Introduction
A health coach serves as a partner and a guide in the wellness journey. Most health coaches work on corporate programs, with health organizations, or serve direct clients. While they help in many areas, the major ones include nutrition, time management, stress, activity, sleep, and smoking problems. Health coaches help their clients to identify challenges and set goals to eliminate them (Moree, 2019). They ask questions that get clients to think about their situation and focus on positive change. This paper discusses some aspects of the health field, factors that draw people into wellness coaching, the preparation of a coach, and the greatest concerns about working in the industry.
Health and Wellness Coaching
The health field is wide and can be described in diverse ways. The aspects of it that most resonate with me include patient or client satisfaction, effectiveness, efficiency, cooperation, communication, and quality services. The work of a health coach must lead to client satisfaction, which is measured through client ratings and the accomplishment of established goals. In the general health field, satisfaction is influenced by factors such as health outcomes, hospital settings, and relationships with various caregivers. Similarly, the health coach’s environment, coaching outcomes, and nature of relationships affect client satisfaction. Effectiveness is related to the ability of methods used to produce expected results. For example, nutritional health coaching might target weight loss and improved conscious eating. If the coaching sessions only reduce the client’s weight but do not improve eating habits, they are partially effective. Therefore, effectiveness is achieved when all the goals are achieved and can be maintained.
The efficiency of a coaching service evaluates the outcome by comparing achieved results to the efforts utilized in the process. Process goals are considered the inputs of a coaching program while outcome goals are the output. Therefore, efficiency involves establishing SMART process goals at the beginning of the program. The relationship between a professional coach and a client requires cooperation and collaboration. Essentially, the coach does not tell the client what to do but only offers guidelines and support to help the latter understand their goals and work on achieving them (Moree, 2019). As such, the client must open up to the coach as much as possible while seeking all the help the coach can offer. Cooperative clients must express their feelings, challenges, and fears freely to get assistance. Any professional relationship relies heavily on the parties’ ability to clearly communicate and articulate issues. The quality of a coach’s services depends on the communication level of the two individuals.
Several factors and reasons draw people into health and wellness coaching. The most common ones include a love for health, passion to empower others, desire to create positive change, personality traits, ability to handle dynamic relationships, and capacity to motivate and inspire people through actions. When individuals conduct career assessments to determine their best fields, they consider several aspects. Persons with the above characteristics are most likely to be attracted to health and wellness coaching.
The love and value for overall health is an important factor because coaches want to see their clients achieve optimum health status. They also are passionate about people empowerment and see coaching as an avenue to accomplish it (Moree, 2019). For example, individuals who want to see healthier and well-balanced lives will choose wellness and health coaching as a way of helping as many people as possible. There are personality traits that can lead people into a coaching career, including empathy, active listening, respect for boundaries, goal-oriented, lifelong learning, and deeply caring. Since coaching involves managing dynamic relationships with clients, individuals with such abilities are attracted to the field. They must establish purely professional relationships and adhere to set boundaries. While coaches might be tempted to interfere with the client’s choices, keeping the relation professional weakens such attempts.
Finally, individuals who can motivate and inspire others are mostly drawn to a health and wellness coaching career. A coach must not make decisions on behalf of clients but rather encourage them to choose right and follow through with their targets (Willard-Grace et al., 2021). Hence, motivation and inspiration are critical factors in the coaching process to keep clients hooked to their plans, process and outcome goals.
Health coaches mostly work with patients with chronic illnesses to improve quality of life. In addition to coursework, health coaches can benefit from hands on experience and mentorship programs. The individual must also possess the features explained previously for a smooth career in health coaching. Experience is obtained from directly working with patients in the frontline on internship, employment, or volunteer basis. An internship might be a coursework requirement but it allows the future coach to interact with patients and help supervising physicians with daily activities. At this capacity, the student is considered a learner and not given complete professional coach duties. Nevertheless, it provides an opportunity to experience the responsibilities of a professional coach.
As a volunteer, the aspiring coach has completed coursework and internship and is ready for work. However, volunteering work is often unpaid but may come with the responsibilities of a pad post, giving a great experience to work with patients. Since health coaches can practice in private and public, volunteering in large public institutions might give extensive exposure to the health-coaching field before one embarks on a private service career. Notably, the coach chooses volunteering when they have financial resources to support themselves during the period. Otherwise, one might consider beginning their career as junior professional coaches in a paid post. Both volunteering and entry level jobs provide the opportunity for mentorship. The coach works under a well-experienced professional health coach for as long as possible to learn from them. For example, the junior coach might work for two or more years under an outgoing senior coach in preparation to take up the position.
My concerns about working in the health and wellness industry are a few but I consider them significant. The greatest concern is having an inability to know enough that can sufficiently help my clients. With each client comes a new area that requires fresh knowledge and approaches. I wonder whether I will accumulate all the necessary information to establish a stable career. This fear also relates to understanding and properly utilizing any existing and emerging coaching technologies. These are critical for a successful career. The second worrying concern is how to establish a unique niche where I can get enough clients to make reasonable income while helping people. Through studying and experience, I expect to overcome these concerns.
Conclusion
Overall, health and wellness coaching is a promising career that empowers and inspires people for positive change. Patient or client satisfaction, effectiveness, efficiency, cooperation, communication, and quality services are some aspects of health that resonate with me. People are drawn to coaching careers due to their natural personality traits, including passion to serve, empower, and motivate people, empathy, and value for good health. Outside of coursework, a health-coaching career is built through internships, volunteering, paid work, and mentoring.
References
Moree, C. (2019). Texas, Class A High School Head Varsity Football Coaches’ Perceptions on Character Traits Influencing Their Career Longevity. Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Willard-Grace, R., Masaki, S., Joseph, R., DeVore, D., Huang, B., Su, G., & Thom, D. H. (2021). “She showed me how to help myself”: A qualitative study of health coaching for management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 32(1), 449-462. Web.