Blue Health Coaching

As a Blue Health Coach™, coastal coach and ocean advocate I thought I would share some jargon with you…  please explore the rest of this website which gives a deeper immersion into the work we do.

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Train to become a Certified Blue Health Coach

Blue Health is a term that spans a range of research into the benefits of being in, near, on and under water… Whether that is:

  • Natural water: lakes rivers streams the ocean – experiencing a range of sporting or leisure pursuits
  • Structured contexts: such as hydrotherapy, floatation tanks, aquariums etc
  • Virtual reality: using digital simulations of the visual and auditory elements of water to evoke feelings or changes in physiology (an area I have personally researched in collaboration with Plymouth University)
  • Art: The inclusion of water in poetry, metaphor, music, photography, painting and performance art
  • Spirituality: Mindfulness practices encompassing visualisations incorporating the creation of mental models and an embodied sense of H2O
  • Even the design of cities and the impact of water upon real estate prices has not been overlooked when it comes to studying the water effect

Water IS medicine and the scientific evidence that our emotional connection with water really does impact measurably upon our wellbeing is becoming accepted by the mainstream and it is a field I have been delighted to champion, since beginning my coastal coaching practice in January of 2009…

Think about water as an element for a moment… It is continually transitional, whether watching waves from a shoreline or waiting to catch one, perhaps you might be observing a ripple across a lake or listening to a river flowing freely…  You need to be present and “in the moment”.  The water doesn’t care about whether you are happy or sad, it’s reality is one of deep time.  It doesn’t wait for you to be attentive, distracted or half conscious, it moves with or without you and the “nowness” of time spent with water is in all senses of the word “immersive”. The awakening to our senses offered through time with water (be it with the intention of calming or uplifting)… connects us with ourselves in a way that is refreshing, restorative and distinctly analogue.

I am a Blue Health Coach™ and have been specialising in coastal coaching since January 2009.  My professional coaching approach is distinctly hybrid drawing upon a range of modalities… and yet has developed into a highly intuitive water-centric practice, which became more overtly science-led when I discovered the European Centre of Environment and Human Health in 2013.  Not long after this my path converged with a kindred spirit who became a deeply valued compadre Wallace J Nichols he was on the cusp of launching his book Blue Mind and I was delighted that he had chosen Cornwall to launch it, since he had made links with the ECEHH and his book referenced their work.  It was 2014 and I had completed my MA the previous year, working with the beach location as a continually shifting environment to research and study how people navigate ambiguity… I had been finding that working with coastal locations to help people transition change provided a certain level of freedom to explore more creatively.  I  was fascinated to learn that much of what we water lovers intuitively know to be true, could now be proven scientifically and the field of research into blue space was growing.  Great news for the doubters!  Did scientific awareness change my professional practice? Not so much… but it DID provide a common language.

At this point J had curated a cross-disciplinary social experiment in the form of three Blue Mind Summits and a variety of other Experiences, changing conversations within academic circles to ensure the emotional value of blue space was not excluded… and leading to the book Blue Mind.

Blue Mind evolved into a movement with a strong following and I am honoured to be a part of the advocacy team that proactively promote Vitamin Blue.

More and more scientists are beginning to dive beneath the surface of blue “health”, and J’s work served to provide a confluence between intuitive wisdom and academic sources acknowledging that the Blue Mind phenomenon transcends the boundaries of individual fields and I guess much like water it doesn’t like to be contained

1 Our health and ocean health are interconnected, let’s work with our wild water to foster collective wellbeing and create healthy communities.

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2 People protect what they love – as we get to know our water sources  and feel less disconnected from them, our sense of guardianship grows and on a planet that is bombarded with human created pollutants, taking care of our ocean is becoming higher and higher priority.

The term neuro-conservation sums up the blend of environmental psychology, neuroscience, conservation, behavioural modelling, social sciences and arts… But Blue Mind is definitely a felt sense.

Blue Mind and Blue Health insights permeate my work, and a proportion of profits from US Going Coastal Courses go directly to support the continuation of the Blue Mind work with various other support initiatives such as social media led campaigns, championing #100DaysofBlue and bringing Blue Marbles to the UK.

A Blue Health Coach™ … What does this mean?  Well essentially Water is fundamental to everything I do… it is not an after thought.

My professional life is water-centric, coastal coaching, partnering with the marine environment for facilitation, developing Blue Health Coach Training, writing applied blue health articles for a number of magazines and a book on it’s way. I speak at conferences on the topic of Beach Wisdom and contribute to ocean conservation films and leadership programmes.  I am the “Special Envoy for Environment and Ocean” with ANLP.

My social responsibility includes a highly active role as a Regional Representative for Surfers Against Sewage, heading up local campaigns and activity to reduce ocean plastics, which includes hosting beach clean ups, providing school talks and supporting beach-schools.  I am also an Advanced Marine Mammal Medic with British Divers Marine Life Rescue and their Regional Fundraising Co-ordinator – they are a phenomenal charity well worth taking a look at a supporting.  I am a founder Trustee of a local Marine Conservation Group and co-founder of Ghostbusters ALDFG a project which recovers (and co-ordinates recovery of) industrial scale abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear that washes up on our beaches. We ensure through a number of collaborations that this net leaves the marine environment, is recycled and put back into the circular economy rather than landfilled. I am regularly asked to give “applied blue health” talks in addition to hosting blue health zones within wellness areas at festivals and attending speakers panels advocating the benefits of healthy wild water.

I spend my recreation time free-diving, sea swimming, hand planing and generally playing in the surf… In summer 2019 GhostbustersALDFG were donated a kayak made from recycled ghost fishing nets from our friends at Odyssey Innovation (collaborative partners who we provide recovered net to)… So we can regularly be seen out on the water with these guys doing a paddle for plastic – cleaning up the ocean using the kayaks to reach hard to access areas.

I am Spiritually connected to the coast, it offers me a sense of place, an awareness of a global community. Water is all that I am and all that I do. It is fair to say I Live Blue.

Intrigued? In 2020 I ran the first Blue Health Coach™ Training Programmes. Our groups developed their Beach Wisdom learning how to work in partnership with the environment.

Attending this program and follow up online support enables Coaches to develop new skills to use within their professional practice and to promote personal coherence… Using the title “Blue Health Coach™” carries a deep responsibility.  Those who train professionally with me commit to playing a pivotal role in protecting our ocean (or their water if it is a lake / river etc)… meaning that being a Blue Health Coach™ is more than a professional role and CSR – it is a way of living and being.

If you would like to find out more about how as a Blue Health Coach™ I can personally help you connect more deeply with yourself and your environment then feel free to take a look at the “About / Who am I” link, the “Ethos” link and then get in touch.

This Video from my good friend J beautifully sums up “Why Water”

The Blue Marble from Michael Uys on Vimeo.