Enhancing physician wellness through coaching: An occupational psychiatry tool

Mental health clinicians learn many of the fundamentals of coaching through their training. Occupational psychiatrists may consider using coaching skills to help directly improve the well-being of physicians and indirectly improve the functioning of health care organizations. In this article, we define what coaching is and how coaching differs from therapy, mentorship, and advising. We introduce core coaching concepts and expectations of a coaching engagement. We discuss the benefits of different types of coaching. We specifically describe how performance and developmental types of coaching can be used to help physicians in the various clinical, administrative, leadership, and research roles that they may have. We describe fundamental coaching skills and how they can be useful in the quest to help physicians achieve well-being. Finally, we briefly describe coach training and certification for those that are interested in pursuing more formal training or for those who may be looking to retain a coach.