When Knowing Isn’t Enough 

Deepening your coaching skills to help clients bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it 

Health coaches bring valuable knowledge and expertise to their work with clients. Yet even when clients understand what would support their health and genuinely want to make changes, putting that knowledge into practice can still be difficult. 

In this practical session, we’ll explore the gap between knowing and doing, drawing on established behaviour-change principles including readiness for change and decisional balance. Through deeper listening and powerful questioning, we’ll explore how to uncover both sides of a client’s motivation for change: what is drawing them towards change, and what may still be holding them back. 

The session will explore how health coaches can help clients strengthen their own reasons for change, work more effectively with ambivalence and resistance, and move towards meaningful action with greater confidence and ownership. 

Key Learning Outcomes 

By the end of the session, participants will be better able to: 

• Listen more deeply for readiness and motivation, recognising both what is drawing a client towards change and what may be holding them back. 

• Use powerful questions to explore decisional balance, helping clients clarify and strengthen their own reasons for making positive changes. 

• Work more effectively with ambivalence and resistance, supporting clients to move from knowing what to do towards greater readiness, confidence and sustainable action. 

Speaker bio:

Shane Pearson is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), mentor coach and coach trainer with nearly 20 years’ experience helping people create meaningful, lasting change. 

With a background in behavioural change, NLP and health and wellness coaching, Shane is a former Health & Wellness Coach Trainer and has trained approximately 150 health coaches to professional certification. As a mentor coach, he has supported hundreds of health coaches and wellness practitioners to develop their confidence and capability as coaches and navigate the challenges of working with clients in practice. 

Alongside his private coaching practice, Shane continues to train and mentor practitioners through professional development, helping them deepen their coaching skills, translate their knowledge and expertise into more effective client work, and build confident, sustainable practices. 

He is the founder of Design Your Life Coaching and The Wellness Evolution, a professional development platform for health, nutrition and wellness practitioners.