The demand for wellness coaches
with a modern, evidence-based approach has never been higher. Why?
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Wellness coaching works. Motivated, good people try for years — sometimes decades — to get healthy, but fail repeatedly without the right support and program. There’s now ample evidence that wellness coaching — like any good coaching discipline — can provide the needed support and empower the client to make lasting health changes.
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Patients and doctors are increasingly focused on integrated health, preventative care and personal wellness plans; but most MDs and medical institutions still retain their focus on cure measures and disease, not prevention. Recognizing this and other gaps, schools like Duke and Rutgers are now offering post-graduate certifications in wellness coaching.
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Health problem epidemics – such as obesity – are at an all-time high, with almost 65% of Americans overweight (the US is the #1 obese country on the planet in 2014). Traditional or standard measures which just hand the client a program and say “good luck” without regular support have failed. By contrast, wellness/health coaching promotes permanent health changes, particularly for issues with a large behavioral component like obesity. 
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Wellness coaches help you attend to both mind and body. The old ideas and assumptions about mind and body as separate are fading; emotional and cognitive fitness is physiological, and physical fitness depends on what/how we think. This is the meaning of “holistic”; attending to the whole human being. And (again) most physicians aren’t incented to and cannot approach wellness this way. Wellness coaches do, and rely on physicians for good partnership.
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Research and history demonstrate that great diet or exercise programs alone don’t work. Changing habits to achieve wellness takes time and requires support. That change support is what wellness coaches are trained and intended to provide. Even if a great physician or fitness instructor has the skills to help you generate and sustain fundamental change, they don’t have the time or mandate to do so. A wellness coach does.
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Wellness science has progressed dramatically in recent years, but myths are still prevalent in the areas of nutrition, exercise and stress management. Information just 5 years old might already be stale and obsolete in some cases. The average citizen seeking good choices can be challenged to distinguish fact and fiction.
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If you’re invested in wellness and a higher quality life you might 
now be searching for a more self-directed approach. Optimal health is a function of lifestyle, and you need the right kind of support to overhaul it. Wellness coaches can help you bridge this gap between your wellness vision and the challenges of your current lifestyle.
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Bottom line: great wellness programs appear to abound, but wellness is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Off-the-shelf programs usually don’t work. If they did, obesity and other negative trends would be declining. Wellness transformation requires more than a canned program; it’s a personal journey that benefits greatly from an expert guide and partner.
Contact me here to explore your vision and how I might support you as a wellness coach. You can learn more about our services here.
