With many health workers reporting feeling burned out and struggling with their mental health, two physicians in the University of Colorado Department of Medicine have set out to improve the culture of medicine through a unique approach — life coaching.
When Adrienne Mann, MD, and Tyra Fainstad, MD, launched the Better Together Physician Coaching program in 2020, they never predicted it would eventually become a national platform for physicians and trainees that has been proven to reduce burnout and help improve mental health.
Now, thanks to a new partnership with the CU Department of Medicine, all faculty and trainees in the department can participate in Better Together at no cost. The four-month program, which is fully digital and confidential, offers a variety of services, including one-on-one coaching sessions with a certified physician coach, group coaching sessions, individual webinars, worksheets, a private podcast, and more.
“For me, getting coaching really transformed my relationship with myself. It taught me, at a foundational level, about self-acceptance and compassion, and how a lack of that kept me back from reaching my goals,” says Mann, an associate professor of hospital medicine. “Now, it feels great to be a part of something that can have a transformational impact on someone else’s life.”
What is life coaching?
Life coaches are different from therapists or mentors, Mann explains, as they do not diagnose or treat mental conditions. Rather, coaches help people “think about their own thinking.”
“The coach’s job is to help the coachee define their goals and their path. We do this through an inquiry process that is similar to cognitive behavioral therapy,” Mann says.
Learning to become a life coach required Fainstad, an associate professor of general internal medicine, to unlearn how to be a doctor.
“As a doctor, I’m trying to fix, solve, heal, and teach others. I have the answer and the other person doesn’t. As a coach, the opposite is true: The other person has the answer, and I help them access it through non-judgmental curiosity,” Fainstad says. “It’s like being a talking mirror for someone, reflecting their thoughts back to them.”
Tyra Fainstad, MD, found value in life coaching, sparking her desire to help others as a coach herself. Image courtesy of Fainstad.
Mann and Fainstad lead a team of 40 certified coaches with Better Together. In addition to offering one-on-one sessions, the coaches host multiple group calls each week that are open to participants across the country. Most calls are limited to peers in similar career stages (medical students, residents/fellows, APPs, and attending physicians are coached only with each other), though there are also some calls that include all participants together. During these calls, some participants will ask for coaching through a certain issue while others observe the coaching and see what tools they can apply to their own lives. These calls are recorded and housed on a private podcast so participants can listen to peers get coached and apply it to themselves. Better Together also offers written coaching, where participants can submit questions and get feedback from a coach online.
The program provides additional educational materials, such as self-study video modules and worksheets, that participants can work through at their own pace.
“Faculty and trainees are busy, and their days are full, so no part of our program is required,” Mann says. “Our coaching intends to help people reclaim autonomy, find relatedness to their work and other people, and be reminded of their competence in their work. This helps combat the burnout, imposter phenomenon, and moral injury that we’ve seen push people out of their medical careers.”
For Hillary Dunlevy, MD, an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, one of her biggest takeaways from the Better Together program was learning how to question her own thinking.
“We all have these neural pathways that are well worn in our minds, and trying to redirect it to a new way can be a struggle — but a coach might help you find a new way of thinking,” Dunlevy says. “Realizing you have more agency than you might originally think is really powerful. This program can really help change the way you think about yourself and your circumstances.”
From skeptics to believers
Fainstad was the biggest skeptic of life coaching when she first heard of it. But she decided to give it a try when her friend, who was working to become a certified coach, asked Fainstad to participate in a free session in exchange for feedback.
“At first, I was so critical of it and thought there was no evidence behind it,” Fainstad says. “But more in my life changed in that one conversation than it had in the 10 years before. I was floored with the tools she gave me. They were immediately applicable.”
Adrienne Mann, MD, was unsure how valuable life coaching would be, but it ultimately helped her understand herself more deeply. Image courtesy of Tyra Fainstad.
Coaching was equally transformative for Mann, who decided to join a group coaching program after hearing positive reviews from several people about its impact.
“I did it because I was desperate and not in a good relationship with myself at the time,” Mann says, explaining she was struggling with postpartum depression. “I think I speak for both Tyra and I when I say that when we gained these skills, we wondered: Why didn’t we learn this sooner? It made me want to get certified so I can share this information with others.”
Fainstad adds: “I fell back in love with my job, I fell back in love with motherhood, and honestly, I fell back in love with being myself. I learned tangible skills and was grateful, but I was also mad that nobody taught me how to do these things in medical school.”
From local to national
Fainstad and Mann turned their thoughts into action by applying — separately — for grants to start a life coaching program. Then, a mutual friend recommended the two connect, saying that it sounded like they were working on similar projects.
“That’s when I found out that Adrienne had written a grant to create a program that was basically identical to mine. We were parallel writing these grants in 2019 and had both gotten certified as life coaches at the same school,” Fainstad says. “We had coffee and were like — we should do this together.”
Better Together initially began as a pilot program for women in the CU Internal Medicine Residency Program, launching in 2020.
“The need and the desire for Better Together exploded at the exact time that we were building it. I think the pandemic unveiled the deficiencies that physicians have harbored for a long time — and that is a deep need for perfectionism, an addiction to approval, and a sense of worth in one’s job,” Fainstad says.
Research showed that after participants finished the coaching program, their emotional exhaustion decreased, imposter syndrome was reduced, and self-compassion increased. Since then, Better Together has grown into a national program that serves medical students, residents, fellows, doctors, physicians, advanced practice providers, and other health workers at more than 60 institutions across the country.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve built,” Mann says. “There has been substantial investment from the Department of Medicine so that a local project has led to a transformative national reputation and impact.”
Adrienne Mann, MD, and Tyra Fainstad, MD, laughing together. Image courtesy of Fainstad.
What participants have to say
If it wasn’t for Better Together, Cara Saxon, MD, would not have thought it would be possible for her to become a mother and a cardiologist at the same time. Now, with a 2-year-old son and working as a cardiology fellow, she’s discovered a new level of self-confidence and self-compassion thanks to her coaching experience.
“I feel lucky that I found this program when I did. Before, I thought I had to choose one or the other during training — becoming a mom or a cardiologist. My coaches helped me ask myself, ‘Why do I think I can’t be good at both?’” says Saxon, who participated in Better Together’s pilot program for women residents.
Left image: Cara Saxon, MD, smiles while holding her son. Right image: Saxon, who is a cardiology fellow, smiles alongside cardiologist Joseph Burke, MD. Images courtesy of Saxon.
The program has proven valuable not only for trainees, but also for faculty members like Chris Geiger, MD, an assistant professor in the Division of Medical Oncology, who started the coaching program in the fall of 2023 to learn how to better manage and maximize his time when faced with a busy professional and personal life.
“It was nice to have someone offer different ways to view a situation. For instance, I was initially so focused on becoming super efficient. But Tyra then said, ‘If you become so efficient, people are going to ask you to do more. What if your current level of efficiency is right for you?’” Geiger says. “It was a good point — but it wasn’t an opinion she would force on you, and that’s what I liked.”
Left image: Braidie Campbell, MD, is a fellow in the University of Colorado Department of Medicine. Right image: Campbell smiles alongside Cara Saxon, MD, as they each hold their son. Photos courtesy of Campbell.
Braidie Campbell, MD, a fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, was part of the initial pilot program for women residents. Even years later, the lessons she learned still apply to her life today.
“I moved through a really dark, burned-out time in my professional career with the help of this program,” she says. “It provided me with the tools to understand how I process things and helped me develop a more grounded and reliable approach to decision making.”
“It’s clear that Tyra and Adrienne’s legacy is incredibly powerful and is trickling down to younger generations,” she adds. “There are a lot of skills they’ve empowered us with that are hopefully going to help create a more resilient workforce in the future.”
