Summary:

The CHERRY Method offers an innovative and personalized health coaching program focused on vitality and overall harmony. This engaging program is based on six essential pillars: personalized coaching, healthy habits, emotional balance, resilience, human relationships, and Yoga of Life. By incorporating principles of motivation and reward, the CHERRY Method helps establish sustainable habits in a positive and rewarding way, while nurturing physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being.

Introduction

In a world where health is often seen in a fragmented way, my approach has always been to promote a more holistic and integrative vision. After years as a neurologist, I transitioned to a more holistic practice, known as slow medicine—a slower, more mindful form of medicine that takes into account every aspect of the individual. This natural transition led me to develop a health coaching model that goes beyond disease prevention, extending to the building of overall health, encompassing the physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects while remaining in harmony with the environment.

From this philosophy, the CHERRY Method was born. This model is based on the principles of sustainable and proactive health, integrating the foundations of a balanced life. Inspired by my personal and professional journey, CHERRY is more than just an acronym: it’s a practical tool to help my clients achieve deep and holistic well-being.

Why Health Coaching?

Health coaching addresses the growing need for a more personalized approach to health. While conventional medicine often focuses on symptom management, health coaching provides a framework in which individuals can explore prevention, personal growth, and continuous improvement of their well-being. The goal is to create proactive rather than reactive health.

A well-conducted health coaching process promotes autonomy, and research shows that this type of support helps individuals integrate healthy habits in a sustainable way. Studies like the one published in the Journal of Nursing & Care have demonstrated that health coaching is particularly effective in preventing chronic diseases and improving quality of life by fostering individuals’ active engagement in managing their own health (Health Coaching as an Intervention in Healthcare, 2021).

According to The Science and Practice of Health Coaching (Arloski, 2007), health coaches not only help improve clients’ physical conditions but also strengthen their emotional and mental resilience. This type of support helps individuals find a more harmonious balance in their daily lives.

The CHERRY Method ©️ 

The CHERRY Method, I created, is built on six pillars, each represented by a letter in the acronym:

• C for Customized Coaching: Personalized coaching is at the heart of the CHERRY approach. It provides tailored support that takes into account the specific needs, goals, and rhythms of each individual. Every session is unique, just like the privileged relationships that are formed between coach and client.

• H for Healthy Habits: Developing sustainable habits is essential for ensuring long-term well-being. This includes balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, and optimized relaxation and sleep routines. As Dr. Frank Lipman emphasizes in How to be Well (2018), adopting these habits can transform individuals’ lives and help them improve their overall health.

• E for Emotional Balance: Managing emotions is key to maintaining solid mental health. In coaching, we work on identifying and regulating emotions so that each person can find more serenity in their life. Emotions, when understood and well-managed, become assets for better navigating life’s challenges. The Slow Medicine Solution by Dr. Michael Finkelstein (2015) highlights the importance of this balance for long-lasting health.

• R for Resilience: Learning to bounce back from difficulties is essential in the journey of health. Resilience allows individuals to overcome obstacles while staying aligned with their life goals. Studies show that coaching strengthens people’s ability to cope with stress by helping them bolster their internal resources (Finkelstein, 2015).

• R for Human Relationships: Social well-being is often overlooked, even though it is a fundamental pillar of overall health. The CHERRY Method emphasizes the importance of cultivating healthy relationships through authentic and compassionate communication. According to Dr. Mark Mincolla in The Healing Power of Nature (2019), human relationships are a crucial vector for healing and well-being.

• Y for Yoga of Life: Finding harmony between the body and mind is essential to maintaining balance in everyday life. Integrating movement, meditation, and mindfulness into daily life helps maintain this equilibrium. Yoga of Life embraces this holistic approach, but for some clients, alternatives such as Yes to Life—which evokes optimism and commitment—or You, which emphasizes individualization, may resonate better.

The Cherry: A powerful and vibrant symbol 

The CHERRY Method ©️ did not come about by chance. The cherry 🍒, a symbol of vitality and depth, holds special meaning for me. With its bright red hue, it embodies life and energy, while its reassuring roundness and hidden core evoke inner richness, a precious resource to be explored. The cherry is a nutritious fruit with a low glycemic index, beneficial for the body. Even its stem, used in tea, has beneficial properties.

This fruit also has a convivial and joyful dimension: it reminds us to seize opportunities at the right moment while preparing for the next season. Cherries often come in pairs, just like the privileged relationship between coach and client, based on listening and individualized support. On a playful note, cherries hung on the ears remind us that lightness and joy are essential in the transformation process.

As a child, I spent long days perched in the cherry tree of my childhood. This deep, personal connection with cherries made this fruit an obvious symbol to build the CHERRY Method, an acronym that reflects my approach to health coaching, focused on vitality, balance, and personal growth.

Motivation, Rewards, and Habit Formation

To ensure that healthy habits don’t feel tedious, it’s crucial to tap into motivation and immediate rewards. Rather than imposing unattainable goals, here are some principles to make habit formation more engaging and motivating:

Start small and accessible

Simple actions, like walking for 5 minutes instead of 30, make habits easier to integrate. These small victories build confidence and allow for the development of long-term habits.

Pair pleasure with action

Linking each habit to a source of immediate pleasure, like listening to music during physical activity or enjoying a relaxing tea after yoga, activates the brain’s reward circuit, encouraging repetition of the action.

Immediate rewards

It’s important to celebrate each milestone. Checking off a task on a list or enjoying a moment of relaxation after effort creates a positive feedback loop that encourages consistency.

Progress, not perfection

Rather than aiming for radical change, focusing on daily progress helps sustain motivation. Each small step counts and is a success in itself.

Visual or environmental triggers

Using visual reminders, like setting out running shoes the night before, helps make habits more automatic.

Intrinsic motivation

The key is to understand why you want to create this new habit. Whether it’s to improve your health, play with your kids, or better manage stress, motivation must come from what truly matters to you.

Gamification

Turning habit creation into a game, with personal challenges and levels to achieve, can make the experience more fun and engaging.

The Impact of a holistic approach 

The CHERRY Method ©️ is rooted in a holistic vision of health. It recognizes that physical health is intrinsically linked to emotional, mental, and social health, all while taking the environment into account. A holistic approach means that we don’t just treat isolated symptoms, but work to maintain a harmonious balance between all these dimensions.

As Dr. Finkelstein explains in The Slow Medicine Solution (2015), it is essential to slow down, take the time to examine every aspect of our lives, and truly understand what makes us healthy and happy. Health coaching, from this perspective, becomes a tool for deep transformation, where health becomes a daily construction rather than just a reaction to crises.

The CHERRY Method ©️ embodies this philosophy of transformation: it’s about building a solid foundation for sustainable health by integrating every aspect of our being into a coherent and aligned framework.

Conclusion

Sustainable Health for tomorrow with tangible results today

I invite you to reflect on health and consider health coaching as a catalyst for well-being and an activator of sustainable health. Health is not simply the absence of disease. It is a daily construction, an alchemy between our habits, emotions, and relationships. With the CHERRY Method, I offer to accompany you on this path to a more serene health, by strengthening the essential pillars of your well-being, in line with your rhythm and your needs.

Taking care of yourself also means seizing the opportunities that life offers, while remaining in harmony with your environment.

Together, we can build sustainable health, ready to face the challenges of today and tomorrow. Let’s connect!  

Further reading

Arloski, J. (2007). The Science and Practice of Health Coaching.

Finkelstein, M. (2015). The Slow Medicine Solution: Holistic Healthcare for a Healthier You.

Lipman, F. (2018). How to Be Well: The 6 Keys to a Happy and Healthy Life.

Mincolla, M. (2019). The Healing Power of Nature: The Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine and Other Natural Therapies.

Health Coaching as an Intervention in Healthcare. (2021). Journal of Nursing & Care.