As a professor, I work with medical students and physicians in training. When I tion really were, I was going to the gym. That’s when there were only about five
took the job, I thought I was teaching them. Last year, I went to a conference and in New York. And up to this point, I’ve never been in a hospital in my life.” Like any
learned that teaching them is not enough. true lady, or gay man, Lewis won’t give her age. But she assured me that it’s “a long
Teaching is how you pass information to students, and you measure success track record.”
with a test. If they learned the information, they do well on the test. If not, they fail. Lewis has specific experience helping people with HIV, and feels that coaching
Either way, no one gets hurt. can be a great addition to their health care. “More than anybody else, they have to
A physician can know volumes of medical facts, but the knowledge is only focus in on taking care of themselves in every possible way,” she says. Many of her
valuable if he or she translates to good patient care. If not, they’re as useless as a gay friends go to life coaches she recommends and she “sees that they are born
baseball player who can always tell where the ball is going, but can’t catch it. The again, in every aspect of their lives.”
organizers of my conference suggested that when performance and execution Like most life coaches, Lewis gets most of her clients through referrals. Lewis
are the metrics for success, you have to be more than a teacher. You have to be a admits there’s no great on-line clearinghouse for life coaches, so if you’re looking
coach. Keeping healthy isn’t something you can measure with a multiple-choice for a coach, the best thing to do is ask your friends, family and co-workers. Success-
test, either. As doctors, we can lay out a plan for a patient, but we can’t always ful life coaches have patients who not only achieve their goals in health and in life,
help them implement it. Outside of the occasional telephone follow-up, our help but also maintain them. “Whether it’s health, or being a politician, or whatever,
often ends at the door of the clinic or hospital. We often don’t see why the plan is getting there is one thing. Staying there and maintaining it is even more difficult,”
difficult to the patient’s daily life, or how it affects the rest of their endeavors. she says. Confidentiality can also be important and Lewis won’t say much about
So it’s not surprising that patients are finding that staying healthy requires more the celebrities and sports figures she’s helped.
coaching than a physician can do in 15 minutes every other month. Some of them Just as patients want more information about their doctors, clients are looking
ElainE lEwis:
Life CoaCh
Working from the inside out
are turning to life coaches, like recent San Diego transplant Elaine Lewis. “As a life to know more about their life coaches. Life coaches themselves are also looking
coach, health is at the top of my list,” Lewis says. Most of her clients bring up their for ways to combine their knowledge and determine what does and doesn’t work.
health, but if it’s not on their list by the third visit, she will prompt the discussion. The Federation of Life Coaching and the National Life Coaching Group are two
“Life coaching is just like being a doctor, and each one caters to a different group organizations bringing life coaches together. A review of the medical literature
of people,” says Lewis. She focuses her coaching on the LGBT community, largely shows a growing body of information about life coaching, and groups trying to
on entrepreneurial success, remaking yourself and relationships. “Before coming critically study the efficacy of life coaching.
out was fashionable, I worked with my gay employees in solving their personal According to Lewis, the key is balance. “Everybody is worried about what they
problems and helping instill their awareness of self.” look like on the outside…and it is important,” admits Lewis. “But the real stuff
Life coaching is Lewis’s third career, and she brings a wealth of business knowl- that counts, because nobody is young forever, is what you build inside.” In her
edge from her success as CEO of an interior design firm (elainelewisinternational. coaching, Lewis works on the inside first. “I think that people have to really like
com) and a partner in a chain of salons (conceptsalon.net) in her hometown of themselves, love themselves and care about themselves, because if they can’t,
New York City. Life coaching became a way to formalize and build on help she was how the hell can they like, or care or love anybody else.”
already giving friends in New York. “Since I’ve been very young…I have helped If this sounds a bit like a RuPaul tagline to you Drag Race fans, it’s probably be-
everyone who was in my inner circle. It gives me great satisfaction to see that cause Lewis says she’s known Ru for 25 years. She’s not sure which of them came
some of the fruit from my tree really is making a difference.” Lewis did her training up with this idea, but she’s knows it’s true. And I’m pretty sure it’s healthy.
at New York University and is a certified life coach and career coach.
She also brings a personal history of staying healthy. “You’re talking to a health Elaine Lewis can be reached at
elainelewissuccess.com, and is planning to give a free
freak, that’s number one,” says Lewis. “Before anyone knew what mantras or nutri- 30-minute session to the first 25 people to contact her.
July 2009 | RAGE monthly 47
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