High Quality of Life in Chronic Illness

A transformative, coach-facilitated program

This coach-facilitated program, based on the internationally-accredited New Insights™ Coaching Program, has been created in response to some of the most desperate questions voiced by many people who live with a chronic health condition, pain and/or disability:

Is it possible to live a life of quality and meaning in the context of living with a chronic illness?

How can I still have joy within the context of living with a chronic condition?

How can I accept my permanent losses?

Is there any meaning to my suffering?

If full participation in life is no longer possible, what is still possible?

What lies on the other side of my changed life?

When, after many years of doctor’s visits, experiments with medications, therapies, lifestyle changes, domestic adjustments, functional and financial losses and emotional roller-coasters, it must finally be admitted that one's condition(s) will be permanent, a threshold is crossed:

The quest for doing differently becomes
a quest for being differently.

Few events challenge all areas of life as does the entry of a chronic illness and/or disability. Not only does the entire background in terms of your work, your finances, future vision, and your personal relationships and roles come crashing down, your very sense of self and of your life purpose are in danger of disappearing.

As you find yourself a lost traveller in a strange land, many deeply upsetting emotional and psychological processes take place whilst you try to find your way and re-create your life.

This demands nothing less but an overhaul of much of your previous inner support, in terms of your convictions, motivation, your personal values, the rules you now need to live by, your changed needs, and much more.

This closely coach-facilitated program provides the roadmap for this arduous journey, strengthened by in-depth reflections, challenging tasks and creative exercises requiring your active participation and commitment.

Structure

Each one of the 12 Modules consists of:

1. Text as a pdf document
2. Audio recording
3. Comprehensive Worksheet s
4. Unlimited email consultation / facilitation

Total Duration: 12 – 24 Weeks

Modules:

The first two Modules are dedicated to actual Goal setting followed by designing plans and actions to make those Goals achievable within a certain period of time.

Module 1: Goals   

After your assessment of your eight Life Areas, Goals are brainstormed and formulated for up to three Life Areas, within the context of your needs and abilities. ‘Starting at the end’, so to speak, these Goals will provide focus and direction for all the work that follows during the course.

Module 2:  Milestones       

For each Goal your current and to-be-obtained resources are identified, after which important markers on the way to achieving your Goals are defined. These are called Milestones. A set of appropriate Action Steps, such as related exercises and tasks, support each Milestone. Completion of all the Milestones automatically results in attaining your Goals.

Next, from Module 3 to 10, by working intensely with specific themes, you will explore where you are currently in your mental, psychological and emotional life. You assess to what degree your current state supports you in where you want to be (Goals) and to what degree it might limit you. When limitations are identified, constructive exercises and tasks will help you transform those limitations into personal support.

Module 3:  Beliefs     

We all have a comprehensive set of personal beliefs about ourselves, about the world and about our place in it. These beliefs are often decisive factors in the choices we make. In this Module you examine how your chronic health condition may have ‘fixed’ certain beliefs, and in what manner your beliefs support your endeavours and in what manner they may hold you back.

Module 4:  Motivation      

Beliefs are very powerful and largely contribute to your experiences. After all, what you focus your mind on will find its way into your field of experience and eventually become your reality. In this Module you will formulate new supporting beliefs and find ways to continually motivate yourself.

Module 5:  Values     

Your values are the ideas, people and things you hold most near and dear to you. They are your compass in life or, if you want, the beacons by which you steer your ship. Just getting to know your Authentic Values and seeing to what degree you live in alignment with them will make this Program worthwhile.   Sometimes you can be held back from doing the things you most want to do to move forward, due to conflicts in your Values.

Module 6:   Rules       

Rules are your beliefs about what you feel is needed for you to experience your Values. Again, these Rules are often unconscious, but they manifest through your behaviour and in your self-judgment. You will discover your particular Rules related to your Values.

Module 7:  The Six Human Needs        

Needs are the result of an imbalance, so that your strongest Needs reflect what is most missing in your life. Especially the entry of a chronic illness will have changed your Needs entirely.

Module 8:   Communication and Projection        

Your perceptions of other people and of situations are often founded on perceptions you have of yourself. This results in you Projecting your Beliefs, Values, Rules and Needs onto others, which fundamentally affects the way you Communicate. Communication is a crucial aspect in self-development, in relationships, in professional life and in attaining your Goals.

Module 9:    Responsibility      

You cannot control everything that happens to you, but you can decide how you respond to your life’s events. Those who accept total Responsibility for their thoughts and actions are most empowered and successful in their lives. For this to happen, the first step is learning where you limit yourself by laying blame for your situation or by justifying your choices and actions. By taking full Responsibility, you will be the master of your life. A most challenging Module indeed!

Module 10:  Questions        

This Module is all about your ‘State of Mind’ and the nature of the questions you ask yourself in different states. To a large degree, you can control your state of mind and in doing so, become consciously positive in your approach to and outlook on life.

Module 11:   Life Purpose      

Each and everyone of us is a unique person with our own special talents and gifts. Your biography reflects your Life Purpose: your soul at work through your destiny. Great fulfilment and inner happiness can be derived from being aware of your Life Purpose. But what if your health condition has severely compromised what previously held meaning and purpose? In this Module you will re-discover what your Life Purpose holds.

Module 12: Evaluations       

Assessing where you are now in relation to when you started will give you an enormous sense of happiness and satisfaction with regard to the growth that you have achieved. You will find that the changes that have taken place are lasting because you made them happen. This is the time for evaluation and celebration!

Your Quality of Life can be Created

It is my conviction, and indeed my experience, that ‘living a life of quality and meaning’ is possible in any situation and in any circumstances.

This conviction is challenged to its extreme in the case of chronic illness and / or disability. After all, when we can no longer express ourselves through the personal and professional roles we had, when we can no longer participate in life the way we once did, what remains of that ‘quality’?  What is still possible?

When you begin with that question, rather than with a fixed conclusion that quality and purpose are no longer possible, you open the door into the unknown.