Wellness Coach – What Does He Do and How to Become One?

A wellness coach is someone who aims to help and empower others to make, meet and exceed personal physical and life goals. Wellness is a concept that refers to a positive approach to life. It is an active process of becoming more conscious and aware and making good choices.

Good choices can be made toward a healthier, happier and fulfilling day-by-day existence. A wellness coach can help you develop your life aspects such as physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

Who and What Is a Wellness Coach?

Certified Health and Wellness Coaches are specialists coming from different professional backgrounds who help and support individuals or groups of people in order to encourage the client to aim for his/her personal goals. These objectives can refer to health and wellness. These coaches must apply concise and clear knowledge and use their skills and abilities so that clients can find their inner strength as well as their available external resources for a powerful long-time change.

These professionals provide the necessary drive and offer guidance to their clients to improve their skills. These skills will further help them to successfully develop their careers, relationships, and lives. Health coaches help clients to:

• Discover and define their skills and dreams
• Refocus on their life goals and ideals
• Overcome challenges that stand in the way of those purposes
• Achieve the desired weight
• Eat better and quit bad habits
• Lower their daily level of stress

Every one of us has a vision of their ideal life. Perhaps you have always dreamed of being an artist, or a powerful lawyer, or maybe you wished to have a house full of children. However, life intervened and you got carried away into a daily routine.

A wellness coach will help you discover by yourself which are the best decisions to make and how to stick to them. Unlike a nutritionist or a physical therapist, he will not make specific diet and exercise suggestions.

How Can a Wellness Coach Help You?

• He/she can guide you on moving forward in your career.
• You can be taught how to discover and strengthen your inner skills and talents.
• He/she can help you make better decisions in life, such as a move or a promotion.
• A wellness coach can offer to teach you how to create a work-life balance.
• He/she can show you how to live healthier, eat better, be organized, and more.

How Can You Become a Wellness Coach?

Wellness is a relatively new concept and it is hard to find undergraduate programs in this specific domain. However, some schools offer a minor in wellness coaching. Taking this class, you will learn psychology and nutrition, fitness, and even complete an internship.

• Earn a degree. Studying this field, you can learn different techniques and gain skills in areas such as social work, health science, behavioral science, communication, and more.
• Start gaining experience. After you have finished your course, you can start gaining experience working one-on-one in small groups and being building a reputation. Also, this way, you will build a client base. Having a mentor will sure help you improving your coaching skills and learn how to grow your business fast.
• Become certified. Some people prefer working with certified wellness coaches. That is because they appear more trustworthy in the eyes of their clients. There is a popular training program endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine. If you choose this course, you will undergo an 18-week training program to earn a certification. Wellness coaches are required to renew their certification every three years.

The Benefits of Wellness Concept

Wellness coaching focuses on your entire life aspects, from your career to your personal life. A wellness coach can impact you on many different levels such as physically, emotionally, and more. You can even change your habits and achieve a better behavior, a more positive thinking, and a happier life.

This area of coaching brings together several disciplines such as nutrition, physical training, yoga, meditation, positive thinking, spirituality, and more. Therefore, it is a complex method of coaching. A wellness coach helps you develop a vision for a healthy lifestyle.

The wellness industry is on a growing trend because more and more people seek help and need guidance in the way they manage their lives. These days, many adults are either depressed or obese, or both. The biggest problem is that we do not know what to do in order to get better.

Firstly, there is a lack of knowledge among sick or unhappy adults. There is a desperate need of finding the right solutions to our problems and needs. Secondly, there is a lack of understanding the wellness concept’s factors. Many times, there is a deeper cause to a surface problem. For example, an overweight person could gain even more weight because of an untreated depression and lack of self-esteem.

Below, you can find a list of the main benefits of wellness coaching:

• Energy and vitality. From good nutrition comes a lot of long-lasting energy.
• Fitness. Having an exercise routine can help you improve your body and get in shape, as well as become stronger.
• Reduced stress. You will learn how to lower your stress level and better overcome challenges.
• Self-esteem. Your confidence level will increase. You will feel better, look better, act happier. All these changes are due to the fact that you know you can set your mind into doing anything you want.
• Weight management. You can pass the dieting process and start having a healthy lifestyle. This means to give up on short-term drastic diets. Instead, you can organize your life in order for you to eat regularly, and make better choices when it comes to food.
• Positive attitude. Through wellness coaching, you can learn to always be grateful, even for the smallest things, and express your gratitude.
• Financial skills. You can even learn how to take control over your finances, how to save money, and how to spend wiser.
• Quit your addictions. Applying the lessons from wellness coaching can help you quit smoking, drinking, and other bad habits.
• You can also learn different techniques on how to recharge your batteries. There are even some breathing exercises that you can apply every morning, as a daily ritual.
• A sense of meaning and purpose. Discover the purpose of your life and start living meaningfully. Do not waste time, energy, and other resources on things that are not beneficial for you.
• Healthy relationships. Through wellness coaching, you can learn how to create and maintain positive relationships with those you care about.
• Peace, awareness, Zen mood. Regular meditation can help you become more aware of the things surrounding you. You can also create a state if peace and calmness for yourself. The key is to listen to your body and apply the lessons that a wellness coach teaches you.

How to Get in Touch with A Wellness Coach and Get Started?

Everything begins with an initial consultation. Depending on the wellness coach that you are talking to, this consultation can be done in person, online or over the phone.

First, you will provide all necessary information such as background details about yourself. All you have to do is simply answer the coach’s questions. You will also need medical information in order for the coach to offer you the best possible solutions that are suited to your needs.

You will, further, discuss policy and procedure and how the sessions will be conducted. Now is when you can ask about pricing and the frequency of the sessions. Usually, a wellness session can cost between 50 dollars and 150 dollars. The duration can be up to a minimum of a three-month period. However, how often you will hold the session is decided between both you and your coach.

Goal setting is the main objective. So, be opened to suggestions and commit to the work you are doing with your wellness coach. An important part of the process is to be willing to do your homework and be prepared for each session.

A wellness coach is helpful in many different ways. You can learn about your body, food, stress management, etc. Maybe the most useful thing is that you will learn about positive psychology.

Why Should You Consider Working with A Wellness Coach?

According to many people, you should look for the following qualities in a wellness coach, when you decide to work with him/her:

• Accountability. A good coach holds you accountable for your goals. Also, he/she does that in a kindly but firmly way. Coaches should care about your progress and success and they should take care of every measure to help you go through every stage of the process. Even if they sometimes are more demanding, it is only because they want you to accomplish your goals.
• Customization. There is no such thing as a standard “recipe” for living a healthier and happier life. Every individual is unique and he or she has his/her own specific needs, both emotionally and physically. A good coach can combine a standard strategy with your goals, preferences, needs, and can personalize that specific strategy. He or she will have to design a program that works just for you.
• Inspiration. We all have bad days when we have a lack of motivation and determination. A great wellness coach can rescue us from those days and offer us encouragement, effective strategies, and techniques to overcome those obstacles. This way you can make sure that you will stay the course of the coaching process.
• A coach gives you practical advice. Furthermore, he or she teaches you easy principles that will give you the power to embrace any situation while keeping your confidence and clarity at high levels.
• Good coaches keep things realistic. They are aware of the fact that you are a busy person, living among many distractions that can get you off the right path. They should work within your budget and means of life in order to create an affordable, easily accessible food and nutrient plan. This way you can still achieve your goals, without having money problems.
• Troubleshooting. Everyone that has been on a diet knows that there are moments at a certain time of the diet in which you stop losing weight, even though you are doing everything correctly. This is where a good wellness coach steps in. Their job is to fix problems, finding the right solutions to best fit your body and needs. You may have a metabolic block. Either way, they have to discover the cause of the problem and find the best remedy to eliminate that issue.
• Being a good friend. A coach must be a good listener and have great communication skills. He or she must ask the right questions and not only speak in order to make suggestions. This is important especially in those cases in which you do not have someone close to supporting you at every step of the way. Your coach can be that much-needed confidante who really listens to you and provides encouraging advice.

A Few Things You Should Know About Working as A Coach

• In order to work as a coach and develop a wellness business, you do not have to be registered as a dietician. This can be applied in the case in which you want to help and encourage other people with non-serious health issues. You can even collaborate with a registered dietician.
• You have to work with every individual in a different way. If you have a stubborn client who does not want to make the necessary changes in his or her life, try to compromise. Meet him/her halfway. For example, if one of your clients is eating too much, do not cut many calories at once from his diet. Try to apply a step-by-step strategy. This method has a higher rate of success.
• It helps a lot to have communication skills. You need to be a people’s person if you want to become a good coach. Being a wellness coach means more than just to meet the client. It is also about sales. If you want to increase your clients’ database, you must go out and find them. Reach out to those potential prospects, who are interested in what you do.
• Be prepared because you will not be able to change every life. Your enthusiasm is not enough in order for someone to change. Some clients can be difficult to convince. Either way, you can still teach them something new every session.

To sum up, a wellness coach is very helpful nowadays, when we need someone specialized to guide us through life’s hardest decisions. Being a coach can be very fulfilling and can impact many lives. The only thing to do if you want to work with a coach is to be opened to suggestions. On the other hand, if you want to become a coach you must develop strong communicating skills.

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