1:1 Physician Coaching

Coaching is evidence-based. Multiple randomized controlled trials show it reduces burnout and emotional exhaustion and improves fulfillment, performance, and quality of life. In one recent study, burnout dropped from 77% to 33% in just eight weeks of virtual coaching. Fulfillment doubled. Energy, clarity, and joy increased significantly.

Coaching is structured very differently from medicine—and that’s a feature. It isn’t algorithmic, diagnostic, or prescriptive. It’s efficient, streamlined, and deeply personal. Because it doesn’t follow familiar medical structures (billing models, templates, documentation, insurance), the medical brain often tries to put it in a box. Sometimes that difference gets misread as illegitimacy.

The word “scam” often appears when something doesn’t fit our mental model of what help is “supposed” to look like. As a result, some physicians avoid coaching or judge it from the sidelines.

That avoidance causes harm—not because coaching is essential, but because the skills coaching teaches are desperately needed in medicine and aren’t being learned elsewhere.

I didn’t pursue coaching because I was burned out. I pursued it because after decades of clinical work and physician wellness leadership, it was clear that traditional wellness efforts were not shifting how physicians actually felt or functioned in daily life. Coaching did.

Over the last six years, I’ve coached more than a thousand physicians—1:1, in small groups, and at retreats. The work was so effective and meaningful that I chose to leave clinical pediatrics, a pension, and a predictable path to bring these tools to colleagues across the country.

Coaching is not a substitute for therapy, medicine, or system change—but it is a missing layer of support physicians deserve. Not because we are fragile, but because we are human in a profession that routinely asks us to be superhuman.

• Number of sessions, cost, and administrative work.

• I offer non-CME coaching as a cheaper alternative for those who need a less costly option. If you do not have financial support for CME, and/or do not need or want a CME certificate or credit, choose the non CME option.

• Whether you choose the CME option or not, physician coaching is ‘professional development.’ It is often deductible as a business expense and/or reimbursable by your institution as an educational expense. Please consult with your employer and/or tax professional.

• When you sign up, you will get an invoice with the CME accreditation information on it. After you complete your coaching, you will be required to complete a traditional CME survey. If you do this within the required time frame, you will receive a traditional CME certificate and credit for the number of hours you participated - up to 12.

• Click here for information to share with your organization about the Mindful Healers Physician Professional Development CME Program.

Many physicians use professional development funds, leadership development budgets, wellness grants, or CME/education reimbursement. Here is language you can forward to your organization if ‘approval’ is needed.

You should confirm with your accountant/tax advisor. It is generally considered professional development which is usually an allowable business expense if you have a private practice and/or are a 1099 or C or S- Corp.