[00:00:00] Welcome to the Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Jessica Singh. This podcast explores physician health, wellbeing, and fulfillment, embracing all aspects of the human experience. Just as a medicine where a single interaction can transform a life, this podcast is grounded on the belief that each coaching conversation has the power to inspire, heal, and bring about meaningful change. 

[00:00:35] Welcome to the first episode of the Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast. This podcast is the answer to a question that I started asking myself many years ago, which is how can I make physician coaching more accessible? Being here now feels so surreal, and I'm excited and grateful.

[00:00:56] Although coaching is becoming more common in medical education and healthcare organizations for physicians and physicians in training, it's still not the norm nationally or globally. At least not yet. Not at the time of this recording. So the potential impact of coaching still remains untapped. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, in the academic year of 2025 to 2026, for the first time, there were over 100,000 students enrolled across 163 MD-granting medical schools. According to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, there are currently 46 accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States with over 40,000 students enrolled in the 2025 to 2026 academic year. And there are also approximately 1 million actively licensed physicians in the United States.

[00:02:05] For those who don't have access to physician coaching in their medical education or training programs or in their organizations, physician coaching typically remains experienced as an exclusive perk for leadership or for those who can afford to invest in private coaching. And so many are still unaware of the immense benefits that coaching has to offer. As we go through medical education and training, there is a rigid hierarchy that exists in medicine that we're all too familiar with.

[00:02:39] It's like climbing a totem pole of hierarchy or seniority from being a pre-medical student, medical student, resident, fellow, junior, then senior attending. So there's always this expectation of learning to be an expert or of learning from an expert and of being professional; professional in a way of becoming competent, but also seeming competent despite how we may be feeling inside and given external expectations, especially corporate expectations of how physicians are expected to function. And so often what happens is given these expectations, it's such a highly competitive environment.

[00:03:29] Imposter syndrome comes. Burnout as well is rampant in the medical industry. And so there's always this expectation to be an expert. But when physicians, as we go into our patient encounters, although in an ideal world we are taught about a healing partnership, it's not usually the way things happen.

[00:03:51] When patients come to see the doctor, they're expected, we're expected to fix things, we're expected to know all the answers, whether or not that's within our scope of practice or what we're supposed to do. Even the typical guidance that we get throughout our careers as students, residents, fellows, we go through guidance counselors, or we have mentoring by faculty. And in mentoring, an expert is giving advice and often the mentee wants to appear strong, confident, and you know appear in a certain way, so almost seeking an approval of a mentor, which may result in an expectation that doesn't exactly provide an open psychological space for vulnerability for sharing about life events or just even honesty. Do you like what you're doing? Is this something that you have to do? You know, if there are any thoughts that come in medicine about career trajectory?

[00:04:54] Because of the nature of medicine, often we go into medicine with these ideals; these ideals of what we think being a doctor will bring for us in terms of our fulfillment. how we're able to help people and serve. Often where burnout and disillusionment comes is that nowhere in our medical education do we learn about the business of medicine or functionally how medicine is, until we're done with all of our education and training more than a decade later. And then we see the influence of industry on medicine, the financial expectations, administrative tasks, all of these things that weren't necessarily the reason why we got into medicine. And then what do you do? You invest so much time, you gotta stay with it whether you like it or not. At least that's how many people feel, and so many have found ways to find fulfillment in medicine.

[00:05:50] And so coaching is very, powerful because coaching is a space where each person is viewed as wise, resourceful, and whole. Just even having this space — this space of psychological safety, this space of there's nothing to be fixed, there's nothing to correct, you are whole and wise, and enough the way you are — is huge because that's not something commonly encountered anywhere in medicine, at least not commonly. Not only is this huge for providers, this is huge for patients because then with coaching and learning coaching skills, patients, then also are encouraged to foster their autonomy and make self-directed goals, educate themselves, and then it truly can become a healing partnership where what if physicians were able to walk into an encounter viewing each patient as wise, resourceful and whole rather than someone who needed fixing or saving or worrying about?

[00:06:57] I mean, obviously you always worry about making a mistake by accident and having malpractice looming over our heads. For all of those reasons and more coaching is just so, so powerful. Even just learning these skills from ourselves, it changes how we see ourselves and therefore how we interact not only with the people we live with, the people we work with.

[00:07:19] It has such a power to reframe. I am really happy to be in a world where the system is changing, where coaching is becoming more and more integrated, but there's still so much work to be done and so that's why I'm really grateful to be here.

[00:07:36] Another thing to note about physician coaching, especially in organizational and medical education settings, is that there is a lot of variation as to how these programs are delivered and what the emphasis of coaching is. For instance, there are some education programs in some healthcare settings that focus on coaching on professional identity and performance coaching.

[00:08:02] And while these are important, for the sake of this podcast, the model of coaching that I am going to utilize and advocate for is a self-directed model of coaching where the topics are not prescribed, a process that's completely run and driven by the person being coached.

[00:08:21] And so the definitions and the methodology that I'm going to utilize is based on the definitions from the International Coaching Federation and from the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize personal and professional potential. It's a client-driven collaborative process that unlocks productivity, leadership, and untapped potential.

[00:09:00] The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching further clarifies the scope of a health and wellness coach. They describe that the coach's role is one of an accountability partner, not director, in navigating behavioral change and exploring opportunities for growth and development. As facilitators of the behavioral change process, health and wellness coaches support clients to achieve self-directed goals and behavior changes consistent with the client's vision for health and wellbeing, which may be informed by treatment plans prescribed by the client's professional healthcare team. On their own coaches do not diagnose, interpret medical data, prescribe or de-prescribe, recommend supplements, provide nutrition consultation or create meal plans, provide exercise, prescription or instruction, consult and advise or provide any psychological therapeutic interventions or treatment.

[00:10:06] And so for this podcast, these definitions are the foundation to the coaching that I'm going to be utilizing and advocating for. These definitions are so powerful. One of the hardest things for me personally when I went through my coaching education after medical education, of course, is because one of the things I've had to unlearn through coaching is the desire to fix the righting reflex. It's natural desire, especially of professionals in helping fields, to want to correct or make right. And I'm still working on it. 'cause sometimes that desire still comes out and it comes out in ways that often we're not even aware of. But by not doing it, we get to help the person that we're coaching so much more by realizing that they know what's best for them in the unique situation that they're in, and what's right for them and what's going to help them optimize their potential, navigate a shift and have meaningful, sustainable change.

[00:11:12] has to come from them only. The job of coaching is to facilitate an environment, to ask the right questions to help people nurture and access their inner wisdom that often, you know, we're fed how to think. We're fed so many things by society, and how often do we get to really think for ourselves?

[00:11:36] How often is there a value of internal validation? Of course, external validation is important. Certifications, degrees, passing boards, performing a certain way, but what about the stuff that matters to us most on the inside? Coaching is really so powerful because what we realize through coaching and with this whole person approach and by fostering a space where we're not prescribing topics for coaching sessions or trying to fix, is that whatever comes out in coaching, even if it seems personal or unrelated to work, there's often no way to compartmentalize truly who we are.

[00:12:17] And so that space, having that acknowledgement is, again, so powerful and something that we often don't get a chance to in medical culture. In medical culture, you have to be professional. You have to function. You have to go beyond just functioning because people's lives are at stake. But if we're not feeling well or something's going on inside, obviously life happens. We have our own lives to live. h ow do we optimize that to thrive? And realize that while we thrive in all domains of our life, social, spiritual, emotional, physical, professional as well, then all elements thrive. But if something's missing in one domain of life, how can you optimally thrive in all the other domains? We're so interconnected. That also brings up another point, which is psychological safety. So although coaching is offered in medical education and healthcare settings, a large component of this is done by internal coaches. And so there comes an issue of psychological safety because how comfortable, even if someone sets up a coaching agreement, how comfortable is someone gonna feel if there's still a hierarchy? If someone more senior is coaching someone more junior, or if it's internal coaching and you work in the same environment, same hospital, how comfortable are people actually gonna feel sharing their truth?

[00:13:49] And so that's something to consider with coaching and one benefit of external coaching, which is working with a coach that's not part of the organization. The other thing with coaching in healthcare organizations is there's so many coaches that are certified, that are physicians that are certified through a coach credentialing body, which is incredible.

[00:14:12] However, this may or may not be required for internal organization coaches, and so it's something to consider. What is the training? What is the continuous growth and mentorship for the physicians who are coaching to make sure that they're staying true to the heart of coaching and it's not a teaching relationship or mentor relationship?

[00:14:33] One of the things that I really appreciate about being dual certified by both the International Coaching Federation and the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching is that I get to take the best of both worlds.

[00:14:45] So for the International Coaching Federation, there are different levels of certification based on experience, based on education, and I really appreciate that they require mentorship to even renew credentials or to progress to higher levels of credentialing.

[00:15:03] And this mentorship has just been as key for my professional development, to be honest, as the coach training themselves. Because while coach training is amazing, you're in this bubble. You're in this bubble of learning how to coach, often practicing on fellow coaches. Yeah, then you start getting your feet wet.

[00:15:21] But once you get out in the real world, even when you coach for platforms, for organization, in your private practice, who's telling you if what you're doing is in align with the ICF competencies or in line with the heart of coaching, and who's going to tell you where there's room for improvement? Because this is a constant art, constant practice and requires a lot of introspection 'cause there's so much bias that comes. Even the art of asking questions, it sounds so simple, but it requires presence. It requires an understanding about the words being chosen, whether they promote talk that's going to support change, or that supports the status quo. How to help someone have a cognitive breakthrough that can really be life changing and it's incredible, but it is an art and a practice, and that's just something to consider is continuous professional development of coaches in any coaching program. And how do you also define success of coaching, of coaching programs and organizations? Is it by academic performance? Is it by validated assessments? And what about when mental health comes up?

[00:16:42] Are there different reporting obligations? If someone is coaching and something comes up where the person would be best served by going to a healthcare professional.

[00:16:51] And so these are just things to think about and points to consider as we think about coaching and how coaching is made available, especially to physicians and physicians in training and healthcare organizations. And there is no right or wrong way about this. There's no one who has to say, "Hey, you have to be certified in order to be an effective coach." But the certifications from coach credentialing bodies are long established and there for a reason. And I think anyone who's truly dedicated to their craft seeks the professional training and standards that are required, and it just makes us more effective and grounds us in more ethical coaching practice because there are codes of ethics that we have to abide by. It's really an exciting time to be in the field of healthcare and of course in the field of coaching.

[00:17:41] It's so exciting to see change though, and it fills me with so much hope. I remember when I graduated from my emergency medicine residency in 2018, it was the greatest academic accomplishment I ever had and I personally felt though, like I had nothing left to give. I was so burnt out. And it was hard because at that time, I just didn't understand why I was so unhappy, and so for me, my healing began with yoga, reading books, and then finally having the blessing to be the first physician wellness fellow. It just, it was the first time in my life I ever learned about the business of medicine, along with the system drivers of burnout and once learning about the national, state, organizational, departmental, and individual factors that contribute to burnout, I realize that I'm not to blame. But no one along the way told me this or taught me this. And so things are different now and still a lot of this education are things that we experience and that are not formally taught. And unfortunately, learning how to heal from burnout happens only after we are burned out and then start to understand why. And it doesn't have to be that way.

[00:19:07] I actually discovered coaching by accident. I discovered it during my fellowship. I got to be a participant in a faculty group coaching program. And it was over several months, and it included group sessions as well as one-on-one calls. And it was such a unique experience to be with senior faculty, just faculty of all stages, and get to hear about their lives. They brought their tears, their joy, and there was so much transformation that happened in those few months that I thought, wow, what is this? What is coaching? And if someone who's not a physician can coach physicians and have this level of breakthrough, I want to do this because it seems to help get to the root of issues compared to in medicine. I want to be able to get to the root and help people change lives before they're dying and ill. And so I transitioned careers and pursued many trainings in holistic health and wellbeing and coaching. 'Cause it's just so inspirational when you can have a single interaction that can just really help change someone's way of being.

[00:20:24] When I first started coaching, I also had to learn how to build business, and I didn't have any business experience, but I am so grateful for emergency medicine because it really reframed my perspective for everything. Once you get through a shift with many people dying and realize all the things that we are able to accomplish, I approach my business with joy because, and my profession with joy, because nobody's dying, acutely dying, and it's just so liberating to get into a field where we get to help people optimize potential and it's just such different energy because in order for coaching to work, yes, the coach presence matters, coach has to do their work, but it will never work unless the person being coached is just as receptive, willing to think for themselves, willing to set goals for themselves, and willing to do the work. And that is a true partnership because the real work in coaching happens outside of the coaching sessions.

[00:21:29] When I started coaching, I always held a space for physicians in training and medical students that I couldn't figure out how to do it sustainably. And there's so much that goes into one-on-one coaching sessions. And so the idea for this podcast came that this podcast would serve as a way to explore physician health, wellbeing, and fulfillment, welcoming all aspects of the human experience, and it would feature one physician being coached by me through specific topics, challenges in life situations.

[00:22:09] And these coaching conversations provide insight into the complex, evolving and deeply personal experiences of physicians exploring what supports us, what challenges us, and what helps us work and live in more alignment. Each physician that's being coached on this podcast obviously agreed to be coached. They signed a consent form. We talked extensively about what this process would entail. And to protect the privacy of the physicians being coached, only the audio recordings of the coaching sessions are shared and the coaching episodes themselves are only available by subscription. The physician's names are also changed.

[00:22:56] Any personal identifying information has also been removed other than what the physician being coached allowed. The episodes were prerecorded then edited afterwards, and each person being coached had an opportunity to edit what was being shared on this podcast. And so if it wasn't for them, this podcast wouldn't exist. I am extremely grateful to those who were willing to be coached, share their lives so everyone could listen and learn and be touched and benefit, and realize that we're not alone.

[00:23:33] Medicine has such a weird way of, we all work so hard sometimes it's so easily to be siloed. In such an intense field where you're dealing with life, death, sickness. So many of the experiences we have are shared experiences regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, and so the sheer humanity of listening to someone being coached, watching what they're going through, bearing, witnessing to their own growth and transformation, it's just universal. It applies to everyone. It's universally relatable.

[00:24:11] I didn't plan this, but once I started doing this podcast, I realized as a coach how vulnerable this is. Especially in this field of medicine where people are, there's always this concern that people are going to be judging you, wondering how you're coaching. Is it good enough? Who gives the experience for this? And I really had to work through a lot of this. And it's been a continued work in progress.

[00:24:41] I have faith in myself and so with a lot of love, humility, I realized that this coaching is an art and I'm not claiming to be perfect. I'm also growing in my practice. And so after each coaching session, I listen to the episode and do coaching debrief episodes as learning points.

[00:25:02] In addition, I also receive mentoring as well from master certified coaches to continue my professional development as a coach, and knowing that by walking this talk by having this vulnerability, this growth mindset, that it will also help other coaches listening to this, especially coaches who are coaching physicians or coaching anybody. Because often when people come for coaching, they're going through high stakes decisions, whether or not to stay in a career, sometimes whether or not to stay in a marriage, there's so many things. And it's so easy on one hand to say like it's their decision. I'm not responsible. But as a human being, as a helper, you feel like is there a responsibility element of the outcomes that come from coaching? And absolutely not, but how do you actually do this? And so I do receive mentoring to help develop my own coaching practice. I thought it was the most ethical thing to do. For those listening please accept my vulnerability, my humility with this. I am also learning, and this is a service. This is the labor of love. The amount of time, energy that has gone into this and sharing my craft.

[00:26:22] Each coach has such a unique style and it's such an intimate conversation, and I'm just putting out this intention of gratitude and hope that this will help somebody, that it will help a physician or a coach knowing the power that I've seen firsthand on the people that I've been so blessed to work with. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this podcast. It's really a fun labor of love. It's beautiful this world that we're in, because if what you want doesn't exist, we get to create it.

[00:26:55] So with this podcast, I am sharing my heart with you, sharing this beautiful coaching space, and I hope that it touches you and that you enjoy listening.

[00:27:08] Thank you for listening to the Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to making coaching more accessible and to support both physicians and those who coach them. Subscribe to access exclusive subscriber-only episodes, including physician coaching sessions, coaching debriefs, and coach mentoring sessions that offer valuable insights for professional development for coaches.

[00:27:38] Your support helps sustain this work. Subscribe and leave a thoughtful review at www.holisticphysiciancoaching podcast.com. Sending you warmth and light.