How to Become an HA Recovery Coach
Has recovery fundamentally changed your life and now you want to learn everything you can about periods and help as many women as possible restore their missing period, be free of diet culture and get their life back?
That was Ashley and me. We went from ‘weight loss is the ultimate health goal’ to the realization that obsessive weight loss is actually a one way ticket to the complete opposite – zero fertility.
And with millions of people coaching women into poor health we realized someone needed to start coaching them out of it too. And so we started our own coaching practice!
We get a lot of inquiries from women like you, feeling that same pull to help others on their recovery journey. To help you on your quest to become a HA recovery coach or adding this service into your current practice. I’ve pulled together the top 4 requirements you might need to become a successful recovery coach.
Note, not all of these are must haves, these are just my personal opinions of what will make you great when working with the HA population. The good news is that most can be learned!
If you’re more of a visual person I also recorded a full YouTube video on the topic. You can watch it here.
Now let's dive in!
What do you need to become a HA Recovery Coach?
Someone with a history of HA: If you want to start coaching women with HA you should be someone with a history of HA or at least have a history of dieting and at some point had low hormone function as a result. We call this being on the spectrum of HA. So in essence you don’t have to have lost your period, you just need to be able to understand what leads someone to lose their period.
This is crucial mainly because 80% of the job is psychological, working with your client to unpack the layers of what got them to lose their period. Without the understanding, compassion and empathy that comes with personal experience of going through HA, you might not be able to truly help your client.
Your client is going to need you to spot their hang ups and articulate for them what they’re feeling and why without them directly voicing it to you. You have to be able to read between the lines in their stories. This lets them know you can relate, because you’ve been where they are- this is what creates trust between you and your client.
Our relatability and ability to read between the lines is what makes us so successful at what we do and our ability to help women recover from HA. We are not just some practitioner helping you with a problem we’ve never had before.
If you have the experience with HA, but lack the compassion or the ability to read between the lines, don’t worry this is something that can be learned and we teach you in our HHAP certification program.
Solid understanding of female physiology: You’ll need to understand the foundations (maybe a little more) of the female reproductive system from an anatomical point of view and hormonal point of view.
For example, understanding the HPO-Axis, how it works, its role in HA and in a healthy cycle so that you can put into context your clients lifestyle i.e. how they’re eating, exercising and working- and connect that to what's possibly going on under the hood. This understanding allows you to make the best possible protocol, recommendations and guidance for your clients.
You don’t need a PHD to learn this information. All you need is a curious mind, the ability to think critically and to have experience. It’s truly not rocket science.
In our HHAP certification program we provide you with what you absolutely need to understand about the female anatomy and physiology both from a hormonal perspective and the conversation that your brain, hypothalamus and ovaries are having.
Nutrition knowledge: You have to understand that diet knowledge is not the same as nutrition knowledge. However, you do need to have diet knowledge, because without it you can’t catch the things your client is doing for diet culture/weight loss vs actual health. More often than not your client is confusing weight loss with health and you’ll need to have the ability to see the difference and help them make changes.
Both Ashley and I, as mentioned, used to be macro coaches. Having this background, both personally and professionally, has helped us spot it in our clients.
We deep dive into the difference between nutrition and diet in our HHAP certification program. Weaved throughout the course we discuss how to educate and empower clients to make more informed decisions for themselves. And how to talk about nutrition in a neutral way with your clients.
Coaching skills: You can have all the knowledge and education in the world, but if you don’t know how to help someone with HA, and implement change, you’ll hit a wall.
Period recovery is not that hard. You know that and your client knows it, but you both need to understand why it’s so hard for them to make the changes. You need to have some way of digging in and uncovering the truth behind why they’re making the choices they are making and helping them with guidance, accountability, education and support, to actually make changes and keep it consistent.
The great part is you can learn this skill as you go along! For example, we started out by charging very little for our coaching to get the experience. It was worth it, because it really lowered the stakes for someone to join and us to get the result for them. Soon enough we started hitting home runs with people, getting their results quickly and getting them to have full on transformations. Clients weren’t just leaving with a period or a baby, but a whole new lease on life.
We truly believe what we do is an art and it’s a skill we developed over time. The best way you can develop this skill is to start putting yourself out there, start having conversations with women, what’s working for them and what’s not.
In our HHAP certification we will be sharing everything we’ve learned, what worked and what didn’t work. You will also leave with real life EXPERIENCE through the final practicum where you’ll work with REAL clients.
About the HHAP program: The Holistic Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Practitioner course is an accredited program that will not only give you the credentials, but the confidence you need to fully step into your role as a HA Recovery Coach.
It's a comprehensive online HA Recovery training program for health coaches and wellness professionals. And the only course on the market exclusively for hypothalamic amenorrhea that combines science and research in amenorrhea with coaching psychology.
The program is all encompassing, everything from what's going on under a woman's hood, how to intake a client, how to identify the issue going on in a woman's body and how to work on the soft skills and the mindset piece.
Who is this program for: Healthcare practitioners, doctors, physical therapist, personal trainers, health coaches, wellness coaches and fertility coaches who want to broaden their knowledge and scope
It’s also for women who are going through recovery or are recovered with a special interest in making this a part of their career.
Can you have HA and do the certification? Yes, you can, but you must be working on recovery. We recommend that you are actually recovered by the time you are working with a client. If anything, going through the certification will help you work through HA. You can be your own first client.
If building your own practice or getting into working with the HA population is something that you would be interested in you can learn more about our certification program here and get on the waitlist. We launch it just a couple times a year.
