A physician, whom I will call Dr. Hannah, initially sought coaching from me to address burnout and optimize clinical documentation in the electronic medical record. One of the major challenges that surfaced in her first coaching session was that she did not know who she was outside of work. She also wanted to bring more joy, fulfillment, and meaning into her life. Dr. Hannah’s schedule was so intense that she found herself shutting down outside of work in order to survive; she wasn’t able to get out of bed, and lacked energy to give to herself and her loved ones.

During our coaching sessions, she made a goal to read the Bible daily in her personal time, a practice she arrived upon herself. In our final session after working together for a few months, she confided in me that for her whole life she had wanted to read the Bible every day, but hadn’t made the time, given her situation with work. Now, since coaching, she had been consistently reading from the Bible daily. To my surprise, she shared that this practice filled her with a joy and fulfillment she never knew was possible in the deep state of burnout and powerlessness she had been in when we started six months earlier. Now she was wondering, “What more can I do? What is my potential? It has to be so much more if I’m able to achieve this.” She felt like she wanted to thrive, no longer just survive. For her, that meant finding ways to contribute to society, in her personal and family circles, as well as at work. It was something she had never previously imagined having the energy to do.

The more I reflected on Dr. Hannah’s breakthrough, the more I realized that spirituality can be a powerful remedy to burnout. Burnout is traditionally described and experienced as a decoupling from a sense of purpose, while spirituality reconnects us with our sense of purpose. Once we re-establish this connection to self and sense of purpose at the root, our other actions tend to reflect the alignment from within in response.

I only arrived upon this insight after establishing a deep spiritual grounding myself, one that infuses both my personal outlook, and also my coaching.

When I graduated from a four-year emergency medicine residency, I was at one of the lowest points of my life. I felt like I had nothing left to give. I felt like a pill pusher, and that although medicines and technology kept changing, all I did was address symptoms which never got to the root causes of disease. On my graduation day, I prayed to God to learn something that would not only suit me in this life but in the next life. I determined that for the next 10 years I would spend time learning about eternal truths and spirituality, asking, “What is the purpose of this life?”

Moving toward such deep seeking was a huge transformation. I was drawn to learning more about yoga and my own religion, Sikhism, for healing and to continue my spiritual practice. Around the same time, I discovered coaching from being exposed to a powerful, effective group coaching program through my physician wellness fellowship.

Coaching felt more natural to me to pursue professionally because it was secular, nondenominational, and based on universal human truths and wisdom. In coaching, we approach each person as wise, resourceful, and whole, and having the answers within themselves to optimize their own potential.

But my personal faith infuses all aspects of my life. I continue to pray for my coachees and have deepened my spiritual practice greatly over the past several years, grounded in Vedic truths in Hinduism and Sikhism. I don’t discuss any of this with the people I coach, however (with the rare exception, as coaching is centered on the coachee and coaches only share their experiences when relevant, after asking permission to share). However, I’ve noticed that using this powerful spiritual lens and holding this space allows coachees to open up with me about their own spirituality, regardless of their religion, without any prompting or initiation. I’m able to hold space for them at a deeper level of energetics: without question, without judgment, without interpretation, and without analysis. This is something that happens with people from all walks of life, of all ethnicities and races, over and over and over again.

Spirituality is often not something coachees are able to bring up in other situations and relationships in their lives, especially in their work. However, that universal element of spirituality still exists for them. What is our reason for being? What is our larger purpose in life? Naturally, this evolves to exploration of what brings each of us contentment, fulfillment, and joy. As coaches, we have the power to help people find answers to these eternal and universal human questions.

Maintaining a deep respect for and awareness of our spirituality, whatever form it takes, then, can be key for coaches to understand. As defined by Ruth Murray, EdD, MSN, RN, and Judith Zenter, NP, spirituality is “a quality that goes beyond religious affiliation, that strives for inspiration, reverence, awe, meaning and purpose, even in those who do not believe in God. The spiritual dimension tries to be in harmony with the universe, strives for answers about the infinite, and comes essentially into focus in times of emotional stress, physical (and mental) illness, loss, bereavement and death.”

For coaches who practice spirituality and energetics, written or spoken, the impact cannot be measured by conventional methods. This experience with Dr. Hannah was a deep and humbling reminder that when you hold space for yourself, and set intentions for others, whether or not you speak your prayers to them, whether or not you share the same religion, this spiritual practice of holding space can have a profound effect.

This one coaching interaction with Dr. Hannah was one of the most rewarding of my life so far. Coaching is innately spiritual. By embracing this essential truth, we are able to facilitate life-changing transformations without having any expectations, judgments, or attachments to outcomes. Simply by being present, by radiating that space and consciousness within ourselves, we can transmit that benefit to the people we serve.

4 powerful coaching questions for physicians

• What is your sense of purpose in life?
• What purpose does medicine have in your life?
• Which identities do you have that are most important to you?
• How do you define success in life?

Jessica Singh is a physician coach.