When Medicine Feels Like Betrayal
Recently, I was invited to lead a discussion at the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association (ACCMA) about the trend of physician coaching, including clarifying common misunderstandings and misperceptions.
There is a lot of confusion about mindset or life coaching because it doesn’t fit into our traditional medical paradigm.
It’s an innovative approach that is different than therapy, mentoring, teaching, friendship, and medicine.
And in my experience, it can feel like magic.
Not because it’s mysterious but because it changes the way you think, lead, relate, and live.
Why I pivoted into coaching (and why it matters)
Coaching—and not burnout—is why I pivoted in my career to become a coach. After 25 years leading physician wellness, coaching is the one thing that consistently creates meaningful change for physicians.
Why is coaching so helpful for physicians?
One of the primary things I work on as a physician coach is helping you notice and modify detrimental thought patterns that are trained into us during medical training and reinforced by medical culture.
These thought patterns often contribute to:
chronic overfunctioning
perfectionism and self-criticism
guilt-driven “professionalism”
difficulty setting boundaries without shame
over-responsibility and resentment
nervous system depletion
burnout and moral distress
When you can see these patterns clearly, you can stop letting them run your life.
You can choose a path forward with agency and purposeful intention.
Coaching isn’t about staying or leaving medicine
A coach helps you figure out what is right for you and what your next most aligned step is.
For some physicians, that means staying and practicing medicine in a more sustainable way.
For others, it means changing roles, reducing clinical time, shifting practice models, or building a new lane.
Either way, the goal is the same:
Less suffering.
More agency.
More health.
More integrity.
More alignment.
A physician coach is an effective and compassionate guide who helps you optimize your potential, your health and well-being, and your life fulfillment.
Coaching helps you show up empowered, engaged, and healthy enough to contribute to solutions in our broken medical systems.
While it isn’t your job to fix them alone, if we want them to work better, we will need healthy and whole physicians at the table.
Coaching is how this will happen.