By DARLENE MARSHALL
Most people know what they “should” do to foster a life of wellness. Eat a balanced diet and avoid processed foods, get regular movement, prioritize sleep, reduce stress, and cultivate a positive outlook on life that includes purpose, meaning, and connection with others. Yet, this seemingly simple checklist and the resulting satisfaction with life and well-being allude many.
Wellness coaches have a unique opportunity to support their clients in building lasting and meaningful lifestyle change and personal transformation towards well-being.
WHAT IS A WELLNESS COACH?
The overlapping terms fitness, wellness, and well-being are often confused within the fitness industry and the public. Wellness can be defined as “an individual’s personal journey toward the mental, physical, social, and emotional betterment of life.”
Translation: it’s not only someone’s healthy behaviours or habits, but the process of making ongoing choices which in turn make that person’s life better, healthier, more connected, and emotionally satisfying.
A wellness coach’s job is to support an individual in the process of making those choices; not only telling someone what to do but helping that person examine their relationship with the choices themselves. That coaching role is unique among health, fitness, and wellness professionals.
When a trainer or group fitness instructor works with a client or student the process relies on their expertise. In the case of personal training, it means designing a program towards the client’s specific goals and guiding them to ensure they execute that program. A group fitness instructor designs classes that inspire, inform and motivate their students to move well and often. In coaching the focus isn’t on the instructor’s leadership or the trainer’s program but on guiding a client’s internal process.
In the case of wellness, the coach creates a safe environment for a client to examine not only their habits but also their relationship to the domains of their lifestyle that affect their wellness.
These include established fitness domains such as nutrition, sleep, movement, and recovery practices as well as emotional health, stress management, psychological recovery, mindset, and more. Wellness coaches help clients to establish subjective and objective goals related to their wellness and then explore the obstacles and areas of challenge on the pathway to those goals.
Wellness coaching is unique in the fitness and wellness space because the client isn’t told what to do but given information and empowered to examine their choices and make their own decisions on how to move forward.
WHAT CAN A WELLNESS COACH DO?
Coaches typically meet with their clients for either one-on-one or small group sessions. During their sessions, they support clients with a variety of tools to examine not only their behaviour but their mental and emotional reactions to that behaviour.
Together coach and client create action plans, brainstorm solutions, and troubleshoot potential obstacles to the clients’ long-term success. Though the coach is supportive and provides information the onus is on the client to decide what works for them.
Coaches are not therapists and therefore do not diagnose or treat mental or physical disease or dysfunction. However, sub-clinical challenges are likely to come up.
Certified coaches are trained in how to support the client through examining their emotional or behavioural challenges and can teach clients related mental and emotional skills. These problem-solving skills don’t only help the client to reach their current goals but are ongoing tools that propel clients forward long after the current session.
These skills might include in-the-moment reframing of internal dialogue and self-talk, how to break down goals, examine and understand emotional reactions to behaviour, dealing with shame, focusing on strength, or finding motivation when feeling stuck.
WHY WELLNESS COACHES ARE IMPORTANT
Change can be hard. According to the Boston Medical Center, an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year and Americans spend $33 million annually on diet products yet nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Similarly, the CDC reports that in 2015 68% of smokers said they wanted to quit and in 2018 55% of smokers attempted to quit but only 7.5% were successful.
The CDC also reports that only 1 in 4 American adults gets the recommended amount of physical activity and 31 million Americans over 50 are sedentary, costing $117 billion annually in elevated health care costs. People often know what to do, but struggle with how to fit healthful behaviours into their lives in lasting and positive ways.
Over the last few decades research has evolved techniques for how to positively support change. Coaching allows for a neutral party in one’s life to provide evidence-based information, reflect on current behaviour, and brainstorm possible solutions.
They do so with unconditional positive regard, the judgment-free position of supporting their client to make lasting changes that work for them. Wellness coaches are trained not only in coaching but have information on lifestyle practices related to wellness. This is a unique combination of physiological understanding with psychological tools that support the betterment of one’s life.
This unique combination of tools also allows a coach to support the client in priming compounding positive change.
Leveraging phenomena such as the transfer effect, where a positive change in one area of life creates positive change in another, or upward spirals, where the emotional boost from meaningful changes creates the opportunity for more difficult changes to occur. By understanding how these mechanisms work and how to spark a wellness coach supports their client not only in the immediate future but in building lasting changes which create the opportunity for a transformative lifestyle change.
HOW MUCH DO WELLNESS COACHES MAKE?
According to Salary.com, the median income for a Health and Wellness Coach is $61,000 with the typical salary range falling between $53,000 and $68,000.
Those new to the practice will likely make less while they establish their business, and those with specialized expertise and long-term practices may charge a higher hourly rate or form other streams of related income.
HOW TO BECOME A WELLNESS COACH
Wellness coaching is unregulated, but ethical practitioners will want to seek certification to build a strong skillset and help their clients. Certification ensures that the support and recommendations given to clients not only create meaningful changes but also do not create potential harm.
Those interested in coaching may want to consider the NASM Certified Wellness Coach program. NASM’s Certified Wellness Coaching program provides science-based knowledge in movement, nutrition, mental and emotional well-being, recovery and regeneration, and coaching strategies so you can help your clients achieve long-term positive behaviour change.