AAHWC Newsletter

Journey to Board Certification: An Overview I don’t recall when I first started learning about health coaching as a profession, but I was intrigued. It did not take long for me to realize that this was the field God was leading me into. The first health coaching course I found was about two weeks long. Although there was still a lot for me to learn, I felt uncomfortable with the course's length and its promises to make me a certified health coach in such a short time. As I continued researching, I learned about a few [...]

Unexpected Detour to NBHWC Certification Do you remember asking or being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Certainly, health and wellness coaching was not a consideration among the usual teacher, nurse, or administrative assistant options. Maybe a sports coach was a possibility, but it was not in my area of interest. Cancer registrar was not on my radar either. It’s interesting how I have worked in such unique fields. Although health and wellness coaching, or at least coaching, has been around for decades, and is becoming increasingly well-known. I worked as [...]

Creating Your Health Coaching Business It's a new year and with it, you may have new personal and professional goals. If one of those includes starting your own business, then this article is for you. Here are some general points to consider when creating your health coaching business.   Start With Prayer: Start your journey with prayer. Be honest with yourself and with The Lord about your desire and the real motive for starting your business. Does The Lord want you to create a business? Will it glorify God or yourself?   Write Your Vision and Business Plan: [...]

Being a Diabetes Prevention Lifestyle Coach  Diabetes Statistics  Almost 98 million American adults have prediabetes, which is nearly 40% of the U.S. population (1). Sadly, most of them don’t even know they have it (2). Without consistent lifestyle interventions, it will eventually turn into diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes costs the country about $413 billion annually, which has increased by 35% over a recent 10-year period (3). This financial burden is expected to increase in the future as more Americans are diagnosed with it.     Solving the Diabetes Burden  To curb this burden, [...]

Tobacco Cessation Health Coach  As a health coach, I have the privilege and joy of working with individuals who desire to quit tobacco use. Most often this is to stop smoking. During my wellness coach training, I learned about being a Tobacco Treatment Specialist, also known as a Tobacco Cessation Health Coach. The wellness coach training program and tobacco treatment specialist training have overlapping skills such as active listening, motivational interviewing, and positive psychology. This additional training reinforced my wellness coaching skills and provided a potential niche.   Since smoking is the leading cause of preventable death [...]

The Importance of Rapport The strength of health coaching is in a relationship. The relationship between a health coach and a client (or patient) is an integral part of the client's wellness journey, but for there to be a good relationship, the coach must build and maintain rapport with their clients.    Rapport is a word that comes to us from Old French. It originally meant to bring back or to carry, but it now means a friendly and harmonious relationship (1). Baker, Watlington, and Knee (2020) researched this topic and found that the “interactions perceived [...]

Reflective Listening  Reflective listening is another core coaching skill that health and wellness coaches use, generally in every session. In a nutshell, it is paying attention to what the client says without having an agenda and reflecting on a portion of what they say to help them move closer to their health goal. Let’s dive deeper into this fundamental skill.    Reflective listening is crucial for many reasons. Firstly, it builds trust and rapport between the coach and the client. When clients feel genuinely heard, they are more likely to open up and share their thoughts [...]

Unconditional Positive Regard: A Core Principle What is Unconditional Positive Regard? Unconditional positive regard is a core health coaching principle that was initially introduced by Stanley Standal in 1954 and later popularized in psychology by Carl Rogers (1). This fundamental health coaching principle fully accepts a person without judgment by having genuine understanding and empathy. It means embracing who they are, including their beliefs, values, morals, and choices, and where they are in their journey. It does not mean one has to like them, agree with them, or endorse their beliefs or behavior. It’s about recognizing [...]

Increasing Self Efficacy Humans are multifaceted, and understanding your clients and patients will help you coach them more effectively. An important aspect to know when dealing with individuals is their level of self-efficacy. But why is it important and how can it help clients in their daily lives? Self-efficacy is the “conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcomes” (1). In other words, it is the belief in your ability to accomplish a desired task. As you can imagine, our beliefs in our abilities affect all aspects of our lives. People [...]