Executive Medical Coaching
When health begins to affect how you live, work, and make decisions
A diagnosis, medical procedure, or prolonged recovery can change more than your health. Your capacity, concentration, decision-making, relationships, and confidence in your own ability to function may also shift.
At the same time, life goes on. There are people who rely on you, both at home and at work. And precisely when things are no longer as self-evident as they once were, you may be facing important decisions.
Executive Medical Coaching focuses on that intersection: between the medical reality you have entered and the personal and professional reality in which your life continues.
What medical coaching can offer you
Medical coaching helps you find a way of relating to the reality you now find yourself in. Not by treating the medical situation itself, but by exploring together what that situation means for you, your ability to function, and the life that continues around you.
It is about regaining perspective, understanding what is changing within you and around you, and from there being able to make choices that fit the reality of where you are now.
You may recognise questions such as:
What am I genuinely capable of handling right now?
After illness, treatment, or during recovery, it can be difficult to judge your capacity accurately. Your mind may already want to move forward, while your body is sending different signals. In coaching, we explore your current possibilities and limits, and how you can work with them in everyday life.
How do I deal with uncertainty about my recovery or future?
Not knowing how recovery will unfold or what a medical situation may mean for your future can create a great deal of unease. We explore how you can make room for that uncertainty without allowing it to constantly determine your thoughts and actions, and where you do still have influence.
How do I make important decisions when my capacity changes?
Decisions can become more complex when your energy, concentration, or confidence in your own ability to function changes. We look at what truly matters, which factors are involved, and what you need in order to make choices with greater calm and clarity.
What if there is more going on than just my health and my work?
A medical event can also affect other parts of your life. Relationships, family, loss, uncertainty, old concerns, or questions about how you want to move forward may suddenly require more attention and can no longer be pushed into the background. There is space for that in coaching too. We look at what is occupying your mind at that moment and what is affecting your recovery, your ability to function, and the way you want to move forward.
How do I reshape my work or leadership?
After a significant medical event, your previous way of working or leading may no longer feel as natural as it once did. That does not automatically mean being able to do less or carrying less responsibility. We explore what way of working and leading fits your current capacity, priorities, and the direction in which you want to move forward.
Not back to the way things were
Moving forward from where you are now
Recovery is often associated with returning to what was: being able to do what you used to do, working as you did before, becoming who you were.
But a major life event or personal crisis can also change something. In your body, your capacity, what matters to you, or the way you look at work and life.
What does your reality ask of you now?
From there, we explore what is needed to create greater calm, agency, and direction. Not by forcing what is not yet possible, but also not by making your possibilities smaller than they are.
The personal domain
Illness also affects the life behind your work
A medical event does not only affect how you function or the professional responsibilities you carry. A great deal can shift on a personal level too. In your relationship with your body, in the trust you had in it, and in the way you see yourself and your future.
Relationships and roles can change as well. With your partner, children, family, or friends. You may suddenly find yourself more dependent on others, while you are used to being the one who cares, carries responsibility, or makes decisions. Or you may want to protect the people around you while needing support yourself.
Sometimes, this brings deeper questions to the surface:
What truly matters to me? Do I still want to live and work the way I did before? What does this experience mean for the way I want to move forward?
There is space for this in medical coaching too. Not separate from recovery, work, and responsibility, but precisely because these areas are connected.
Wat aandacht kan vragen
Inner calm & self-regulation
Dealing with stress, uncertainty, fear, and overwhelm, and regaining a sense of inner calm and perspective.
Body & capacity
Recognising your body’s signals and rediscovering what you are able to do and what you need.
Loss & change
Making space for what has changed or been lost, and finding a way to relate to a reality you did not choose.
Relationships & your environment
Dealing with dependence, expectations, changing roles, and the people around you.
Choices & responsibility
Making decisions when not everything is clear, and reconsidering what you can and want to carry yourself.
Work, leadership & the future
Regaining confidence in your ability to function and reshaping your work, leadership, and future.
My perspective on recovery
A medical event rarely affects just one part of your life. Your body, emotions, thoughts, relationships, work, and sense of meaning can continually influence one another during illness and recovery. Recovery is therefore not simply about returning to how things were before. It is also about understanding what has changed, recognising what you need now, and finding a way to move forward from that reality. This interconnectedness forms the foundation of the Medical Existential Model, the professional framework from which I work. The model helps make visible what is happening, where disruption arises, and what needs attention in order to support recovery and help you find renewed direction, rhythm, and space.
What medical coaching is not
Medical coaching is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment. I do not make medical or psychological diagnoses, nor do I provide treatment for medical or psychiatric conditions.
Where specialist treatment is needed, that remains with the appropriately qualified professional.
My role lies elsewhere: I support you in dealing with what a changed medical reality and changes in your health mean for your daily functioning, your choices, your responsibilities, and the way you want to move forward. Medical treatment and Executive Medical Coaching can exist alongside one another, both during treatment and afterwards.
Medical treatment and Executive Medical Coaching can exist alongside one another, both during a course of treatment and afterwards.
Which type of coaching is right for you?
Some situations call for an intensive conversation focused on a specific question or decision. In other situations, support over a longer period may be more appropriate.
That is why Van Leuven Medical Coaching offers different forms of support, ranging from an intensive sparring session to coaching over several months.
You are very welcome to get in touch. Whether you have a specific question, want to explore your options, or are simply wondering whether this form of coaching is right for you, I would be happy to think it through with you. Together, we can explore what may be most helpful at this point, calmly and without obligation.
Would you like to meet first?
Not sure yet which type of coaching is right for you? In a no-obligation introductory conversation, we can discuss what is going on and whether my way of working is a good fit for your situation.
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