What is Integrative Mental Health Coaching?

“So, you’re a life coach?” This quasi-question is common for me when people ask about what I “do” for a living. Before I started my business my response was “I’m a mental health professional. Counselor. Therapist” because that’s very much how I identified myself. People knew exactly what that was and how to categorize me. While I am still a licensed clinician, I also include Integrative Mental Health Coach (IMHC)”, receiving a lot more head tilts or blank stares. It makes sense because this field is relatively “new” to the western world, so you might get different responses from people about the training, expertise, and overall scope of an IMHC.

Definition of Integrative Mental Health Coach (IMHC):

Integrative mental health refers to an approach that combines conventional psychiatric care with complementary and alternative therapies. It emphasizes a holistic view of mental health, considering the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit in the treatment of psychological challenges. Integrative mental health may include interventions such as nutritional counseling, exercise, mindfulness practices, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and other non-traditional methods in conjunction with traditional therapies like medication and psychotherapy. The goal is to provide comprehensive and personalized care that addresses the individual’s unique needs and promotes overall well-being. Being grounded in science and versed in spirit, incorporating mind-body-soul practices within the context of culture and environment, it’s important to have solid background in Neuroscience, Somatics, Energy Psychology, and Liberation Psychology.

What an IMH does:

• Guides you to work through personal, relational, and/or systemic challenges using eastern and western frameworks.
• Reminds you regularly of your strengths and wholeness.
• Offers resources in your healing and wholeness journey.
• Helps you connect all the parts of you – mind-body-soul.
• Identifies ways to assist you in attunement, alignment, and peace.
• Provides a safe container for you to dig into the root cause of whatever distress you’re experiencing.
• Creates a playground for you to envision your life with a new perspective and map it out using concrete steps forward.
• Acknowledges and honors the individual and systemic challenges and uses a blended approach that includes individual coaching, groups and workshops, and organizational consultation.

How It Looks in Practice  

Because integrative mental health involves a holistic approach that combines conventional mental health practices with complementary and alternative therapies it may look different depending on a person or organization’s needs. In practice, it may include various elements such as:

1. Comprehensive Assessment: A thorough evaluation of a person’s mental, emotional, physical, and social well-being to understand the root causes of their mental health concerns
2. Collaboration: Collaboration between different providers including mental health professionals, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors, and practitioners of holistic healing like acupuncture, yoga, ayurveda, or meditation.
3. Individualized Treatment Plans: Developing customized treatment plans that may include a combination of therapies, such as medication, therapy, nutritional counseling, exercise, mindfulness techniques, biofeedback, hypnotherapy, or herbal supplements.
4. Organizational Development Plans: Creating a strategic approach to improve and enhance an organizations performance, effectiveness, and overall wellbeing using leadership support and training, assessing employee engagement and cultural change, and process improvement.
5. Mind-Body Approaches: Incorporating mind-body practices like meditation, yoga, tai chi, or breathing exercises to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and improve overall well-being.
6. Lifestyle Modifications: Encouraging lifestyle changes that support mental health, such as adopting a balanced diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, and stress management techniques.
7. Education and Self-Care: Providing education and resources to empower individuals to take an active role in their mental health, promoting self-care practices, and building resilience.
8. Continuum of Care: Recognizing the importance of ongoing support and follow-up care to maintain mental well-being, including regular check-ins, monitoring progress, and adjusting plans as needed.

As someone whose worked in the mental health field since 2010, the landscape has changed and especially so post-COVID. Working one-on-one blending different modalities, facilitating small groups, and focusing efforts to systemically to improve the overall wellbeing of people has been my passion. For the 7 years, I worked in veterinary medicine with high achieving and creative leaders, practitioners, residents and interns, and students. Our work together included brainstorming ideas for organizational change, finding solutions to difficult problems, and supporting each other in the process. I have worked in regional mental health agencies, schools, in-patient facilities. It is my belief that the path to systemic change is bidirectional – meaning it is BOTH an individual and structural responsibility because “integration is the source of health”.

If you’re curious to know more about IMHC, email me! This topic is near and dear to me.