Stay in medicine. On your terms.
When you're burned out, it can feel like the only choices are to keep grinding or to walk away. There is a third path. You can redesign how you practice without leaving the work you spent decades learning to do. I walked that path myself, as a coaching client before I ever became a coach. Now I work with physicians who want what I found.
Book a Free ConsultWhy I do this work
Most physician coaches are former physicians. They left clinical work for one reason or another, and coaching became their new career.
That isn't my story.
I'm a board-certified pediatric cardiologist. I see patients. I serve as a division director. I teach at the College of Medicine. I came close to walking away from all of it, and coaching is what kept me in. Not coaching as an escape — coaching as a set of skills that let me keep the work I love and build a life around it instead of being consumed by it.
I coach because the income is welcome and the work is meaningful. But I coach because I want other physicians to have what I found: the chance to keep your calling, your training, and your expertise — and to use them on terms that don't cost you everything else.
How the work happens
The work follows a four-stage framework I call Identify, Align, Develop, Sustain. It's the path I followed with my own coach, and it gives us a shared map for where we are and what comes next.
Identify
What's happening for you. What's draining you. What you want — which, for most physicians, looks different from what we've been told we should want.
Align
Bringing your work and your time into closer agreement with what matters most. This is where the boundary work happens — where you stop saying yes by default and start choosing with intention.
Develop
The skills no one taught you in residency: leadership, communication under pressure, navigating systems that weren't built with physicians in mind, recognizing your strengths so you can use them deliberately.
Sustain
What holds after coaching ends. The goal is for you to leave with a way of practicing — and living — that doesn't need me to maintain.
Two ways to work together
Both packages are virtual, fully one-on-one, and built around your personal coaching workspace — where your action plan, session recordings, summaries, and assignments live in one place, and where we stay in touch between sessions. Both are anchored in three assessments: DISC, Emotional Intelligence, and VIA Character Strengths. Both follow the Identify → Align → Develop → Sustain framework.
What changes is the depth and the time horizon.
The Focused Engagement
6 sessions over 3 months
Best for: A specific question or a specific purpose. You came in to evaluate a leadership offer, work through a difficult dynamic with your team, prepare for a conversation you've been avoiding, or get ahead of a performance concern before it becomes a performance plan.
Structure: One 90-minute onboarding, five 45-minute follow-ups.
Assessments: DISC, EIQ, VIA Character Strengths.
Between sessions: Workspace access, contact between sessions, laser coaching available for anything urgent.
Outcome: A focused shift around one defined goal.
The Career Engagement
12 sessions over 6 months
Best for: A larger question about where you are and where you want to go. You're not solving one problem — you're rebuilding the way you practice and the way you live.
Structure: One 60–90-minute onboarding, eleven 45-minute follow-ups.
Assessments: DISC, EIQ, VIA Character Strengths — revisited as you grow. Optional 360 Survey for peer feedback at the midpoint.
Between sessions: Workspace access, contact between sessions, laser coaching available for anything urgent.
Outcome: A roadmap and the skills to follow it.
Not sure which one fits? Book a free 30-minute call and we'll figure it out together.
Book a Free Consult
About Dr. Ben Reinking
I'm a board-certified pediatric cardiologist, Clinical Professor at the University of Iowa, and Division Director. I'm a former Fellowship Program Director, I see patients, and I teach at the College of Medicine. I'm DISC Certified, EIQ Certified, an ICF member, and a certified physician development coach.
A few years ago, I almost walked away. From the outside, everything looked right — career on track, family thriving, retirement plan in motion. Inside, I wanted to disappear. I was in before sunrise, leaving after sunset, living on hospital food, and using the only strategy I had ever been taught: work harder.
What changed wasn't a moment. It was a slow recognition that being stuck and miserable is hard, and that change is also hard, and that I got to choose which kind of hard I wanted. I chose change. I hired a coach. I expected a pep talk. What I got was a set of tools, a different lens, and eventually a redesigned career — one where I still see patients, still teach, still lead, and have the rest of my life back.
That's the work I do with my clients now.
Frequently asked questions
Is this therapy?
No. Coaching is a structured, confidential conversation focused on your goals and your direction. A coach doesn't diagnose, treat, or process trauma. A good therapist does work coaching can't, and a good coach does work therapy isn't designed for. Many physicians benefit from both at different points.
How are sessions delivered?
All sessions are virtual. Your workspace holds your action plan, recordings, summaries, and assignments, and is how we stay connected between calls.
What if something urgent comes up between sessions?
Both packages include laser coaching — shorter calls scheduled when you need a quick reset or a fast decision-making partner. You don't have to wait two weeks to talk something through.
What if I'm not sure which package I need?
Book a free 30-minute consult. We'll talk through what you're navigating, and I'll be honest about which option fits — or whether coaching is the right tool for you right now at all.
Do I have to be in crisis to work with you?
No. Some of my clients come in because something is on fire. Others come in because nothing is on fire and they want to design what comes next before something has to break. Coaching works in both directions.
Will coaching fix the healthcare system?
No. Coaching doesn't change the EMR, the staffing model, or the way medicine is paid for. What it does change is how you navigate inside of it — where your boundaries are, how you spend your energy, what you say yes to, and what you build alongside clinical work.
Can I use CME funds or professional development dollars to pay for this?
Coaching is not CME-certified, and intentionally so. CME accreditation requires a set curriculum, and a set curriculum is the opposite of what coaching is for — your work has to be built around you, not around a syllabus. Some professional societies allow you to claim coaching time as Category 2 CME; check with yours. I'm happy to provide a receipt for reimbursement through professional development funds where your institution allows it.
A note on the course and cohort: The self-paced Mastery and Wellness course and the Physician Career Architect cohort are in the process of being CME-certified. If formal CME credit matters to you, those are the right places to start.
Is this confidential? Who do you work for?
I work for you. Not your employer, not your department, not your institution. Nothing said in our sessions leaves our sessions. If we decide together that 360 feedback would be useful, the feedback comes back to you — not to anyone above you.
Not sure if coaching is the right starting point?
The Developing Doctor offers three ways to work on your career and well-being. Coaching is the deepest of the three, but it isn't always the right first step.
The foundation. The frameworks, the assessments, the language. If you want to understand the model before deciding whether you need a coach, start here.
A group program for physicians who want structure, community, and curriculum together. Best if you learn well in cohorts and want to do this work alongside peers.
Personalized. Confidential. Built around what you're navigating right now. Best when you need the work tailored to your situation rather than to a curriculum.
Many clients move through more than one. Some take the course first and come into coaching later. Some come into coaching first and use the course as a reference. There isn't a wrong order.
Book a Free Consult
Thirty minutes, no cost, no obligation. We'll talk about what you're navigating, and you'll leave with a clearer sense of whether coaching is what you need — and which package fits if it is.
Book a Free Consult