Coaching is demanding work. You’re holding space for transformation, maintaining presence through difficult conversations, and managing the emotional weight that comes with supporting others through change. Many coaches believe that a good night’s sleep and the weekend are enough to recharge — but that’s only one type of rest.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician and researcher, identifies seven distinct types of rest that humans need to function optimally. For coaches, understanding these different categories is essential for preventing burnout and maintaining the depth of presence your clients deserve.
In this article, we are going to explore each of the seven types of rest for coaches, why they matter specifically in our profession, and practical strategies to incorporate them into your coaching practice and life.
Why Coaches Need Different Types of Rest
As a coach, you’re emotionally attuned, mentally engaged, creatively problem-solving, and often spiritually connected to the transformational process. Traditional rest — sleep and downtime — only addresses physical fatigue.
The other six types of rest target the specific ways coaching depletes your energy reserves. Recognise any of these scenarios?
- Feeling drained after back-to-back sessions, even when sitting down
- Struggling to be fully present with later clients in your day
- Finding it difficult to “switch off” from client issues
- Losing enthusiasm for coaching despite loving the work
- Feeling overwhelmed by the emotional intensity of sessions
This is your cue that you need more than physical rest.
The 7 Types of Rest Every Coach Needs
1. Physical Rest
What it is: Restorative activities that help your body recover from physical exertion and maintain optimal functioning.
Why coaches need it: Even though coaching appears sedentary, your body experiences stress responses during intense sessions. Holding presence creates subtle physical tension, and irregular schedules can disrupt natural rhythms.
How to get physical rest as a coach:
- Passive physical rest: Sleep 7-9 hours consistently, take brief naps between client blocks
- Active physical rest: Gentle yoga between sessions, walking meetings when appropriate, stretching during breaks
- Schedule buffer time between sessions to decompress physically
- Use ergonomic furniture that supports good posture during long coaching days
2. Mental Rest
What it is: Giving your cognitive processing system a break from active thinking, problem-solving, and information processing.
Why coaches need it: Coaching requires intense mental focus. You’re tracking multiple conversational threads, noticing patterns, and making moment-to-moment decisions about interventions. Mental fatigue accumulates quickly.
How to get mental rest as a coach:
- Take genuine breaks between sessions — resist the urge to catch up on admin
- Practice brief mindfulness exercises to quiet mental chatter
- Limit coaching-related content consumption outside work hours
- Use transition rituals to mentally close one session before opening to the next
- Schedule “no-decision” time in your calendar
3. Emotional Rest
What it is: Freedom from having to manage, regulate, or attune to others’ emotions while processing your own emotional responses.
Why coaches need it: Coaching involves constant emotional attunement and regulation. You’re sensing client emotions, managing your own responses, and often absorbing some of their emotional energy. This creates significant emotional labour.
How to get emotional rest as a coach:
- Build in solo time between emotionally intensive sessions
- Practice emotional boundary techniques (visualising protective barriers, energy cleansing rituals)
- Seek professional supervision or therapy for your own emotional processing
- Limit exposure to emotionally charged content outside work
- Engage in activities that require no emotional management — solo gardening, reading fiction, gentle exercise
4. Sensory Rest
What it is: Reducing stimulation from lights, sounds, screens, and other sensory input that can overwhelm your nervous system.
Why coaches need it: Video calls, constant notifications, bright screens, and background noise create cumulative sensory overload. Many coaches work from home offices that lack proper sensory boundaries.
How to get sensory rest as a coach:
- Create a designated quiet space for breaks between sessions
- Use noise-cancelling headphones during rest periods
- Dim lights or work in natural light when possible
- Take regular screen breaks — follow the 20-20-20 rule (Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break from your electronic device and look at an object 20 feet away).
- Spend time in nature without devices
- Consider sensory deprivation experiences (float tanks, meditation rooms)
5. Creative Rest
What it is: Engaging with beauty and inspiration without the pressure to produce or perform creatively.
Why coaches need it: Coaching requires creative problem-solving, innovative questioning, and fresh perspectives for each client. Creative energy gets depleted when you’re constantly generating new approaches and insights.
How to get creative rest as a coach:
- Visit art galleries, museums, or beautiful natural settings
- Read poetry, fiction, or non-coaching related books
- Listen to music without analysing or learning from it
- Engage in creative activities without outcome pressure (doodling, crafting, cooking)
- Take photography walks focused on beauty rather than content creation
- Redesign your coaching space to include inspiring elements
6. Social Rest
What it is: Spending time with people who energise rather than drain you, or choosing solitude when human interaction feels depleting.
Why coaches need it: Coaching is intensive social interaction. Even positive client relationships require energy output. You need relationships where you can receive rather than constantly give.
How to get social rest as a coach:
- Reviving social connections: Spend time with friends or family who support and energise you without needing anything from you
- Solitude: Schedule alone time without guilt, especially after heavy client days
- Limit social media consumption, which creates pseudo-social obligation
- Choose social activities that don’t require you to be “on” or facilitate others’ experiences
- Join communities where you can be a participant rather than a leader
7. Spiritual Rest
What it is: Connecting to something larger than yourself, finding meaning and purpose, and experiencing a sense of belonging and contribution.
Why coaches need it: Coaching work can feel spiritually nourishing, but it can also create spiritual fatigue when you’re constantly facilitating others’ meaning-making without tending to your own.
How to get spiritual rest as a coach:
- Engage in practices that connect you to your values and purpose (meditation, prayer, journaling)
- Spend time in nature contemplating your place in the larger ecosystem
- Participate in community activities where you contribute without leading
- Read philosophical or spiritual texts that inspire rather than instruct
- Practice gratitude and reflection on the meaning of your work
- Engage in service activities outside your professional role
Creating Your Personal Rest Strategy
The key here is to recognise which types of rest you need most. Not all coaches will need equal amounts of each type, and your needs may shift based on your client load, life circumstances, and natural rhythms.
Start by assessing your rest deficit:
- Review the seven types above and identify which resonates most strongly with your current experience
- Notice patterns in your energy levels throughout the day and week
- Pay attention to which types of activities truly restore you versus those that merely distract
Build rest into your coaching schedule:
- Block time between sessions for specific types of rest
- Design transition rituals that provide the type of rest you need most
- Schedule different types of rest throughout your week, not just at weekends
- Communicate boundaries to protect your rest time
Match rest type to depletion:
- After emotionally intensive sessions → Emotional or sensory rest
- Following creative problem-solving with clients → Creative rest
- Between back-to-back video calls → Sensory and mental rest
- At the end of client-heavy days → Social rest (solitude or energising company)
Making Rest Non-Negotiable
As coaches, we often struggle to prioritise our own rest. Our capacity to hold space, maintain presence, and facilitate transformation is directly linked to how well-rested we are across all seven dimensions. Rest isn’t a luxury for coaches, it’s a professional requirement.
Remember: you cannot give what you don’t have. When you’re operating from depletion in any of these areas, your clients receive less of your full capacity. That’s not serving anyone well.
Start with one or two types of rest that feel most urgent for you right now. Build them into your schedule as deliberately as you would any client session. Your future self — and your clients — will benefit from your commitment to comprehensive rest.
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Photo credit: Olesya Grichina on Unsplash
