Index:
Section 1—What is Health and Wellness Coaching?
Section 2—Education and Training for Health and Wellness Coaches
Section 3—Why National Certification is Essential
Section 4—How to Become a Certified Health and Wellness Coach
Section 5—Our Four Extraordinary Health and Wellness Coaching Master Classes
A health and wellness coach works with individuals, groups and/or organizations who want to invest in a vision to become healthier, in large part by making lifestyle changes that optimize health, wellness and wellbeing. The National Consortium for the Credentialing of Health and Wellness Coaches (NCCHWC) expressed it this way: “Health and Wellness Coaches partner with clients seeking self-directed, lasting changes, aligned with their values, which promote health and wellness and, thereby, enhance well-being. In the course of their work health and wellness coaches display unconditional positive regard for their clients and a belief in their capacity for change, and honoring that each client is an expert on his or her life, while ensuring that all interactions are respectful and non-judgmental.”
A growing demand for credentialed health and wellness coaches has resulted from many changes in society including but not limited to:
Health and wellness coaches have a variety of tools at their disposal. Recent developments have provided even more tools to enhance the impact of their coaching.
As a result, health and wellness coaching is not only an exciting and important field but is rapidly emerging as a thriving one with many opportunities to make a difference and to specialize.
Health and Wellness coaching requires a unique set of knowledge and skills that are not taught in traditional coach training programs. That includes a thorough understanding of evidence-based processes of lifestyle change as well as lifestyle, health, wellness, and positive psychology.
Health and wellness coach training and education has evolved over the past several years and our MentorCoach program has evolved with it. MentorCoach’s health and wellness training faculty continues to stay up-to-date with the national trends, consistently assures that our program meets national standards, and goes beyond that to have an active voice in the development of the field.
It is because of this unique set of knowledge and skills that health and wellness coaches around the world have felt that a credential from the International Coach Federation alone cannot identify who may be a competent health and wellness coach. So, a number of coaching leaders in this emerging field came together to create the National Consortium for the Credentialing of Health and Wellness Coaches (NCCHWC), which has now become the International Consortium for Health and Wellness Coaching (ICHWC). This international designation was initiated recently because of international interest in what was initially a national consortium and a national exam. The website is: ichwc.org.
Through Patricia Hinton Walker’s involvement as an Advisory Committee member, MentorCoach has been and continues to be closely involved with the ICHWC. She is currently engaged with the development of the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice and has also served as an item-writer for the national certification examination. Pat is a member of the MentorCoach faculty and teaches two of our Health and Wellness master classes.
We need professional standards in health and wellness coaching for several reasons. One is the focus of the coaching; anyone involved with our health must be verifiably competent. We must protect the public from inadequately trained coaches who may share erroneous information. We must also assure as best we can that coaching in this often sensitive area is respectful, compassionate and empowering to the client. When individuals, groups, or organizations seek coaches to assist them in improving health and wellness, there should be some indicator of a coach’s competence. Health and wellness coaches should be well-prepared to work with clients on major issues of health, activity/exercise, stress management, relationships, nutrition and diet, self-compassion/care, and assisting clients with self-management of chronic conditions.
Consequently, a group of health and wellness coaching leaders associated with the National Consortium for Credentialing of Health and Wellness Coaches conducted a ‘job-task analysis’ to clearly define health and wellness coaching and to set the standards for education and training in this important emerging field.
The ICHWC has established a pathway for practicing health and wellness coaches to earn the National Certification via a Transition Phase. To be eligible to participate in the Transition Phase, individuals must have completed a program from an organization that has been approved for this purpose by the ICHWC. Our Health and Wellness coaching program at MentorCoach is an Approved Transition Program. To learn about the development of the national credentialing exam, see the ICHWC press release. The first examination has been developed and will launch in September, 2017. The next national exam will be held in June of 2018.
As noted on the ICHWC website, individuals who have completed the MentorCoach Health and Wellness Certification will need to provide the following to earn the ICHWC National Certification:
There are three routes to become a Certified Health and Wellness Coach through MentorCoach.
(a) If You Are Already Certified:
If you have been designated a Certified MentorCoach (CMC) by MentorCoach® or if you are an ICF Certified Coach (ACC, PCC, or MCC), you have already demonstrated that you have coaching skills at or above the level of an ICF Certified Coach.
To become certified as a MentorCoach Health and Wellness Coach, you must:
(b) If You Are Not Certified–The MentorCoach Route:
You can also become a Certified Health and Wellness Coach by becoming a MentorCoach CMC (Certified MentorCoach). For this route, you need to:
Please note that upon receiving your CMC (Certified MentorCoach) and meeting the requirements above, you are immediately eligible to receive your Health and Wellness Certification and your ICF Certification as well.
(c) If You Are Not Certified–The External Certification Route:
If you are not certified as an ICF Certified Coach (ACC, PCC or MCC), you can also become a Certified Health and Wellness Coach by achieving the ICF Certification independently of MentorCoach. For this route, you need to:
We offer four extraordinary Health and Wellness Coaching Master Classes, totaling 52 hours of training. All four must be successfully completed to become a certified Health and Wellness coach through MentorCoach. The Four Health and Wellness Master Classes are shown below; please see them listed on our Master Classes page for time and date of next offering. For full class descriptions and teacher bios, click on the links there. Click anywhere in the list below to go to the Master Classes page for more information.
A basic description for each required course is given below, but you can learn more by looking up the actual course description. Just click on the course title in the chart above or on the Master Classes page.
The classes described below have no prerequisite, so you can begin with any of them and can even take two simultaneously. You can begin either in Spring or Fall with any of these classes. And you can theoretically complete all four in a single year.
Living and Coaching the Good Life: It’s All About You (12 hours) This class teaches you to learn and live the principles of wellness as you create and use your own personalized wellness plans. By extension, the lessons taught apply to your coaching clients. You will explore and deepen your understanding of your needs, values and goals through use of exercises in awareness, visioning and goal-setting. Together we will embrace the psychology of possibility as we delve into the necessity of fun, connectedness, meaning, and contribution. This class explores the integrative holistic models of wellness coaching, definitions and wellness principles designed for lasting lifestyle change. You will learn about the far-reaching value of mindfulness and self-compassion for enhancing motivation, coping, and emotional wellbeing; promoting positive health behaviors; and maintaining healthy habits. The course examines cutting edge research from top neuroscientists, physicians and psychologists such as James Prochaska, Ellen Langer, Kristin Neff, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Andrew Weil.
Mastering Wellness Coaching Interventions (12 hours) This class is designed to put the Health and Wellness coach’s skill-set into action by helping you coach your clients towards their goals of improved lifestyle. In this wide-ranging course, we will cover sleeping difficulties, poor diet, overweight/obesity, inactivity, increased stress, energy depletion, and tobacco use, along with strategies for making progress in each area. We’ll also discuss issues unique to different developmental stages including: teens, pre-post pregnancy, menopause, and aging. Topics to be explored include effective goal setting, will-power, self-esteem, self-efficacy and more. We will also examine evidence-based coaching models for change that are particularly valuable for clients seeking to make and manage sustainable lifestyle changes. You will leave with your own personal toolbox of evidence-based coaching models and interventions to use with clients who seek coaching for health and wellness challenges.
Mastering Wellness Coaching: Healthy Lifestyles (12 hours) Health and wellness coaching is a tremendously important area and healthy lifestyles are central to it. Just consider the massive number of people who die prematurely each year from preventable causes or those whose capacities later in life are diminished due to poor eating, lack of exercise, inadequate stress management, and other lifestyle-related issues. “Positive health,” an area that has grown out of positive psychology was ignored for years but is now part of mainstream thinking in the field. New research now establishes that there is a clear connection between happiness and a healthy body. While this area seems simple and straightforward (just a matter of “do this” and “avoid that”), that perception is based on an illusion. The statistics on change and personal experience reveal it is incredibly difficult to alter lifestyle behavior. In this class we will look at everything we know about what a healthy lifestyle looks like, what it requires, and how to help people have a fighting chance to bring it about. This class can also help you understand how to move towards living a healthier, younger and more zestful life yourself, making you a wellness role-model for your clients as you “walk your talk.”
Living and Coaching the Good Life: You and Your Clients (12 hours) Many people working toward greater health and wellness, including many coaching clients, start off motivated but fall off the wellness wagon after a time. Stress is often cited as a factor in this. What is needed is to develop an inner trust in ourselves so that we can become more aware, listen to the body and react to stress in a more positive way. Without addressing both the mind and the physiology of the body, it’s hard to get lifestyle and behavioral changes to stick. In this class, we consider the science of mindfulness, self-compassion, habits, exercise and sleep, as well as how to go deeper with clients using complementary mind/body strategies. Learning and practicing mind/body techniques can help our clients become more confident, optimistic and resilient. This class will help you develop a toolbox of cutting edge approaches to help clients become more aware and empowered, make healthier choices and sustain positive health behaviors.
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Note: MentorCoach reserves the right to modify the requirements for certification or tuition at any time.
