Health and Wellness Coach Badge

What is health and wellness coaching?

A health and wellness coach works with clients striving to enhance their health and well-being through self-directed lifestyle changes. Coaches provide a client-centered, safe, attentive, respectful, non-judgmental environment that allows clients the opportunity for unhampered self-exploration and discovery. Using evidence-based methods and techniques, health and wellness coaches foster a client’s intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and skills for adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors.

Health and wellness coaches work in a variety of settings, such as clinical health care, corporations, health insurance companies, community organizations, weight loss companies, health clubs, higher education wellness programs, and private practice.

Why earn a badge?

The Health and Wellness Coach badge signifies earners have demonstrated competence of essential coaching knowledge and skills. The badge is a digital illustration that contains metadata that allows individuals such as an employer, to learn about the program requirements and verify your accomplishment. A few ways to share a badge include on resumes, in email signatures, and across social media platforms.

Students will be able to:

• Employ mindfulness, self-awareness, and self-regulation to exhibit a present, poised, and calm existence when working with clients.
• Implement tactics to foster clients’ positive emotions, self-efficacy, and self-awareness on their path to an intrinsically motivated, empowered independence.
• Explain the importance of a client-centered relationship and demonstrate methods to cultivate a client-centered relationship built on trust, rapport, and unconditional positive regard.
• Design and conduct coaching sessions with appropriate structure and components relevant to the type and segment of the session.
• Engage clients with effective communication skills, such as active listening that is attuned to the tone and energy of the client, strategic use of silence, appropriate and varied reflections, and thought-provoking, powerful questioning.
• Apply models (e.g., Transtheoretical Model), theories (e.g., Self-Determination Theory), methods (e.g., motivational interviewing), and techniques (e.g., positive reframing) to assist clients along a self-directed path of adopting and maintaining health behaviors.
• Apply health literacy skills and health-related content knowledge to inform their work with clients.
• Explain the importance and elements of professional conduct, ethics, and legal considerations in coaching.

What are the requirements to earn the badge?

Complete the following four courses (12 sh):

1. WHE 2850 Integrated Personal Health and Wellness (4 sh)
2. WHE 2300 Foundations of Health and Wellness Coaching (2 sh)
3. WHE 2400 Methods of Health and Wellness Coaching (2 sh)
4. WHE 3850 Advanced Health and Wellness Coaching (4 sh)

A grade of B- or higher must be earned and the attendance requirement met for each course.

Score at least an 80% on a cumulative exam and a practical skills assessment.

What is the difference between the Health and Wellness Coach badge and the Health and Wellness Coaching minor?

The Health and Wellness Coach badge signifies the student has demonstrated coaching knowledge and skills at a high standard of proficiency, and the Health and Wellness Coaching minor allows students the opportunity to delve deeper into areas of interest through elective course options. Students who aspire to work as a health and wellness coach would be best served by completing both the badge program and the minor.

Both the Health and Wellness Coach badge and Health and Wellness Coaching minor require the following courses: WHE 2850, WHE 2300, WHE 2400, and WHE 3850.

• Students pursuing the badge will also need to earn at minimum a B- in each required course, meet class attendance requirements, and receive a passing score (at least an 80%) on a cumulative exam and a practical skills assessment in WHE 3850.
• Students wishing to complete the minor will need to complete eight semester hours of electives along with the four required courses. Elective course options span various disciplines such as psychology, exercise science, human service studies, sociology, anthropology, and public health studies. Additionally, the same minimum GPA (2.0) requirement for earning any Elon academic minor must be met.

What should I do if I want to pursue the Health and Wellness Coach badge?

Indicate your interest by completing the Badge Program Enrollment Form.

Please complete the form at the beginning of your journey so that your progress can be tracked and validated upon completion.

What if I have additional questions?

Contact the program coordinator, Dr. Lynda Butler-Storsved, at lstorsved@elon.edu.