What is Wellness Coaching?

Coaching you to a higher level of wellness…

Wellness is the mastery of one’s physical and mental wellbeing – weight, fitness, nutrition, stress,
health, and the mindset to sustain wellness. Wellness coaching is a new paradigm for helping people
become masters of their wellness.

Coaching is an emerging profession that began about in the early ‘90s. It has its roots in applied
behavioral science, and the evolution of the field of corporate training to include one-on-one coaching.
Behavioral scientists have shown that one-on-one coaching is among the most effective approaches to
helping people make and sustain improvements in their lives. The relationship between a coach and
client offers a profound level of support, guidance, and encouragement to making changes, without
being judgmental. A coach enables change by focusing on a client’s stated agenda including needs,
values, vision, and goals and helping to bring out his/her personal best.

Today, new coaching specialties have emerged that address a variety of areas including leadership,
work/life balance, relationships, and most recently health, fitness, and wellness.

Through thoughtful assessment and inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and goal-setting, and safe,
open, and honest dialogue, coaches help their clients become clearer on where they are, where they
want to go, and how to get there. Clients feel accountable to themselves and their coaches. They make
and honor their commitments to reaching their goals, accomplishing more than they believed possible
when they began. Coaches provide instruction and mentoring to their clients, and help them set goals,
define an action plan, and navigate the path until they reach their goals. Coaches facilitate learning and
help clients put the learning into action.

While psychologists and therapists help clients understand how the past is influencing the present,
coaches focus on the present and help the client move towards the future. Coaches do not make
diagnoses and may recommend that clients seek a psychologist or therapist for treatment, if
appropriate.

Clients think that having a coach can help them move to a new place in their lives, and help them make
changes happen. Having a coach is particularly powerful when a client has decided to fully commit to
making significant changes in one or more areas of his/her life.

Wellcoaches is the world leader in wellness coaching. Wellcoaches starts with the power of coaching.
Then by using web-based technologies to deliver high quality, standardized wellness coaching
programs, we make the coach-client relationship the best experience possible. Clients each have
comprehensive personal Web sites, updated by coaches during coaching sessions, which contain
everything they need to reach their goals. Wellcoaches uses live online video-conferencing (optional)
to help create the bond between a coach and client, and enable both coach and client to see each other
demonstrating strength and flexibility exercises.

Wellcoaches has an exclusive partnership with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM at
www.acsm.org) to train health and fitness professionals to become wellness coaches and deliver
coaching services to corporate and individual clients.
Licensed Wellcoaches are health and fitness professionals (including personal trainers, dietitians,
nurses, health educators, and physical therapists) who have completed the rigorous Wellcoaches©
Coach Training Program. They are supported by a Board of Advisors, including experts provided by
Wellcoaches strategic partner, the American College of Sports Medicine (www.acsm.org). They are
qualified to help their clients meet their goals for one or more of fitness, weight, nutrition, stress,
health, and life issues that affect wellness.

In order for wellness coaching to be a success, coaches and clients honor the following principles:

Coach
• Attentive inquiry and listening (the motto is to “listen until I don’t exist”)
• Encourage realistic expectations and goals
• Be direct and firm with feedback when needed
• Through a coaching inquiry, encourage clients to identify their wellness visions, motivators,
obstacles, and strategies to overcome obstacles
• Help identify creative solutions to get around roadblocks
• Provide advice and instruction for engineering fitness, good nutrition, and management of
weight, stress, and health into a client’s busy life
• Is punctual and responsive
• Recognize early whether the chemistry with a client is good or not optimal, and if not optimal,
refer client to another coach

Client
• Ready to take responsibility to make and sustain changes in at least one area of wellness
• Ready to invest at least three months to make changes
• Ready to share personal information that is relevant to wellness
• Ready to become more self-aware
• Open to suggestions and trying new things
• Understands that setbacks are normal on the path of change
• Is punctual and responsive

The process of wellness coaching progresses through several stages:

1. Clients provide background information through a comprehensive online questionnaire and

2. During the first one-hour coaching session, clients and coaches commit orally to a wellness
vision and three-month coaching program. Clients confirm that they are ready to make
changes in at least one area. A personal wellness vision, three month priorities and realistic
goals are reviewed and agreed in detail. Clients also commit to 3-5 goals, or small steps
toward the three-month behavioral goals, for the following week.
3. In each subsequent 30-minute coaching session, each week or as needed, coaches and
clients review the progress towards the last week’s goals, learn something new or develop
a solution to overcome an obstacle, and then agree on a set of goals for the following week.

4. After a few weeks of coaching sessions, clients begin to notice improvements in how they
feel and look, and their motivation to continue efforts to change increases.

5. Typically in the second and third months, clients hit one or more obstacles. Both coaches
and clients work hard to find solutions to overcome each obstacle to reach the goal of
establishing new lifestyle behaviors.

6. By the end of three months, clients typically reach more than 70% of their three-month
behavioral goals and are energized and confident to commit to the next stage.