Wellness coach, health coach, wellness coaching, health coaching – what in the world are they? No matter what wellness program related publication you happen to pick up there’s generally something to be found about these terms. This website is designed to help you better understand those terms and wellness programs in general. With the right information you’ll be able to find a program that’s just right for you, your company or organization.
Why Health and Wellness Coaching?
For most working Americans life can be super busy – to say the least. With all the responsibilities, obligations and priorities in life most people have little time to take care of themselves – even though their doctor might be telling that they need to lose weight, exercise more, eat better, etc.
We all know that we should take better care of ourselves, but how do we make the time to change? That’s where a wellness coach or health coach comes into play. These professionals are experts at helping us to make the changes we need to make.
A wellness coach or health coach is a person trained to help you get to a state or wellness and/or keep you there. Coaches are trained to help people change their lifestyle related behaviors that put us at risk for many bad health conditions. They understand the difficulties that people face when considering these types of changes and are able to offer viable solutions to help people make those difficult changes.
Among other things, coaches can help with getting you more active, eating better, reducing stress, smoking cessation and many, many other areas.
Unlike personal trainers, nutritionists and other professionals – good coaches tend to offer multiple ways of communicating with and helping people. Good coaches usually interact with people in-person, via telephone, email, instant messaging and video conferencing. Most good coaches work to be convenient, accommodating and flexible while being super effective.
Does a Wellness Coach Tell You What To Do?
No, a good coach provides people with the right information in a way that the person decides they want to make a change. This approach works far better than the typical medical model. Meaning, when you visit a doctor they tend to “tell” you that you need to change. Coaching, when done correctly is vastly different. By providing information and asking the right questions a good coach helps a person reach their own conclusion that they need to change. The person being coached then thinks it’s their idea to change. When that happens the success rate of any program is always higher.