Holistic coaching isn’t defined by a single certification, method, or niche.
It shows up in how coaches listen, adapt, and support the full reality of the people they work with.
Across the Everfit community, coaches serve different populations, from wellness and recovery to performance, strength, running, and fat loss. But when we asked them to reflect on their year, their answers revealed a shared foundation:
Lasting progress comes from coaching the whole person.
In Part 1 of our End-of-Year Coach Spotlight 2025 series, we’re featuring five coaches whose insights show what holistic coaching looks like in practice, not as a buzzword, but as a lived philosophy shaped by real experiences in 2025 and clear intentions for 2026.
Coaching the Whole Person, With Alignment
Riane Anjuanew Payne
Business: Anjuanewellness LLC
Niche: Holistic Wellness Coaching (Fitness, Wellness & Nutrition)
Instagram | Everfit Marketplace Listing
Riane defines her coaching through intentional integration. For her, coaching the whole person, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, isn’t optional. It’s the foundation for any growth that lasts.
Athletes and fellow coaches often describe her impact as bringing a “Whole Person Lens.” Winning, she believes, isn’t just about tactics. It’s about emotional regulation. Purpose. Energy. Resilience. It’s about making sure someone’s deepest “why” is strong enough to carry them through their hardest days.
In her view, progress fueled only by tactics eventually breaks down. Progress fueled by alignment builds resilience.
In 2025, Riane’s reflections centered on what truly holds up during stress and uncertainty. Habits like morning journaling, affirmations, and mindset work remained consistent because they reinforced internal control, even when external circumstances were unpredictable. Staying active also took on a new meaning: movement didn’t always look like a structured workout, but rather small, intentional choices that accumulated over time.
She also observed a powerful shift in her clients.
“When they stopped comparing themselves to others and focused on personal growth, they began to feel more like themselves again. Fitness became an act of self-love rather than self-judgment.”
Looking to 2026, Riane’s focus is on protecting the whole picture, helping clients maintain consistency across lifestyle habits without narrowing success down to a single behavior or metric.
Holistic Health Requires Equal Attention
Joshua Alston
Business: Divergence Fitness
Niche: Physiology, Nutrition, Therapy & Recovery Coach
Instagram | Everfit Marketplace Listing
Joshua’s coaching is rooted in service and adaptability. He believes every aspect of health deserves equal effort and that physical progress cannot be separated from mental well-being.
One of the most significant changes he observed in 2025 was clients learning to manage stress and prioritize their mental health before attempting to optimize physical outcomes. Mental health check-ins became an important practice, not because other strategies failed, but because they gave people a rare space to express concerns, frustrations, and emotions honestly.
Once clients began respecting stress signals instead of pushing through them, their quality of life improved. With that shift came greater focus, clarity, and the ability to pursue evolving goals more effectively.
Joshua also emphasized adaptability as a defining strength. Client goals change, just as bodies change. His role is to meet those changes with flexibility, ensuring progress continues rather than stalls.
Looking to 2026, Joshua hopes more people prioritize stretching and mobility for overall health, and reconsider rigid beliefs around eating timing, reinforcing that recovery and fueling must be personalized, not standardized.
Progress Without Burnout
Celeste Harrington
Head Coach at Best in Health
Niche: Strength, Nutrition & Mindset Coaching
Instagram | Website | Everfit Marketplace Listing
Celeste defines her coaching by seeing the whole person, not just workouts or goals. She shows up with compassion, clarity, and structure, helping clients build confidence and consistency that fits real life, even on stressful days.
One of her most meaningful coaching wins in 2025 came from a client who transformed not by doing more workouts, but by eating enough. Trusting the process, especially during hormonal challenges and poor sleep, led to improved energy, stronger training sessions, and renewed confidence.
Celeste also highlighted that much of coaching happens beyond programming. Supporting clients through stress, mindset shifts, and daily realities helps them feel stronger not only in the gym but in their everyday lives.
“I want them to feel proud of what their bodies can do, confident in how they take up space, and at peace with fueling and training in a way that supports their life, not controls it.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Celeste plans to emphasize recovery, including sleep, rest days, and deloads, while helping clients let go of restrictive beliefs around food and body image and feel proud of what their bodies can do.
Recovery as a Foundation for Performance
Matthew Hebert
Business: Phase One Performance
Niche: Running, Recovery & Performance Coach, Massage Therapist
Instagram | Website | Everfit Marketplace Listing
Matthew’s coaching philosophy is simple and direct: “I believe in you.”
That belief shapes how he supports clients navigating performance goals, injuries, and setbacks.
In 2025, Matthew worked with multiple runners preparing for different distances, many of whom exceeded their goal times. He also shared his own experience training for three races, completing the full training volume despite not being able to race due to injury and extreme conditions.
What stood out most in his reflections was the importance of sleep and recovery. While massage therapy plays a role in his work, Matthew emphasized that quality sleep and nutrition tracking had the most significant impact on recovery, particularly during periods of high training volume.
He also shared examples of helping athletes return from injury through gradual exposure, strength work, and patience. A recreational soccer player returned to running and competition after more than a season away due to chronic pain from a hamstring tear. After rebuilding capacity through calm, gradual exposure with seconds of running at first, then more, until 30-minute runs felt possible again.
He also guided a former roller derby athlete with long-standing hip and knee pain back into movement by rebuilding strength and confidence, eventually returning to sports like basketball and trail running. In both cases, pain didn’t disappear overnight, but it stopped being the thing that controlled their lives.
As he looks to 2026, Matthew hopes runners plan further ahead and respect training timelines, allowing recovery and stress management to support long-term performance.
Confidence Built Through Consistency
Leanne Dilnot
Business: Leanne Fitness Coach
Niche: Fat Loss & Confidence Coach for Women
Instagram | Website | Everfit Marketplace Listing
Leanne approaches coaching as a partnership. She simplifies fitness and nutrition while building a supportive environment where accountability and compassion coexist.
In 2025, she observed confidence changes that came before physical outcomes. Clients booked trips, returned to activities they’d avoided, and felt more comfortable in their bodies — often before measurable weight changes occurred.
Accountability through regular check-ins played a major role in helping clients stay consistent, especially during busy and high-pressure seasons. Leanne also focused on helping women unlearn myths around spot fat loss and replace them with realistic, sustainable systems.
Looking to 2026, her goal is to help more women build confidence through small, daily wins, reinforcing that fat loss is a byproduct of consistent habits and self-compassion, not extreme restriction.
One Philosophy, Many Expressions
These coaches represent just a small snapshot of the diverse Everfit community. They work across different niches, support different goals, and bring their own lived experiences into their coaching, yet in this first chapter, their reflections revealed a shared foundation: meaningful progress is built by coaching the whole person.
Holistic coaching isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about understanding what matters most for each individual, and supporting mindset, recovery, nourishment, adaptability, and consistency in ways that fit real life.
✨ MORE IS COMING: Over the next few weeks, the Coach Spotlight series will continue with new themes, new perspectives, and new stories, highlighting the many ways coaches across Everfit are shaping progress, in and beyond the gym. Stay tuned.
