Why My Mental Health Issues Make Me A Better Coach
Why My Mental Health Issues Make Me A Better Coach/ Boss/ Person
We can all grasp the concept of mental health conditions in one way or another but the truth is that we don’t really understand it until we have experienced it first hand. This is a fundamental truth of the universe, none of us can fully understand what we don’t experience. That can make the communication gap between someone with the experience and someone without it pretty drastic. As someone who’s been there I have a different perspective about how mental health impacts every part of our lives.
I understand that even a simple task can be overwhelming when your mental health is low. This is critical when doing things like setting goals and breaking things down into tasks or routines. Coaches need to be able to meet their clients where they are and frame things in a way that is helpful and not overwhelming. I’ve also learned to look for signs of mental health distress to adjust a client's program to support that distress and not make it worse. I also have the ability to recommend they seek mental health treatment and build the process of finding that support into our program. Considering that 1 in 5 people will suffer with mental health challenges in their life this is a pretty useful skill for a coach.
The perspective that I have gained from my own mental health challenges is also beneficial for all clients. No one understands how to prioritize and pare down quite like a person with a chronic mental health condition. In coaching it is really important to help clients cut through all the noise and identify what’s important to them and what to focus on above all else. When you have a history of very limited energy that skill becomes one required to survive the world in general. I’m able to use that to my clients benefit and really zero in on the things that matter to them. Sometimes the thing a client needs to have the outcome they desire is a bit more focus and a starting place or simply the tools to break big things into smaller things and connect the dots between where they are and where they want to go.
Empathy makes a good coach (and a good boss and human in general) and that is something chronic sufferers of mental health conditions have in abundance. The world isn’t always kind to those of us who can’t always perform on command and being on the receiving end of punishment for something we can’t control and aren’t to blame for makes us very attuned to the needs of others and their emotional and mental wellbeing. The most empathetic people I’ve met in my life all struggle with their mental health because we all have a daily reminder that everyone is fighting invisible battles.
Self awareness is critical when it comes to mental health. Those of us who live with a chronic condition absolutely have to be self aware, it’s sometimes the difference between being proactive and struggling for a few days or being reactive and crashing to the bottom of a deep, dark, pit of depression and having to reassemble our entire lives. Because our emotions have been known to play tricks on us we are forced to develop a very strong sense of who we are and what we can do. We also have a very keen sense of the ways we are similar and different to others. Self awareness is literally the foundation of all the coaching I do. If a client isn’t self aware they are unlikely to be able to make decisions that will fulfill them in the long run. My intense understanding of self awareness makes it possible for me to teach my clients how to become self aware and show them how to continue the practice in the future, past the term of our sessions.
Living with a mental health condition is an exercise in adversity. Daily we are forced to overcome things out of our control that impact our mind, brain, and physical body. At any given time in our lives we may be suddenly struck with a change to our mental health that stops us in our tracks and wrecks all our plans in one quick motion. We may lose control of our emotions and our ability to process large amounts of information. We have to regain that control which is a slow process only then can we begin to pick up the pieces of our shattered life EVERY TIME it happens. It's exhausting. Every person with a chronic mental health condition is a survivor. We have to be. It gives us a hidden super power that most people simply don’t have. If I can put my shattered life together again, imagine what I can do for yours?
Over all the challenges I’ve faced as chronic mental health sufferer make me especially able to help others with their challenges and very attuned to their needs.