What is a health coach?
Health coaches are certified experts on human lifestyle behaviors, self-motivation, and overall health and wellness. A health coach empowers people to discover their own, unique WHY behind their reasons and desires for change. Health coaches support and guide their clients to be their own experts on themselves, including their mind, body and circumstances they live within. Health coaches help their clients identify their internal strengths, values, and goals through the use of science-backed strategies and techniques, such as motivational interviewing, positive psychology, and stages of change. Health coaches are trained to help clients connect the dots between their own personal health goals or a physician’s diagnosis and their real life.
What is a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach?
A NBC-HWC, National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach is a coach who has gone through rigorous testing on the coaching process, including a deeper dive into techniques, strategies and supportive protocols that may be used to help a client achieve their health goals.
What does a health coach do?
Coaches use powerful tools to help their clients transform their lives, such as open-ended questions, affirmations, empathy and silence to elicit the clients own internal motivation to make healthy lifestyle changes. Health coaches can help people recreate a growth mindset from a fixed mindset to overcome lingering obstacles, such as nutritional changes, stress management skills, bedtime routines, better relationship skills, becoming an active advocate with physicians, and creating more time for exercise and movement.
How does a health coach differ from a nutritionist?
The difference between a health coach and nutritionist is that a health coach focuses on goal-setting strategies and accountability and a nutritionist implements nutrition-based guidelines to address health issues. A nutritionist may develop a specific food plan to follow, such as low-sodium or low-fat, while a health coach will collaborate with the client on a bio-individual lifestyle plan to change how certain foods and lifestyle habits affect the client’s overall health. A functional medicine health coach addresses root causes of diseases and lifestyle habits, rather than symptoms, and looks at a client’s whole life, not just the nutrition component.
Why do I need a health coach?
TOP 5 REASONS TO HIRE A HEALTH COACH NOW:
Health coaches bridge the gap between a diagnosis from your physician and implementing healthier lifestyles changes to reverse disease, prevent disease and maintain a realistic healthy lifestyle.
Health coaches use science-backed strategies to help their clients find their own internal motivation to make lifestyle changes, such as motivational interviewing, positive psychology and stages of change.
Health coaches hold you accountable on a weekly basis through setting up SMART goals, which could be small weekly goals that are working towards achieving the client’s larger wellness vision.
Health coaches collaborate with you to develop a bio-individual plan and honor their client’s autonomy to make the final decisions surrounding all lifestyle changes.
Health coaches support their clients to become more confident about making lifestyle decisions, talking to their physicians about making changes and pushing through challenging tasks through using science-backed strategies and supportive educational information and data.
When do you need a health coach?
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to needing a health coach. People in all stages of life will reap the benefits by working with a health coach. Whether you are overweight, underweight, battling chronic inflammation, such as insulin resistance, migraines, cancer or autoimmune diseases, or training for a marathon or bodybuilding competition, a health coach can help you reach your wellness goals. Whether you are 8 years old or 78 years old, preparing for family planning or going through menopause, a health coach can help you create a healthier lifestyle.
How do you hire a health coach?
Hiring a health coach these days is easy. You can search for a health coach that specializes in a specific area of health, such as fertility, autoimmune diseases, stress management, weight gain and more. There is a vast range of fees, programs and options for length of time depending on the health coach. Most health coaches offer free phone consultations that help ascertain if you feel comfortable that coaches approach, style and personality.