What is a Health and Wellness Coach?
- Mar 20
- 3 min read
Lets Work Together on Better Health!
In this day and age, staying healthy and/or attaining health are not easy tasks! We have become "The Most Medicated Nation on the Planet", and yet, "The US consistently ranks last or near last in healthcare system performance compared to other high-income countries, despite spending the most on healthcare, with poor outcomes in life expectancy and avoidable deaths." Six out of every ten Americans have at least one chronic disease. Four out of ten have more than one chronic illness. It is not difficult to see that our present system is failing us. Americans are in need of options that can empower them to take back control of their own health. Many people consider Health and Wellness Coaching to be exactly what Americans need! (Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing US Health System)
What is Health and Wellness Coaching?
"Health coaching is the use of evidence-based skillful conversation, clinical interventions, and strategies to actively and safely engage client/patients in healthy behavioral change. Health coaches are certified or credentialed to safely guide clients and patients who may have chronic conditions or those at moderate to high risk for chronic conditions."(1)
Wellness coaching is based on psychological principles that are known to promote healthy, sustainable behavioral change. Wellness coaches work alongside their clients to help them identify their own values, strengths, barriers, and goals and transform their goals into action.
Is My Health and Wellness Coach Just Practicing Medicine?
Wellness coaching is not the practice of medicine, even though the coaching topics likely include a client's health-related goals and concerns. Unlike a traditional medical provider like a doctor or therapist, a health coach partners with the client in a reciprocal relationship and does not act as an expert determining the recommended course of action on a client's behalf. Health-coaching in "client-centered", driven by the changes which are important to each individual.
What Kind of Qualities Make a Good Wellness Coach?
In order to effectively promote behavioral change, a health coach must first build trust and rapport with the client. It is often helpful to determine if that kind of rapport could exist if the client is first involved in a wellness group before beginning individual coaching sessions.
Strong communication skills are also essential in a coach. Some of the communication strategies used in coaching, such as motivational interviewing, are known to improve the clients' awareness of problems and potential goals and to improve the likelihood that they will meet their goals and make sustainable behavioral changes. These goals can include physical, emotional, social, and spiritual possibilities. Again, this process is collaborative and should be an equal partnership between client and coach!
Trustworthiness, credibility, active listening, and skillful conversation are essential qualities in a health coach as well. At this time, health-coaching is not highly regulated. This means that a lawyer who has a passion for wellness could essentially work as a health coach! Some health coaches may be more trustworthy and credible than your lawyer, however! Some health coaches have completed health coaching programs, which train them in the psychology of behavioral change, or even been accredited through a national board. They may or may not have specific experience in areas such as exercise or nutrition. Other wellness coaches establish credibility because of their previous or current professional experience as a dietician, nurse, physical therapist, or athletic trainer, etc.
A Little about the Warriors for Wellness Coach
The health coach at Warriors for Wellness offers credibility because of her professional and educational history and credentials. Terri has a Masters Degree in physical therapy and worked 31 years in that field before retiring in 2024. The last 8 years of her physical therapy career were spent in coaching veterans in the holistic management of chronic pain. Terri has also completed a comprehensive course on Functional Nutrition, which affords her additional knowledge related to the impact of nutrition on chronic disease, and has been certified as a Master Health and Wellness Coach by the American Sports and Fitness Association. And lastly, Terri has a Bachelors Degree in psychology and a solid understanding of the principles of behavioral change.
Good "health coaches don’t just encourage their clients; they train in psychology, behavior change theories, clinical strategies and evidence-based approaches to instill long-lasting, healthy habits!"(2)
The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.
Hippocrates, Father of Modern Medicine
1." Huffman, Melinda H. (12 May 2016). "Advancing the Practice of Health Coaching". Workplace Health & Safety. 64 (9): 400–403. doi:10.1177/2165079916645351. PMID 27174131.
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