Health Coaching and Beyond

About Health Coaching and Beyond

This podcast champions the belief that Health Coaching can change the world for the better! Your hosts Drs Ollie Hart and Tim Williams, are UK Family Doctors (GPs), who learnt to health coach with their patients over 40 years + combined experience. They found it so successful for their patients and themselves, they set up a company to teach others the skills....www.peakhealthcoaching.com (http://www.peakhealthcoaching.com) Now they bring their enthusiasm for the topic to the airwaves, to encourage and promote the growth of health coaching in the NHS, in businesses, and any where that people matter. They will chat about current affairs related to person centred care, and topics related to health coaching. Some episodes involve carefully selected guests, others conversation between the 2 of them. They aim to inspire your confidence and knowledge to embrace health coaching and all the benefits and joy it can bring.

Publisher

Ollie and Tim

Category

business · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Dec 2025

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

37 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Episode 37 - Doing Less, Listening More: Lessons From a Counsellor and Health Coach

   Summary In this episode, Ollie is joined by Holly Crosby, one of Peak Health Coaching’s most experienced associate trainers, to explore a career spanning counselling, health coaching, workplace wellbeing and training. Holly begins by sharing her own experience of healthcare following the diagnosis of a rare pituitary tumour in her early twenties. She reflects on how little control she initially felt over decisions about her treatment, and how her relationship with healthcare has changed over time as she has become more confident in asking questions, expressing what matters to her and taking a more active role in her care. The conversation then turns to Holly’s professional journey, from more than a decade working as a counsellor in bereavement, addiction and mental health, to discovering health coaching and eventually bringing coaching into workplace settings. Ollie and Holly also tackle a question that comes up regularly in health coaching: where does coaching end and counselling begin? Holly reflects on the considerable overlap between the two, while describing counselling as often creating space to understand and process the past, and coaching as having a greater focus on the present and what someone wants their future to look like. Throughout the conversation, they return to the power of listening. For people used to helping others, stepping back can feel uncomfortable. But health coaching can sometimes mean doing less rather than more: talking less, telling less and creating the space for another person to recognise their own strengths, choices and capacity for change. Takeaways People are more likely to engage in their health when they feel involved in decisions rather than simply being told what will happen. Continuity of care can help create trust and make it easier for people to speak openly about what matters to them. Health cannot be separated from the wider realities of someone’s life, relationships and work. Workplace wellbeing often involves issues that extend far beyond the workplace itself. Counselling and health coaching share many skills, particularly listening, curiosity and creating a safe space for reflection. Counselling may spend more time making sense of the past, while coaching often focuses more strongly on the present and future. Supporting someone does not always mean giving them more information, advice or solutions. Health coaching can challenge professionals to talk less, tell less and trust people more. Small changes can have a significant impact and create the foundations for further change. Health coaching skills can be valuable beyond patient consultations, including with colleagues, teams, friends and family. Sometimes doing less and listening more can help someone else do more for themselves.

2. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Episode 36 - AI Roundtable Special: The Future of AI in Health Coaching

   Summary In this special episode of Health Coaching and Beyond, Peak Health Coaching brings together an expert panel to explore one of the biggest questions facing health and care right now: what role should artificial intelligence play in health coaching? Ollie is joined by Dr Angus Perry, Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, Chloe Tetrault and Dr Rob Kemp, who bring very different perspectives on the opportunities, risks and ethical questions surrounding AI. From personalised support and greater access to information, to concerns around trust, dependency, misinformation and the loss of human connection, the discussion explores what AI might genuinely add to health coaching and where its limits may lie. The panel considers how AI could support people with health information, goal setting and self-management, as well as how smaller, more specialised AI models could potentially offer safer and more tailored support. But they also explore what happens when technology moves into areas traditionally built on human relationships, empathy, trust and the ability to notice what is not being said. A central question emerges throughout the conversation: if AI can increasingly imitate the language and techniques of a coach, does that make it coaching? The panel explores the difference between appearing to listen and genuinely being in a relationship with another person, and why health coaching may be about much more than simply providing the right information or asking the right questions. While there are plenty of reasons for caution, the discussion is far from anti-AI. Instead, the panel considers how technology might take care of some of the more repetitive or informational tasks, creating more space for meaningful human conversations. Takeaways AI has significant potential to improve access to health information and personalised support. Health coaching is about more than information - it often helps people bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. AI can imitate aspects of a coaching conversation, but there are important questions about whether imitation is the same as a genuine human relationship. Human coaches can notice body language, hesitation, context and what is left unsaid. AI may be particularly useful for information, self-management, tracking and other supportive tasks alongside human coaching. A human coach remaining "in the loop" could be an important principle as AI becomes more widely used. Smaller, specialised language models may offer opportunities for more tailored, secure and energy-efficient AI tools. AI systems can produce inaccurate or biased information while sounding highly convincing, making appropriate safeguards essential. There are important questions around privacy, data ownership and where information shared with AI systems ultimately goes. Greater access to AI does not automatically mean greater equality, particularly where cost, digital confidence and access to technology differ. Commercial interests could influence how AI health tools behave, raising questions about trust, transparency and potential conflicts of interest. Health coaching organisations and professional bodies have an important role to play in developing standards, governance and ethical guidance. The environmental cost of AI should form part of the conversation about how and when these technologies are used. Technology should support human connection rather than unintentionally replacing or weakening it. AI is developing quickly, but health coaches have an opportunity to help shape how it is used rather than simply responding to what comes next. The goal may not be to replace the human elements of coaching, but to automate the mundane and create more space for them.

3. 

   21 Sept 2026

   Episode 35 - Occupational Health, Digital Support and the Human Connection

   Summary In this episode, Ollie and Tim come back together to explore what health coaching can offer across two very different but increasingly important areas: workplace wellbeing and the growing use of digital health tools. Tim reflects on conversations from the NHS Occupational Health & Wellbeing Network annual meeting, where there was strong interest in how health coaching skills could help occupational health teams move further upstream. Rather than waiting until someone is struggling, off sick or preparing to return to work, they discuss the opportunity to involve people earlier and more actively in decisions about their own health and working lives. The conversation widens into the role of workplace culture, leadership and psychological safety. Ollie and Tim reflect on why trust matters, how vulnerability from leaders can create space for others to speak openly, and why employees feeling able to ask for support or adaptations can be a sign of a healthy organisation rather than a problem to be managed. They then turn to two recent studies exploring health coaching alongside digital support. Ollie shares findings from the Active Wait study, involving people waiting for hip and knee surgery with lower levels of patient activation. A second feasibility study, looking at digital support for people living with frailty tells a similar story. While digital tools may offer huge potential, the human relationship can be the thing that helps people engage with them and translate information into meaningful action. Takeaways Occupational health has the potential to move further upstream from reactive support towards prevention. Health coaching skills can help people play a more active role in conversations about staying well, returning to work and workplace adjustments. Person-centred conversations are not simply about being friendly or supportive, but using deliberate skills that help people think for themselves. Workplace culture and leadership have a major influence on whether people feel safe enough to speak honestly about what they need. Being able to ask for adaptations or support can be a sign of trust and psychological safety. The Active Wait study found high engagement with health coaching among people with lower levels of patient activation. Small, personally meaningful goals can sometimes unlock wider changes in confidence, mood and activity. Digital tools can provide useful support, but engagement with them varies considerably. Health coaching may help people engage more meaningfully with digital health tools. Creating the space for someone to think, build confidence and take the lead sits at the heart of health coaching. The future of health coaching may increasingly involve finding the right balance between human relationships and digital support. Active Wait: Feasibility of Health Coaching Targeting Patients With Low Activation Waiting for Total Hip or Total Knee Replacement - https://www.physiotherapyjournal.com/article/S0031-9406(26)00485-2/abstract (https://www.physiotherapyjournal.com/article/S0031-9406(26)00485-2/abstract) DIALOR: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study of a Digital Health Coaching Intervention for Older People With Frailty in Primary Care - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-026-03499-w (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-026-03499-w)

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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