During Hooray for Coaches Day, we’d like to give spotlight to a coach that changed her life to service her clients.
Valery Philip is a practicing coach at Curves Fitness in Cobourg. She studied Massage Therapy and Nutrition before becoming a coach.
Philip began in the “corporate world,” as she describes. She quickly pivoted to a new field when she noticed how stress affected her peers. She held a practice along Yonge and College Street in Toronto, but she sustained a back injury after roughly ten years of practice.
Philip says this gave her a new point of view on her clientele. “What a great learning experience.” She says, “Because I can understand from my client’s perspective what it’s like to live with chronic pain.”
She says coaching has progressed significantly. The cycle has moved away from pre-designed fitness plans to refining a plan fit for an individual.
She, anecdotally, describes her ‘monthly wellness coaching sessions’ which have shifted focus from the client’s literal fitness goals to a general wellbeing meeting.
“…They [used to] call it, ‘weigh and measure.’ You get weighed and you get measured.” Philip describes, “Now I have women who come in and say, ‘I don’t care about the scale. I just want to manage my pain.’
Philip says it’s rewarding to experience an person’s journey alongside them.
Now, Philip continues to upgrade her practice in an evolving world of health and fitness coaching.
You can listen to the full interview here:
Written by: Noah Lorusso
