What Exactly is the Role of a Health & Wellness Coach?
Health & wellness coaches are behavior change specialists, helping individuals seeking healthy lifestyle changes. A health coach partners with clients, motivating them with self-directed wellness techniques and allowing them to discover their unique path to mental and physical wellbeing. Health & wellness coaches always maintain positive regard for a client’s ability to change and achieve lasting behavioral change. Clients are supported through powerful dialog and evidence-based coaching techniques that tap into their inner strength.
In essence, a health & wellness coach’s role encompasses everything an individual needs for achieving holistic health and wellbeing of mind, body and soul.
How is a health & wellness coach different from a fitness trainer?
A fitness trainer possesses the knowledge and skills needed for designing safe and effective fitness programs. A fitness trainer’s role is limited to helping people with their fitness goals by instructing and assisting them in the gym and exercising. A health & wellness coach looks after every dimension of an individual’s life which is physical, emotional, spiritual, occupational wellness, while the focus of a fitness trainer is mainly their client’s physical fitness. Fitness training does not involve any coaching on behavior change or improving lifestyle and habits.
How is a health & wellness coach different from a nutritionist?
A nutritionist specializes in helping clients with any nutritional deficiencies or complex nutrition requirements that come with specific health conditions like diabetes or gluten allergy. A nutritionist can also guide individuals regarding nutrition for lifecycles, such as diet during pregnancy or raising children. Besides, a nutritionist may be qualified to prescribe nutritional supplements as well. On the other hand, a health coach’s role is more comprehensive. A health coach looks after your wellbeing as a whole, such as your sleep patterns, stress levels, your eating habits,physical activity, relationships, and life choices.
How is a health & wellness coach different from a life coach?
A life coach is someone who helps clients with life in general. Usually, life coaches have a particular area of expertise, such as relationships or finance etc. The people who approach life coaches are generally seeking help with a particular aspect of their everyday life. For example, a person who is simply terrible at money management and slowly sinking in debt or struggles to maintain work and life balance or someone with longstanding relationship issues. However, a health & wellness coach helps clients with their life problems and helps them achieve self-driven holistic change in their health, work, and life. Health & wellness coaching is more than merely helping clients with their current mindset; it’s about moving them towards a healthier and happier future.
Concluding thoughts
When you look closely, there are some obvious overlaps in the roles discussed here. But physical trainers and nutrition and life coaches serve more like planks that help individuals across small personal constraints. In comparison, the health & wellness coach is like a bridge that transforms every aspect of a client’s life. Instead of merely providing fitness, nutrition or life plans, health coaches understand the neuroscience of coaching for lasting behavioral change. Hence, they focus on goal setting based on their clients’ inner strengths to help achieve organic results. These changes include but are not limited to physical fitness, nutrition and life coaching.
So, in conclusion, a health & wellness coach can work across all lifestyle habits leading to improve health outcomes and wellbeing.
