First it is important to comment upon the current environment in the healthcare profession which is the root source of the problems with which professionals are struggling. In the past decade there has been a shift in the relationship of work load to reward such that most physicians find they are working harder for less. There has been a shift in the direction of medical practice away from the control of practitioners. The threat of litigation arising from our care of patients has become a daily concern. Patients have become more knowledgeable and more demanding. At the end of the day, physicians have become so busy that they often loose the balance between work and their private lives. We too often end up without a life of our own.

In this setting a number of problems are likely to evolve in the life of a physician. We become aware of the pressures in our life, but are not well equipped to deal with them.
We typically have a poor personal stress management program. We find it difficult to ask for help from others; many of us perceive asking for help as a sign of weakness. We do not manage our vital resources, money and time, effectively. We have too little time for ourselves and for fun. As a result, we have no effective life balance, the most effective form of stress management. Without intervention, our close relationships with patients, spouses, families and friends begin to suffer. Stuck in our own stubbornness, we become trapped by our own ineffective patterns of thinking. Unable or unwilling to ask for help, we retreat into the Halls of The John Wayne School of Medicine (“I can handle this myself”). All too often, this strategy leads to a downward spiral into depression and burnout.

For many of us, our stress is largely the result of experiencing career or family demands which are no longer in alignment with our own deeply held personal values and priorities. Without inner reflection, we may have lost awareness of how we have evolved and changed as adults. We often are living our lives with the same assumptions and expectations we established in our early 20’s, but they are no longer working well for us. We need someone or something to help us tap into our own deeper wisdom, values, and passions. THAT, is what a coach is for.

Fortune 500 companies have long understood and valued the services of executive coaches for their CEO’s. The CEO of virtually every major company in the USA works with a personal coach to improve performance, provide objective feedback, and develop leadership ability. So, too are many physicians and other healthcare professionals turning to professional coaches to improve the quality of their personal and professional lives.

Personal coaches can enhance your performance and happiness in the following ways:
1. Coaches lead clients to reassess their deeper purpose and passions in order to
re-energize both their careers and their personal lives outside of work. They
will also challenge their client’s assumptions and patterns of thinking.

2. Coaches provide their clients an objective, neutral point of view and provide
both supportive encouragement and accountability as clients strive for new professional and personal goals. This helps to guarantee success.

3. Coaches provide clients new resources to enhance personal growth and self-
awareness, and to develop personal and professional networks.

4. Coaches facilitate visioning and scenario-building resulting in specific action
steps, timelines, and support networks to expand the client’s options for the future.

5. Coaches enable clients to succeed by drawing out the client’s own inner wisdom
and strengths rather than by giving advice or psychotherapy. As a result, the
coaching process is both client-driven and client-controlled.

Dr. Moskowitz is a life and career coach trained and certified by the Hudson Institute of Santa Barabara. He specializes in physician coaching. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Professional and Personal Renewal in Palo Alto, CA. (www.cppr.com), and the co-author of “Medical Practice Divorce”, published in 2001 by the American Medical Association Press. He can be reached by email at pmoskowitz@cppr.com, or by phone at (650) 329-0297.