play a part. The underlying principle is that the client has the ability to regulate things for the better once obstacles are recognized, a program for gradual improvement is instituted, and motivation is created.

Coaches listen and then help clients see themselves more clearly. They can then work together to set a program for resolving issues. Coaches stay involved, monitoring progress on an ongoing basis. Often clients need help in seeing how far they have come toward goals that may still be distant.

People from all walks of life can be whole-health coaches. This training is valuable for psychiatrists, personal trainers, physical therapists, pharmacists, nurses, and nutritionists. A certificate in this field allows coaches to legally talk to clients about the help that is available through inner assessment, diet, lifestyle changes, dietary supplements, and medication if necessary.

Many coaches include eastern meditation techniques in their practice, but this arena is equally open to Christians, who can offer the power of prayer and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to clients. Completely secular help can also benefit people - and there are millions of them - in New York and all over the country.