I took 16 Personal Coaching Sessions. Here's what happened.

In the Healthy Gamer Coaching Program, we often hear about how clients start to turn their life around and build the life they want to live. Today, I sat down with one of our clients and discussed their experiences, what problem they came into Healthy Gamer Coaching to solve, and what the outcome was.

Note: All identifying information in this blog post has been anonymized to maintain the client’s privacy.

How was your experience in HG Personal Coaching?

“I’ve been trying to work on myself for over 10 years, and I spent over a year in other coaching programs, but my mental health issues were just getting worse. I had also been to psychiatrists and been in counseling, but it didn’t seem to be working for me at all”, the client said.

“I joined the HG Coaching Program in January 2021 and since then, I have been able to feel a lot more confident about myself. My coach and I managed to dive in a lot deeper than I had been able to on my own and in other environments.”

“Having someone ask me the right questions and allowing me to think about my thought patterns allowed me to see my problems in a new light. The Healthy Gamer Coaching Program made me feel like I have a friend who actually wants to listen. It helped me set better goals and validated my feelings.”

This is what we see across the board in all our clients. People ask, “How can talking to a person for an hour every week change my life?” This is how. Healthy Gamer Coaches are trained to be a mirror for their clients, to reflect their issues back at them. It is through this reflection that clients gain clarity into their issues and are able to see their thought processes from a different perspective.

"I joined the HG Coaching Program in January 2021 and since then, I have been able to feel a lot more confident about myself. My coach and I managed to dive in a lot deeper than I had been able to on my own and in other environments."

Reflection, validation, and meeting the client where they are at are the core principles of Healthy Gamer Coaching. Gaining awareness and understanding your issues is what allows you to overcome them. Many of our clients know what they have to do, but struggle to follow through on their plans. Coaches help you overcome this by asking the right questions, and digging into the roots of your troubles. Coaching is about empowering the client to come to their own solutions, make their own decisions, and supporting them through the process.

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“My particular blend of mental health issues makes it very hard for me to trust people.”, the client added. “Traditional mental health institutions had me constantly switch therapists which made my trust issues worse.  It was very hard for me to open up to people. However, Healthy Gamer Coaching finally gave me the time and attention that allowed me to open up with my Coach. I finally felt like I was being heard. It’s been fun to dive deeper into my problems.”

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Diving into deep-set mental health issues does not have to be JUST painful. Many clients find that exploring their own minds and figuring out how they work is one of the most transformative experiences of their lives. It is painful, yet fun at the same time.

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When did you know Personal Coaching was working for you?

“The first 4 sessions were mostly us getting to know each other better”, the client explained. “It takes a while for me to trust someone and open up. While my coach helped me work through particular situations, I was not ready to completely open up yet. I had to work through that fear with my Coach before I could open up to them.”

“However, within the first twelve sessions, I knew this was going to work for me. My Coach is very empathetic and is actually interested in what I say. They ask me deeper questions to get me to look at myself and think in a different way.”

“Not only that, but they were also validating a lot of my feelings when it came to the struggles that I am currently going through. I feel like I overcame a lot of trust issues within the first twelve sessions.”

“However, even in the first 6 sessions. I started to feel a lot better. I felt like someone was actually on my side”, the client added. “To have someone who finally sees me as a human being is very beautiful. I feel very loved in the situation, even though the person is just my Coach. It is nice to know that a human being sees me for who I am. I’m about to cry, but it is very beautiful.”

“I will see my coach today and I’m very excited! I missed our last session because I went to a concert last week, which I haven’t done for ages because I was afraid to leave my house.”

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What’s the difference between what happens on stream vs. what happens in Personal Coaching?

“The interviews on the Healthy Gamer YouTube and Twitch are great because they show a person’s authentic side. Dr. K and the guest get to talk about deeper subjects and it is a great educational format that reaches a lot of people.”

“The difference between Healthy Gamer Coaching and livestreamed interviews is that while you may resonate with the person on your screen, that does not mean their situation is exactly the same as yours. It could be a very similar situation and you could be very similar people. It can help you, but it won’t be the same kind of individual attention that a Personal Healthy Gamer Coach can give you.”

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That statement resonates with our understanding of what helps people grow. People come to the stream, ask Dr. K questions, and usually walk away feeling satisfied. However, we don’t know if they are able to overcome their problems. A one-hour conversation on stream is not a quick fix for your issues, and watching conversations with someone else can only be so helpful. At the end of the day, individualized attention is what people need, which is why we started the Healthy Gamer Coaching Program.

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“If you want to dive deeper and want to understand why you act the way you do, and you think you may have similar behaviors as someone else, then I would highly suggest getting Healthy Gamer Coaching”, the client added enthusiastically.

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Where do you think Coaching fits into the general mental health problem in the world? Is it an appropriate solution?

“I have been in therapy off and on for over 10 years. There was a period in between which was particularly difficult for me because I was having suicidal thoughts. I was in and out of psychiatric units in this period. A lot of it had to do with the constant barrage of triggers that were making the trauma I experienced as a child worse. I didn’t know how to navigate that situation.”

“I came from a low-income household, so the system would keep switching me around to different therapists, and I would have to tell my story over and over again. That further broke down the communication between me and my therapist, because, at this point, I was not able to trust anyone.”

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This is exactly the reason we started the Healthy Gamer Coaching Program. Dr. K and Kruti, co-founders of Healthy Gamer, realized that the mental health system is broken. 55% of psychiatrists are over the age of 55. Most of them do not understand the effects of video games, social media, and growing up on the internet. In the US, one session with a psychiatrist can cost anywhere from $300 to $500. 

That is why we established the Healthy Gamer Coaching Program. We saw that there is a need for subclinical, mental health solutions, and they were not coming from traditional mental health institutions.

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“A lot of people want their feelings and their experiences validated”, the client went on to say. “Many people just want someone to ask them questions and hear their stories. The act of listening is such an important skill that Healthy Gamer Coaches provide.”

“I was paying another person over $100 a month, and I only saw them once a month. I was there for over a year, and not seeing any changes. Compared to that, Paying four times more every month for four sessions instead of one is absolutely worth it, given how it has helped me improve the quality of my life.”

“Healthy Gamer Coaching is like having a best friend beside you who says: We got this together buddy, we can do this!. That is invaluable to our community.”

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In this video, Dr. K talks about why mental health in the world is getting worse.

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Do you think your Coach was appropriately qualified to help you?

“I know that my Healthy Gamer Coach went through a certification program developed by Dr. K. They have been spot on in terms of doing what a coach should be doing. I think my coach is qualified because I have experienced the result of their training. I think Dr. K is doing great work.”

“If a person is really empathetic and wants to help other people, they can be given training to effectively communicate with someone who wants to work on themselves”, the client added. “If they have these qualities, they are more than qualified compared to the average person. They aren’t mental health professionals, but they are still helpful.”