Ep.46 Shannon Beer: Comprehensive coaching in nutrition

The Health Scientist Podcast

Shannon is a nomadic nutrition coach who uses comprehensive coaching strategies to promote adaptive self-regulation behaviors within her clients. She seeks to understand why we do the things we do, particularly when it comes to our eating behaviors, and views motivated choice through a lens of complex interactions between internal and external environments involving the body, the brain and the world around us.

Shannon's Instagram

Bridging the Gap article series

In this episode we cover:

• Shannon's back story and how she got into fitness and nutrition
• How Shannon's interaction with clients led to her interest in behaviour change
• A brief primer on diet culture as it has come to be understood
• What does it mean when someone hits training or diet "rock bottom"
• What were the issues with traditional coaching approaches and why telling someone what to do doesn't help?
• The problem with blaming and shaming in coaching
• Finding out what a client really needs and how that might differ from what they want
• The risks involved in dietary restriction and why it's not as simple as flexible and rigid restraint
• Are some people at higher risk of disordered eating if they diet and do diets always result in disordered eating?
• How did Comprehensive Coaching come into being?
• Motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural therapy and the skillset involved in comprehensive coaching?
• The lack of behavioural techniques in nutrition education
• The importance of the coach and client taking a collaborative approach to their relationship
• Is there an issue with coaches celebrating their physiques AND using anti-diet approaches?
• How to foster different reasons for change that can lead clients to many different aspects of health
• The importance of continued education for coaches