Health Coaching and Beyond

Ollie and Tim
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This podcast champions the belief that Health Coaching can change the world for the better! Your hosts Drs Ollie Hart and Tim Williams, are UK Family Doctors (GPs), who learnt to health coach with their patients over 40 years + combined experience. They found it so successful for their patients and themselves, they set up a company to teach others the skills....www.peakhealthcoaching.com Now they bring their enthusiasm for the topic to the airwaves, to encourage and promote the growth of health coaching in the NHS, in businesses, and any where that people matter. They will chat about current affairs related to person centred care, and topics related to health coaching. Some episodes involve carefully selected guests, others conversation between the 2 of them. They aim to inspire your confidence and knowledge to embrace health coaching and all the benefits and joy it can bring.

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 37 - Doing Less, Listening More: Lessons From a Counsellor and Health Coach

    Summary In this episode, Ollie is joined by Holly Crosby, one of Peak Health Coaching’s most experienced associate trainers, to explore a career spanning counselling, health coaching, workplace wellbeing and training. Holly begins by sharing her own experience of healthcare following the diagnosis of a rare pituitary tumour in her early twenties. She reflects on how little control she initially felt over decisions about her treatment, and how her relationship with healthcare has changed over time as she has become more confident in asking questions, expressing what matters to her and taking a more active role in her care. The conversation then turns to Holly’s professional journey, from more than a decade working as a counsellor in bereavement, addiction and mental health, to discovering health coaching and eventually bringing coaching into workplace settings. Ollie and Holly also tackle a question that comes up regularly in health coaching: where does coaching end and counselling begin? Holly reflects on the considerable overlap between the two, while describing counselling as often creating space to understand and process the past, and coaching as having a greater focus on the present and what someone wants their future to look like. Throughout the conversation, they return to the power of listening. For people used to helping others, stepping back can feel uncomfortable. But health coaching can sometimes mean doing less rather than more: talking less, telling less and creating the space for another person to recognise their own strengths, choices and capacity for change. Takeaways People are more likely to engage in their health when they feel involved in decisions rather than simply being told what will happen.Continuity of care can help create trust and make it easier for people to speak openly about what matters to them.Health cannot be separated from the wider realities of someone’s life, relationships and work.Workplace wellbeing often involves issues that extend far beyond the workplace itself.Counselling and health coaching share many skills, particularly listening, curiosity and creating a safe space for reflection.Counselling may spend more time making sense of the past, while coaching often focuses more strongly on the present and future.Supporting someone does not always mean giving them more information, advice or solutions.Health coaching can challenge professionals to talk less, tell less and trust people more.Small changes can have a significant impact and create the foundations for further change.Health coaching skills can be valuable beyond patient consultations, including with colleagues, teams, friends and family.Sometimes doing less and listening more can help someone else do more for themselves.

  2. Oct 1

    Episode 36 - AI Roundtable Special: The Future of AI in Health Coaching

    Summary In this special episode of Health Coaching and Beyond, Peak Health Coaching brings together an expert panel to explore one of the biggest questions facing health and care right now: what role should artificial intelligence play in health coaching? Ollie is joined by Dr Angus Perry, Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, Chloe Tetrault and Dr Rob Kemp, who bring very different perspectives on the opportunities, risks and ethical questions surrounding AI. From personalised support and greater access to information, to concerns around trust, dependency, misinformation and the loss of human connection, the discussion explores what AI might genuinely add to health coaching and where its limits may lie. The panel considers how AI could support people with health information, goal setting and self-management, as well as how smaller, more specialised AI models could potentially offer safer and more tailored support. But they also explore what happens when technology moves into areas traditionally built on human relationships, empathy, trust and the ability to notice what is not being said. A central question emerges throughout the conversation: if AI can increasingly imitate the language and techniques of a coach, does that make it coaching? The panel explores the difference between appearing to listen and genuinely being in a relationship with another person, and why health coaching may be about much more than simply providing the right information or asking the right questions. While there are plenty of reasons for caution, the discussion is far from anti-AI. Instead, the panel considers how technology might take care of some of the more repetitive or informational tasks, creating more space for meaningful human conversations. Takeaways AI has significant potential to improve access to health information and personalised support.Health coaching is about more than information - it often helps people bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.AI can imitate aspects of a coaching conversation, but there are important questions about whether imitation is the same as a genuine human relationship.Human coaches can notice body language, hesitation, context and what is left unsaid.AI may be particularly useful for information, self-management, tracking and other supportive tasks alongside human coaching.A human coach remaining "in the loop" could be an important principle as AI becomes more widely used.Smaller, specialised language models may offer opportunities for more tailored, secure and energy-efficient AI tools.AI systems can produce inaccurate or biased information while sounding highly convincing, making appropriate safeguards essential.There are important questions around privacy, data ownership and where information shared with AI systems ultimately goes.Greater access to AI does not automatically mean greater equality, particularly where cost, digital confidence and access to technology differ.Commercial interests could influence how AI health tools behave, raising questions about trust, transparency and potential conflicts of interest.Health coaching organisations and professional bodies have an important role to play in developing standards, governance and ethical guidance.The environmental cost of AI should form part of the conversation about how and when these technologies are used.Technology should support human connection rather than unintentionally replacing or weakening it.AI is developing quickly, but health coaches have an opportunity to help shape how it is used rather than simply responding to what comes next.The goal may not be to replace the human elements of coaching, but to automate the mundane and create more space for them.

  3. Sep 21

    Episode 35 - Occupational Health, Digital Support and the Human Connection

    Summary In this episode, Ollie and Tim come back together to explore what health coaching can offer across two very different but increasingly important areas: workplace wellbeing and the growing use of digital health tools. Tim reflects on conversations from the NHS Occupational Health & Wellbeing Network annual meeting, where there was strong interest in how health coaching skills could help occupational health teams move further upstream. Rather than waiting until someone is struggling, off sick or preparing to return to work, they discuss the opportunity to involve people earlier and more actively in decisions about their own health and working lives. The conversation widens into the role of workplace culture, leadership and psychological safety. Ollie and Tim reflect on why trust matters, how vulnerability from leaders can create space for others to speak openly, and why employees feeling able to ask for support or adaptations can be a sign of a healthy organisation rather than a problem to be managed. They then turn to two recent studies exploring health coaching alongside digital support. Ollie shares findings from the Active Wait study, involving people waiting for hip and knee surgery with lower levels of patient activation. A second feasibility study, looking at digital support for people living with frailty tells a similar story. While digital tools may offer huge potential, the human relationship can be the thing that helps people engage with them and translate information into meaningful action. Takeaways Occupational health has the potential to move further upstream from reactive support towards prevention.Health coaching skills can help people play a more active role in conversations about staying well, returning to work and workplace adjustments.Person-centred conversations are not simply about being friendly or supportive, but using deliberate skills that help people think for themselves.Workplace culture and leadership have a major influence on whether people feel safe enough to speak honestly about what they need.Being able to ask for adaptations or support can be a sign of trust and psychological safety.The Active Wait study found high engagement with health coaching among people with lower levels of patient activation.Small, personally meaningful goals can sometimes unlock wider changes in confidence, mood and activity.Digital tools can provide useful support, but engagement with them varies considerably.Health coaching may help people engage more meaningfully with digital health tools.Creating the space for someone to think, build confidence and take the lead sits at the heart of health coaching.The future of health coaching may increasingly involve finding the right balance between human relationships and digital support. Active Wait: Feasibility of Health Coaching Targeting Patients With Low Activation Waiting for Total Hip or Total Knee Replacement - https://www.physiotherapyjournal.com/article/S0031-9406(26)00485-2/abstract DIALOR: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study of a Digital Health Coaching Intervention for Older People With Frailty in Primary Care - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-026-03499-w

  4. Sep 9

    Episode 34 - Finding Your Next Steps in Health Coaching

    Summary In this episode, Tim is joined by health and wellbeing coach, supervisor and facilitator Laura Williams to explore where a career in health coaching can lead. Laura shares her journey from veterinary nursing and primary care into social prescribing, NHS health coaching, supervision and staff wellbeing. She reflects on what first drew her to coaching, particularly the realisation that even good advice does not always lead to meaningful change when it doesn’t fit into the realities of someone’s life. The conversation explores the shift from telling people what to do towards creating the space for them to think, reflect and find their own way forward. Laura talks about learning to move from being on “transmit and do” to “receive and be”, and why listening well is something coaches continue to practise throughout their careers. Laura also speaks openly about being made redundant from her NHS health coaching role and the uncertainty that followed. She and Tim discuss changing NHS priorities, the value of building a varied career and the different ways coaching skills can continue to be used beyond a traditional health coaching role. A key part of the episode focuses on supervision, what it offers, why it is different from line management or clinical supervision, and how it can support coaches with confidence, boundaries, reflection and the emotional demands of the work. Takeaways There is no single career path after training as a health coach.Good advice does not always translate into lasting change.Health coaching creates space for people to reflect and find their own solutions.Moving from advice-giving to coaching takes practice, patience and good listening.Coaching skills can be used across a wide range of roles and settings.Changing NHS priorities can create uncertainty for health coaches and the wider workforce.Supervision can help coaches feel supported, confident and safe in their work.Coaching supervision is different from line management and clinical supervision.Training as a supervisor can also strengthen your own coaching practice.

  5. Sep 2

    Episode 33 - What the New NHS Framework Means for Health Coaching

    Summary Tim and Ollie are back together this week, chewing over one of the biggest recent developments for health coaching in the NHS - the newly refreshed NHS Health and Wellbeing Coaching Framework. Three years on from the original framework, the pair explore what has changed, what feels particularly significant and what the update might tell us about where health coaching is heading. For both Tim and Ollie, the refreshed framework feels like an important step forward. At a time of significant change across the NHS, it offers a welcome reaffirmation of the health and wellbeing coach role, while also recognising the growing potential for health coaching beyond primary care, including in secondary care, community services and the voluntary sector. A big focus of the episode is supervision. The new framework places much greater emphasis on dedicated health coaching supervision, clearly distinguishing it from line management, clinical and safeguarding support. Tim and Ollie discuss why this matters, particularly for coaches starting out and navigating complex, emotional and sometimes challenging conversations. They also look at career progression and the four tiers of health coaching practice. More broadly, they reflect on the role health coaching can play in shaping NHS culture - helping people build agency, improving conversations and moving away from the idea that professionals always need to have all the answers. Takeaways The refreshed NHS Health and Wellbeing Coaching Framework is a significant reaffirmation of the health coaching role.Health coaching is increasingly being recognised beyond primary care, including in secondary care, community services and the voluntary sector.The framework recommends at least one hour of health coaching supervision per month, particularly for those earlier in their practice.Becoming a health coaching supervisor can offer an important route for career development.The four health coaching tiers provide a structure for progression, but clearer approaches to assessing competence could strengthen the profession further.Hours of practice alone do not necessarily demonstrate the quality or maturity of someone's coaching.Protecting coaches from excessive caseloads allows time for reflection, supervision, administration and better conversations.Health coaching principles have the potential to influence the wider culture of healthcare, not just the work of dedicated health coaches.Building people's confidence, agency and ability to contribute to their own care can also reduce the pressure on professionals to provide every solution.As digital tools and AI become more prominent in healthcare, questions about the uniquely human elements of support and coaching will become increasingly important. If you’d like to explore some of the topics discussed in this week’s episode, you can find more information below: NHS Workforce Development Framework for Health and Wellbeing Coaches https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/workforce-development-framework-for-health-and-wellbeing-coaches-2/#7-competency-framework The King’s Fund - Is the NHS ready for the AI-powered patient?https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/nhs-ready-for-ai-powered-patient?utm

  6. Aug 26

    Episode 32 - From Patient to Partner: The Power of Lived Experience

    Summary In this episode, Ollie is joined by Frank, a former patient who, over more than a decade, has become a colleague, peer supporter and friend. Frank was the first person Ollie had met with type 2 diabetes who had managed to come off insulin injections. His experience began a shared journey of learning about metabolic health, self-management, social prescribing and, importantly, the value of lived experience in helping others. Frank reflects on his diagnosis with type 2 diabetes, his experiences of feeling intimidated by healthcare and the shame and stigma that can surround weight and long-term conditions. After years of trying different approaches, he began making significant changes to his health himself – at first without clinical support – eventually losing weight, reducing his medication and coming off insulin. The conversation explores what happened next. As Frank became more active, cycling became not only a way of supporting his physical health but a source of friendship, community and purpose. What began with joining an adult cycling group eventually led him to establish his own, creating a supportive community where people look after one another and nobody gets left behind. Ollie and Frank also reflect on how their relationship evolved from a traditional doctor-patient dynamic into a genuine partnership. Together, they went on to develop diabetes remission groups, roadshows and peer-led support, combining clinical knowledge with Frank’s ability to speak from experience and connect with people in a way that felt relatable, safe and free from judgement. Throughout the episode, they explore the importance of creating healthcare environments where people feel able to ask questions, build knowledge and take a more active role in their own health. They also consider how peer support can help reach people who may feel excluded or intimidated by traditional healthcare, and why services work better when they are designed with, rather than simply for, the communities they serve. Takeaways Supporting self-management means helping people build the knowledge, skills and confidence to take an active role in their health.Lived experience can bring a perspective and credibility that clinical knowledge alone cannot always provide.Peer support can help people feel understood, particularly when they are navigating stigma, shame or difficult lifestyle changes.Social connection can be just as important as the activity itself when supporting long-term health and wellbeing.Social prescribing can help people discover activities, communities and relationships that support sustainable change.Health professionals can learn enormously from the people they support when there is space for genuine partnership.Co-production means designing support with communities and responding to what works for them, rather than assuming what they need.Healthcare becomes more person-centred when people feel safe to ask questions, challenge assumptions and share what life is really like.Supporting people to become confident self-managers does not replace medical care – it can make that care more effective.Peer supporters can play an important role in helping others see that change is possible without blame or judgement.Sometimes the person who first comes through the door as a patient can ultimately become a teacher, colleague and source of support for many others.

  7. Aug 19

    Episode 31 - Health Coaching and the Evidence: What Does the Research Really Tell Us?

    Summary In this episode, Ollie is joined by Peak Health Coaching’s Education Director, Dr Caroline Hart, to take a closer look at the growing evidence base around health and wellbeing coaching and importantly, how we make sense of it. Drawing on two recently published studies, Ollie and Caroline explore what research can tell us about the impact of coaching in very different healthcare settings. The first looks at health coaching alongside blood pressure monitoring for women following pregnancy, where coaching support was associated with greater engagement in follow-up care and better blood pressure control. The second explores the use of coaching in dementia care communities, including its potential impact not only on person-centred care, but on staff confidence, satisfaction and wellbeing. But the conversation goes beyond the headline findings. Ollie and Caroline explore what we mean by “evidence” in the first place. Clinical outcomes and statistics matter, but they are only part of the picture. Patient experience, confidence, engagement, staff wellbeing and the stories people tell about change can offer equally valuable insights into whether an intervention is making a difference. The discussion turns to how those working in health coaching can evaluate their own impact without needing to run a large research trial. From gathering simple baseline information to looking again at the middle and end of an intervention, the message is to keep measurement meaningful, consistent and useful. Takeaways The evidence base around health and wellbeing coaching continues to grow.Headline research findings are useful, but understanding the context behind them is essential.We need to be clear about what is actually meant by “health coaching” within individual studies.Research from one healthcare system, population or setting may not automatically translate to another.Health coaching may influence engagement and confidence before changes appear in longer-term clinical outcomes.Relationships, trust and feeling supported can play an important role in helping people engage with their health.The impact of coaching may extend beyond patients and clients to staff wellbeing, confidence and job satisfaction.Quantitative and biometric data can tell us part of the story, but qualitative evidence can provide important depth and context.Stories, experiences and perceptions are valuable forms of evidence, particularly when trying to understand complex human change.Co-production can help ensure we measure outcomes that actually matter to clients, practitioners, colleagues and funders. Research featured in this episode Health coaching support for blood pressure follow-up after hypertension during pregnancy - Care Navigation, Self-Measured Blood Pressure, and Health Coaching for Postpartum Care: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2852539 Coaching care staff to support more person-centred care - Evaluating a Coaching Intervention for Dementia Care Practice Recommendations in Care Communities: https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/advance-article/doi/10.1093/geront/gnag183/8756713?utm

  8. Jul 31

    Episode 30 - Public Health, Prevention and Who Shapes Our Health?

    Summary In this episode, Ollie is joined by Greg Fell OBE, Director of Public Health for Sheffield and President of the Association of Directors of Public Health, to explore one of the biggest questions in health today: how much responsibility for health sits with individuals and how much is shaped by the systems around us? The conversation explores the relationship between personal agency, health coaching and public policy, challenging the idea that behaviour change alone is enough to improve population health. Greg shares why creating environments that make healthy choices easier is just as important as supporting individuals to make change. Together they discuss obesity as the "new tobacco", the growing influence of the commercial determinants of health, and what can be learned from decades of successful tobacco control. They also reflect on why prevention often goes unnoticed, despite quietly improving lives over many years through policy, community action and healthcare. The discussion moves beyond healthcare into workplaces, employment, lifestyle medicine and physical activity, highlighting how health is shaped by much more than medical care alone. Throughout the conversation, a recurring theme emerges: lasting change happens when individual support and system-level action work together, rather than being seen as competing approaches. Whether you work in healthcare, public health, leadership or simply have an interest in creating healthier communities, this episode offers a thoughtful and balanced perspective on what it really takes to improve health at both an individual and population level. Takeaways Health outcomes are shaped by both personal choices and the systems people live within. Health coaching and public health are complementary approaches, not competing ones. Creating healthier environments makes behaviour change more achievable. Obesity is becoming one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. The commercial determinants of health play a major role in influencing behaviour. Prevention often goes unnoticed because it prevents problems before they happen. Long-term public health successes, such as reducing smoking rates, have relied on sustained policy alongside individual support. Work, housing, income and transport all have significant impacts on health and wellbeing. Supporting people's agency is important, but so is creating environments that enable healthy choices. Physical activity remains one of the most powerful tools for improving health across a population. Lasting change requires collaboration across healthcare, communities, employers and policymakers. Further Reading During the conversation, Greg references the following report from Nesta on obesity policy: A Blueprint to Halve Obesity in the UK

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About

This podcast champions the belief that Health Coaching can change the world for the better! Your hosts Drs Ollie Hart and Tim Williams, are UK Family Doctors (GPs), who learnt to health coach with their patients over 40 years + combined experience. They found it so successful for their patients and themselves, they set up a company to teach others the skills....www.peakhealthcoaching.com Now they bring their enthusiasm for the topic to the airwaves, to encourage and promote the growth of health coaching in the NHS, in businesses, and any where that people matter. They will chat about current affairs related to person centred care, and topics related to health coaching. Some episodes involve carefully selected guests, others conversation between the 2 of them. They aim to inspire your confidence and knowledge to embrace health coaching and all the benefits and joy it can bring.

Information

  • Creator
    Ollie and Tim
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Ollie and Tim

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