What is Health and Wellness Coaching?

Health and Wellness Coaching is a powerful growth-promoting process and methodology that helps people to achieve a higher level of well-being and performance in life and work, especially when is difficult to change.

It emerges mental, physical, and a wellbeing aspect that supports a long-lasting change and results in sustained personal growth and life satisfaction.

Coaching is a self-discovery and a growth process of discovering the best of self.

Coaching encourages the client for personal awareness, responsibility, accountability, reflective thinking, self-discovery, and self-efficiency. This facilitates a process that increases a client’s capacity to grow, improve, and move towards self-determined and desired goals. It’s a forward-moving and future-forward process. Coaching is the process of bringing out the greatness of people.

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What Does a Health and Wellness Coach Do?

Using various techniques such as positive positive psychology, emotional intelligence, motivational interviewing, mindfulness, neuroscience, and many other, the coach facilitates the mindset and behavior change that results in sustained health and lifestyle changes and personal growth. Having a client-centered focus, the Health and Wellness Coach guides and supports the clients in developing resilience and a long-term behavior change that promotes good health and well-being.

By the National Consortium for Credentialing of Health and Wellness Coaches (NCCHWC) (1) “the Health and Wellness Coaches work with individuals and groups in a client-centered process to facilitate and empower the client to develop and achieve self-determined goals related to health and wellness. Coaches support clients in mobilizing internal strengths and external resources, and in developing self-management strategies for making sustainable, healthy lifestyle, behavior changes.”

As partners and facilitators, health and wellness coaches support their clients in achieving health goals and behavioral change based on their clients’ own goals and consistent with treatment plans as prescribed by individual clients’ professional health care providers.

Coaches assist clients to use their insight, personal strengths and resources, goal setting, action steps, and accountability toward healthy lifestyle change.”

The Health and Wellness coach can work in personal one-to-one settings or in a group.

How Health and Wellness Coaching can help?

Health and Wellness Coach can also work alongside with the health professions, supporting clients to make sustainable health behaviour change that match their own values and personal strength.

Some areas where Health and Wellness coach can provide support are:

Some outcomes that coaching can assist include the following:

Supports the development of new behaviors, mindsets, growth, and performance;
Supports sustained healthy and balanced lifestyle;
Assist improvement in strength, fitness, and vitality;
Facilitates person to build self-determination which supports control of their own life, and self-efficacy – the belief that one has the capability to initiate and sustain the desired behavior;
Assist in discovering own strengths in a new and creative way;
Supports the growth of physiological resources needed for change such as mindfulness, self-awareness, positivity, hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience.
Supports discovery of own potential to be creative, resourceful, resilient, and able to gain control, and optimize health, well-being, and performance in life.
Increased self-satisfaction;
Becoming the best in life;
Increase motivation and self-regulation;
Achieving personal and professional goals;
Developing a sense of purpose and meaning;
Increase self-awareness, confidence, and self-knowledge;
Increased personal responsibilities;
Acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

80% of clinical trials for nutrition and weight management coaching found improvement.

(American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine)

When do people seek support from the professional Health and Wellness Coach?

Some examples of when usually clients seek health and wellness coaching are the following:

Some clients are in their contemplation phase and find that some quick-fix programs do not provide the desired results and are looking for sustained and long-term results. They also might feel ambivalent about change, fear, and resistance and seek support to overcome obstacles and move forward.
“I can’t” is the word that people often tell themselves when they are about to start making a change, or they just started but are giving up soon, and they seek the coach for the support to help them overcome obstacles.
Desire to take control of their lives, including health, and seek support from the coach to strengthen their mindset.
More and more people recognise that succeeding at work or having successful relationships means that the whole area of life needs to be assessed and attended to. They seek a coach for their support to help them to strengthen their resources, build resilience, manage better stress and life challenges.
Some people are unsure why they can’t move forward or where to start first and seek support from the health and wellness coach to gain clarity and create a plan to move forward.
Some people reach the point in life where they realise that taking charge of their health and well-being is the only way to stay alive and get better and seek support from the coach to make them more accountable, focused, and motivated.
With so much information about wellness, some people find it challenging to identify where to start a changing process and seek professional coachers for support.
Some people seek a coach to support them through the changing process while moving from where they are currently in their lives and where they want to be and building and adopting new positive habits.

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Science behind Health and Wellness Coaching and Health Care

Lifestyle Medicine is a relatively new health care approach. The latest research identified that integration of health care and wellness coaching supports the positive lifestyle behavior change for the prevention and treatment of chronic disorders, managing lifestyle-related disease (1), and increases the chance of patients implementing and maintaining health behavior change (2) (3).

In recent years, Health and Wellness Coaching (HWC) is emerging as a practice in health care, corporate and employee wellness, and various community settings.

There is a growing need for the client-cantered (patient-cantered) shift in the healthcare industry. With chronic conditions rising, prevention and management of chronic health conditions is an area of growing demand.

Recent studies (4) shows that coaching is effective for people managing a variety of health conditions and show relevant improvements. It also helped improve health-related quality of life and reduced hospital admissions in patients with COPD (5) and breast cancer (6).

Professional Recognition

For best results, it is recommended to choose a certified Health and Wellness Coach to ensure they have a certain level of training and experience.

One of the most popular and well-respected training programs globally are the National Board Certification with NBHWC (U.S) and Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association (HCANZA).

At Health and Wellness Coaching, coaching practice is based on the comprehensive training program run by Wellness Coaching Australia (where Vesna was trained) and is also accredited by NBHWC, HCANZA and ICF/CCE. This program received accreditation by some of the leading health, fitness and wellness bodies in Australia such as International Institute for Complementary Therapists, Fitness Australia, Exercise & Sport Science Australia, Physical Activity Australia, Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS), Massage and Myotherapy Australia, Holistic Healers and Councillors and Complementary Medicine Association.

The coaching at Health and Wellness Coaching includes training in behaviour changes, using multiple modalities applied in psychology and health disciplines. Some of them are: coaching psychology, positive physiology, motivational interviewing, emotional intelligence, social cognition theory, self-determination, appreciative inquiry, mindfulness and neuroscience, flow theory, cognitive behaviour theory, non-violent communication, etc.

What are outcomes of the coaching?

Some outcomes that coaching can support include the following:

Increase energy, motivation, and self-regulation;
Supports sustained healthy and balanced lifestyle;
Initiating internal resources, stress-management and self-regulation techniques;
Initiating internal resources, stress-management and self-regulation techniques;
Increased positivity, self-determination, self-satisfaction and self-efficacy;
Initiate and sustain the desired behaviour;
Becoming the best in life;
Achieving personal and professional goals;
Developing sense of purpose and meaning;
Increase self-awareness, confidence and self-knowledge;
Increased personal responsibilities and self-care;
Acquisition of new knowledge and skills
Assist improvement in weight, strength, fitness, and vitality;
Assist in discovering own strengths in a new and creative way;
Supports the growth of physiological resources needed for change, such as mindfulness, self-awareness, positivity, hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience.
Supports discovery of own potential to be creative, resourceful and resilient and gain control, optimise health, well-being and performance in life.
Create work-life balance

How wellness coaching works?

The process of wellness coaching progresses through several steps:

Step 1: During the initial coaching session, the Health and Wellness coach gets to know more about the client and assesses their current wellness status, identifying areas of improvement and challenges. The coach works with the client to clarify the vision, identify present obstacles, and create a plan and reasonable behavior goals.

Step 2: Most people work for several months with the coach, slowly building new positive habits and inner strengths by working on one or more areas in their lives. A client is expected to complete actions between follow-up coaching sessions.

For the best results, it is recommended for the client to commit to a min 3 months. If the client commits to a change and puts in an effort, it would give enough time to see some progress.

Step 3: After a few weeks client starts to notice results and a level of motivation.

Step 4: As the changing process continues, the client usually notices old or new challenges. Client and client work hard to find a solution and overcome all obstacles.

Step 5: At the end of the coaching cycle, usually three months, the coach and client review progress, celebrate success and recognize areas of improvement and commit to the next stage.

What Health and Wellness Coaches DO?	What Health and Wellness coaches DO NOT do?
Listen, empathize, and allow the client to lead, create, and change.	Replace the need for medical professionals.
Trust that client can find a solution and has the ability to succeed.	Diagnose syndromes or illnesses.
Let the client define what is optimum wellness.	Coach on sports, nutritional or diet programs unless qualified.
Assist the client in discovering new insights, perspectives and internal strengths and resources to become self-sufficient, autonomous, confident and competent.	Act as therapists, physiotherapists or counselors to their clients unless qualified.
Help clients create strategies, plans and reasonable goals that lead them to success.	Give a ‘prescription for health’ or nutraceutical supplements.
Encourage the client to take responsibilities, build self-efficacy, and motivate to overcome obstacles.	Provide advice or tell clients what steps are necessary.
Assist client to grow the mindset and build new behaviours and resilience to overcome obstacles and improve performance.	Share personal wellness practices.
Facilitates clients to build self-determination, which supports control of their own life, and self-efficacy - the belief that one can change.	Control or judge the client for their beliefs, values or lifestyle.
Provide expert advice only in the nationally recognised area and inform clients about the credentials and expertise scope.	Take responsibility for client’s results.
Refer to other health practitioners or an expert for specific consultations when required.	Do the work for the client.

Coaching and other modalities

Profession	About
Coach	Coaching is a process where a coach works with a client to identify current problematic behaviour and to create goals to achieve desired results. During this process, a client is focused on the present moment to move forward in the desired direction. The goal of coaching is to encourage personal responsibility, reflective thinking, self-discovery and self-efficacy. It is a partnership between the coach and the client that empowers the client. A coach is a collaborative and co-creative partner helping clients to reach their vision and goals. Coaches don’t make it easy for the client giving all the answers; instead, they facilitate the client’s own self-discovery and momentum to move forward. Using various techniques, coaches engage, arouse, energise and challenge clients to do the work needed to change. The coach trusts the client to find the answer to the behaviour change. It assists and guides the client to be self-aware, identify behaviour patterns, learn, and chose by themselves what future behaviour wants to adopt. The coach leaves the client in control of their choices. The client is more active during the process than a coach.
Consultant	Consultant is a professional specialist who provides advice and services in an area of specialization. It identifies the problem and provides the solution.
Therapist	Therapy (i.e., counselling or psychotherapy) is a long-term process where the client works with the health care professional to identify/diagnose and resolve/heal problematic behaviour or challenges by focusing on past traumas and issues.
Expert	Expert is a subject matter expert, identifies and focuses on the problem, and provides advice of the future behaviour change. The expert is more active through the process than the client. The expert approach is valuable in case of a critical vital health crisis.
Trainer	A person who teaches skills to people, set objectives and programs. It also evaluates trainee performance and programs.