World Mental Health Day: Why Coaches Must Care for Their Own Well-Being (as Well as Their Clients’) | The Launchpad

“There is no health without mental health.” — World Health Organization

As coaches, we spend our days listening, guiding, and helping others untangle their challenges. But in holding space for others, it’s easy to forget about our own needs. World Mental Health Day, observed annually on October 10th, is a powerful reminder that caring for ourselves is not separate from our work—it’s part of it.

Established in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health, World Mental Health Day was created to raise global awareness of mental health issues, reduce stigma, and promote access to support for everyone (WHO, 2023). Today, it’s marked in more than 150 countries, with public campaigns, community events, and workplace initiatives encouraging open conversations about mental well-being.

Each year, the day focuses on a specific theme. In 2025, the spotlight is on “Access to Services – Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies.” While this may sound distant for many in the world of coaching, emergencies come in many forms. Grief, burnout, health struggles, financial stress, or major life transitions—these are crises that coaches face too. And when we support others while navigating our own inner upheaval, access to care and support becomes essential—not optional.

This year, World Mental Health Day invites us to pause and ask: Am I giving myself the same compassion and care I offer my clients?

What Mental Health Really Means for Coaches

We often think of mental health as simply “not feeling bad.” But positive psychology—particularly the work of Martin Seligman—reminds us there’s more to it than that. It’s not just about what’s missing (like stress or illness), but about what’s present: purpose, joy, connection, and resilience. In other words, just because we’re not struggling doesn’t mean we’re thriving. (You can read more about Seligman’s work here.)

According to the Mental Health Foundation, good mental health allows us to cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute meaningfully to our communities.

For coaches, good mental health isn’t just an abstract idea—it’s what allows us to function well as professionals and navigate life as human beings.

As coaches, mental health supports our ability to:

• Be present enough to sit deeply with a client’s story
• Stay resilient after emotionally demanding sessions
• Tap into creativity when clients feel stuck or overwhelmed
• Show up with authenticity, modelling balance and healthy boundaries

As human beings, mental health helps us:

• Cope with personal challenges like grief, parenting, health, or financial stress
• Pause and reflect, rather than react from urgency or burnout
• Set healthy boundaries (here are 3 practical ways to set these boundaries around your time) and ask for help when needed
• Stay connected to purpose, joy, and meaningful relationships

When we neglect our mental well-being, we risk becoming reactive—driven by pressure instead of intention. But when we care for it, we strengthen our capacity to lead, support, and live with greater ease and alignment.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.”— Audre Lorde

Why This Day Matters to Our Profession

World Mental Health Day isn’t just a general reminder—it’s especially relevant to us as coaches. We work in a profession that, while deeply rewarding, asks us to hold space for others, often without revealing what we’re holding ourselves.

Coaching requires emotional presence, compassion, and energetic attunement—over and over again. And yet, it’s easy to put our clients’ needs ahead of our own, sometimes believing that doing so is part of being “good” at our job.

But the truth is this: when we neglect our own mental health, it eventually shows up in our work. Sessions may feel heavier. Creativity may feel harder to access. Empathy can give way to emotional fatigue.

By contrast, when we tend to our own well-being, we build a stronger foundation for the work we love.

When we prioritise our mental health:

• We bring sharper presence to every client conversation
• We maintain the energy and passion to coach sustainably
• We model self-awareness and resilience—qualities our clients are striving to develop

In other words, caring for ourselves isn’t a side note to our practice.
It’s our professional responsibility.

A Simple Reflection Practice for Coaches

You don’t need another checklist or journal template. Instead, here’s a gentle weekly practice to help you stay connected to your own inner landscape.

It’s called the Coaching Self-Check-In—a short reflection to help you notice what’s really going on beneath the surface.

Ask Yourself :

1. Energy: How is my energy right now? Am I depleted, steady, or recharged?
2. Boundaries: Am I keeping healthy boundaries between work, clients, and personal life?
3. Support: Who or what is supporting me—and where might I need more help?

You can write your answers down at the end of each week, or simply pause and reflect. The goal isn’t to analyse, but to notice.

Sometimes your answers will reveal a small tweak—like adding buffer time between sessions. You might also explore these relax, reflect, and re-energise strategies. Other times, they may point to deeper needs: support from supervision, therapy, or time off.

Tuning in regularly helps us catch the signals before they become symptoms.
It’s not indulgence. It’s intelligent, intentional care.

Supporting Clients’ Mental Well-Being

For our clients, mental health is the presence of inner resources that help them navigate life with clarity, strength, and perspective. It includes resilience, emotional awareness, self-connection, and a sense of purpose.
Helping our clients to thrive is exactly why we got into coaching.

To support this, it”s helpful to understand when these inner resources matter most.
There are two key moments:

• In the moment, during a challenge or emotional upheaval—when we must respond, reset, or recover
• And before anything happens—when we build the baseline strength, awareness, and habits that shape how we respond when life inevitably gets hard

If our internal baseline is low, even small stressors can feel overwhelming. But when we’re grounded in clarity and care, we’re better equipped to navigate the ups and downs—not just as coaches, but as humans.

Coaching supports this in powerful, practical ways. In your sessions, you can:

• Begin with an emotional check-in — “How are you, really?”
• Notice patterns of reactivity, stress, or depletion and gently reflect them back. You can also learn from this case study on how to help a client bounce back from failure.
• Invite resilience-building practices—like journaling (here’s how you can use journaling as a powerful tool), movement, rest, or boundary-setting
• Make space for meaning, values, and self-connection—not just goals and action plans
• Help your client identify and build habits of thriving

Coaching doesn’t just help people “get things done”—it helps them stay connected to who they are while doing them.

And when we tend to our own well-being, we become even better at supporting theirs.

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman

Marking World Mental Health Day as a Coach

Tending to our well-being isn’t just about one day—but World Mental Health Day offers a powerful moment to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what sustains us.

Whether you take quiet time for yourself or bring this awareness into your coaching, even small gestures matter. They remind us—and our clients—that mental health is part of the conversation, and part of the work.

This October 10th, you might choose to:

• Block out time for your own reflection, rest, or renewal
• Share a personal post or insight on LinkedIn about why mental health matters in coaching
• Offer a special session or group conversation focused on resilience, balance, or self-care
• Connect with a peer coach and commit to supporting each other’s well-being
• Curate a resource or article (like from the Mental Health Foundation or WHO) to share with your clients or community

Small acts ripple outward.
They strengthen you, your coaching practice, and the wider professional community we’re all part of.

Wrap-up

Mental health isn’t a destination—it’s a dynamic part of how we live, work, and relate. As coaches, our ability to serve others is intimately connected to how we care for ourselves. This World Mental Health Day, take a moment to check in with yourself. Honour what you need. Recommit to practices that nourish you.

Because when your well-being is tended to, you show up with greater presence, clarity, and compassion—and your clients feel the difference. For more structured support, explore the Balance & Self-Care Toolkit.

“Self-care is giving the world the best of you, instead of what’s left of you.” — Katie Reed

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Contributing Author:

Dr Steve Jeffs is a Master Certified Coach (MCC), business and organisational psychologist, and leadership transformation expert with over 20 years of global experience. Before becoming a full-time coach, Steve led large-scale leadership assessment and development programs, organisational change initiatives, and cultural transformation projects across the Middle East, working with government bodies, multinationals, and high-growth businesses. His early career as a registered psychologist and management consultant continues to shape his pragmatic, systems-oriented approach to coaching and leadership.

Today, Steve serves as Director of Coaching at The Coaching Tools Company, where he brings together his expertise in psychology, strategy, and personal development to create practical, impactful tools for coaches and leaders alike. He is also the Co-Founder of The Guiding Matrix, a company dedicated to helping coaches grow sustainable businesses while expanding their leadership capacity.

With over 5,000 coaching hours, Steve has worked with executives and teams in more than 20 countries, including in the UK, UAE, KSA, USA, Egypt, South Africa, and the Philippines. His coaching clients include leaders from organisations such as HSBC, Siemens, Roche Diagnostics, STC, Etisalat, Sanofi, and Dubai Holding. As one of the first MCCs in the Middle East, Steve has also trained and mentored over 1,000 coaches globally and continues to supervise coaches through their credentialing journeys.

Steve is a multi-award-winning coach, recognised globally for his work on leadership and innovation—including honours from the World Innovation Congress and CHRO Asia. He is co-author of Stuck No More: Practical Self-Coaching for Everyday Problems and Shift Up: Strength Strategies for Optimal Living, and is the creator of multiple strengths-based assessments and coaching tools, including the StrengthsMultiplier™. With a Doctorate in Leadership and a Master’s in Organisational Psychology, Steve blends deep psychological insight with practical coaching to help individuals, teams, and organisations thrive.

Originally from Australia, Steve now lives in the UK having worked in the UAE for over a decade, bringing both global perspective and deep regional understanding to his work. When not coaching or creating tools, you’ll likely find him exploring deep caves or shipwrecks—he’s a certified technical diver and cave explorer who brings the same spirit of curiosity and courage to his coaching and leadership work.

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