Michelle Yandle shares how she moved from teacher to health coach and back again.
I’ve been interested in nutrition and health for as long as I can remember. I have memories of myself back home in Canada, lying on the floor of my bedroom as a young girl, reading clunky second-hand nutrition textbooks, surrounded by New Kids on the Block and kitten posters. I remember thinking that the only way to help people with their health and wellbeing was to become a dietitian, a feat that seemed too big for me at the time, so I decided to pursue a career in teaching instead.
Eventually, I got to a point in my teaching career where I thought to myself, “Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?” I was burnt out, exhausted and looking for change. It was actually my mother who reminded me of my childhood interest. She had seen an advertisement for something called Health Coaching. That was back in 2010.
Slowly but surely, I left teaching and began my studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. It was a great place to get started and helped me learn the foundational skills of coaching. Later, I realised I wanted something more aligned with evidence-based nutrition and decided to study with the Holistic Performance Institute here in New Zealand.
Starting with simple community potlucks and seeing people from the granny flat in my backyard, my health coaching business went in all directions. I explored all sorts of niches over the years, from vegan health to a more generalist approach. Like many coaches, my thinking evolved as I gained experience and challenged my own beliefs.
One day, I came across an article from my hometown in Nova Scotia about a First Nations Canadian man who had improved his health and wellbeing by returning to traditional teachings. This piqued my interest. Having Indigenous heritage myself, I wanted to dig deeper into those philosophies. That search led me to the Medicine Wheel, a teaching tool used by my ancestors to understand many aspects of life, including health and wellbeing.
The Medicine Wheel teaches us that there is more to health than the physical. There is emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing too, and when one area is out of balance, it affects the others.
Around that same time, I began to recognise the effect that strict diet plans, weight loss goals, yo-yo dieting and rigid food rules were having on my own mental, emotional and social health, as well as on many of the women who came to see me in practice. From there, what I called Empowered Eating was born. Drawing on the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, I began coaching women who wanted to break free from the chains of diet culture and build a healthier relationship with food.
For eight years, this became my coaching focus and eventually led to a thriving practice, several books, a TEDx talk, speaking engagements, and appearances on television, podcasts, and in magazines discussing Empowered Eating and body image.
But throughout all of this, the heart of my work continued to be coaching. Those foundational skills that help people move from A to B.
Over time, I realised that most people didn’t need more information. They already knew vegetables were healthy and that sleep mattered. What they needed was support, understanding and practical ways to make changes that fit their lives. That realisation led me deeper into the science of coaching and behaviour change, helping me not only in my own practice but also in the digital health programmes I was fortunate to be part of.
I became Programme Manager for Melon Health, a company that provided health coaching through its app and worked alongside DHBs to help patients improve their health and wellbeing. In many ways, we were among the original health coaches working within medical practices in New Zealand before it became commonplace. I was proud to coach and support other coaches, while also designing and developing programmes to improve all aspects of wellbeing.
Working in digital health taught me that coaching doesn’t have to be limited to the four walls of a clinic. Technology gave us opportunities to support thousands of people and make evidence-based coaching more accessible.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the years is that health doesn’t happen in a vacuum. People’s finances, stress, relationships, culture, work, access to food and even the amount of time they have available all influence their health. Effective coaching means meeting people where they are, not where we think they should be. This understanding later inspired me to develop training in the social determinants of health.
Things eventually came full circle. After being one of the first students at the Holistic Performance Institute, I was approached by the founder to develop their HCANZA-accredited Health Coaching Certification Programme. Of course, I answered with a resounding yes.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, alongside Dr Cliff Harvey, I researched and developed the programme and created the 16-week intensive live classes that formed part of the certification. Since then, I’ve gone on to develop programmes in Digital Coaching, Empowered Eating and the Social Determinants of Health.
It has been an honour to teach and support dozens of HPI students and now to serve as Health Coaching Lead while new tutors take on the privilege of teaching the next generation of coaches.
When I first started health coaching in 2010, hardly anyone knew what a health coach was. There were only a handful of us here in New Zealand, and a lot of work had to be done to educate the public, many of whom viewed health coaching as “woo” or unscientific.
Things have changed significantly. While there is still education to be done, I’m heartened to see health coaching recognised as a registered profession through HCANZA, with coaches working alongside GPs, nurses and Health Improvement Practitioners in medical centres as part of an evidence-based approach to healthcare.
I’ve had many opportunities to study clinical nutrition over the years, but I have chosen to focus on developing as a coach and health coaching tutor because, as we know, you can offer someone the best meal plan ever designed, but sustainable change happens through coaching.
It’s about taking small steps with people. Understanding and unlocking the motivations behind their behaviours. Helping them find solutions that are realistic, practical and within their means and ability. Meeting people where they are and recognising that information alone rarely changes lives.
Sixteen years after first calling myself a health coach, I still believe people are far more capable than they think. I’ve seen small changes transform lives. I’ve watched health coaching grow from something few people had heard of into a respected profession working alongside other healthcare disciplines.
I’m excited about the future of health coaching because people are understanding it better. They are seeing the evidence behind it. They are experiencing the benefits themselves, and coaches are becoming increasingly aware of the power of coaching and the importance of working within scope.
I believe we’re only just beginning to understand what is possible when we combine evidence, compassion and genuine partnership with the people we serve.
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Bio:
Michelle Yandle is a five-time author with over a decade of experience in health coaching and digital health. She began her career in teaching before moving into health coaching in 2010, where she developed a focus on evidence-based coaching, behaviour change, and supporting people to build sustainable, realistic approaches to wellbeing beyond diet-focused models. She has worked across private practice and large-scale digital health programmes in New Zealand, contributing to the design and delivery of coaching services supporting thousands of people, and now works in coach education and curriculum development, including Empowered Eating and Digital Coaching. Learn more about Michelle at www.michelleyandle.com or through https://www.holisticperformance.institute/
