Do You Need Additional Credentials To Be A Successful Health Coach ?
One of the most common questions I get from new health coaches or those thinking about becoming a health coach, is “do you need additional training or credentials to become a successful health coach?”
More Credentials are Useful, but Not Necessary
Learning more and getting more certifications or higher levels of education is always a good thing. And in fact, I encourage becoming a life long learner, and constantly expanding your knowledge through additional training, and reading the latest books, listening to the latest podcasts, following your favorite functional medicine doctors, and searching through Pubmed or medical journals on topics that interest you.
If you feel called to get your masters or PhD in nutrition, GO FOR IT!
If you feel called to get your personal trainer or yoga teacher certification, do a doctor’s course on gut health, or a workshop on cooking, GO FOR IT!
However, don’t feel like you need additional trainings in order to be a successful health coach and make a powerful impact on people’s lives. I sometimes find people don’t realize the very important and unique role of a Health Coach, and use waiting for a higher or additional credential as a reason for procrastinating on building their health coaching business.
The Role of a Health Coach
Health Coaches are NOT RDs, and are not expected to be them or replace them. Dietitians assess, diagnose and treat nutritional problems. Health Coaches educate, motivate, and help clients with implementing healthy habits.
Health Coaches are uniquely trained in motivational interviewing, habit change, and a holistic, whole body approach to wellness that incorporates more than just what’s on one’s plate.
This is different than an RD’s training, which is more focused on traditional nutritional principles, such as following the USDA dietary guidelines. Some RDs also get a health coaching certification to learn the many important skills unique to a Health Coach, and some Health Coaches decide to also become RDs.
A Health Coach is more than qualified to help people reduce their intake of junk food and increase their consumption of whole vegetables and fruit, which we know are two incredibly powerful habit changes that can significantly impact someone’s health and life. They may not be rocket science, but simply helping someone quit soda, eat more dark leafy greens, and sustain a whole food diet significantly cuts their risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, some of the top causes of chronic illness and death in our society.
The vast majority of people know they should eat more whole foods and less processed foods, but the reality is, they don’t. A Health Coach is a powerful agent for change that can help people finally develop and sustain healthy eating and lifestyle habits.
Health Coaching has been recommended and encouraged by some of the top doctors, wellness institutions, and health organizations.
Here are just a few articles and studies showing the very real efficacy of health coaching for improving health outcomes:
Harvard Health Blog: “Coaching is effective for people managing a variety of health conditions. According to a recent study, coaching “results in clinically relevant improvements in multiple biomarker risk factors (including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and cardiorespiratory fitness) in diverse populations.” Coaching has also helped improve health-related quality of life and reduced hospital admissions in patients with COPD. No wonder some doctors’ offices are offering it, some insurance companies are paying for it, and private companies are even starting to offer coaching to their employees in order to lower their healthcare costs.”
Harvard Medical School: Monique Tello, MD, MPH at Massachusetts General Hospital shares impressive results from a study on the efficacy of health coaching, and makes the case for covering health coaches by insurance and including them in hospital or clinical settings, particularly for weight loss interventions.
New York Times: An MD explains how doing a health coaching certification improved her own ability to communicate and inspire real change in patients, and why she believes health coaching is key to reversing chronic disease. “Research suggests that behavioral and lifestyle factors are a big part of what contributes to chronic disease. In medical training, we learn a lot about the body and how to prevent and treat disease, but little about how we can motivate a patient to change old habits or even stick with a current management plan.”
The insurance company Kaiser Permanente offers health coaches in an effort to reduce health care costs, and prestigious institutions like the Mayo Clinic and The Cleveland Clinic now hire and even train health coaches.
The Bottom Line
Your health coach training should have provided you with a unique skillset that other credentials lack, and that is complementary to other nutrition or health professionals.
When it comes to building your health coaching business, you will never feel ready if you don’t start and take action. If you decide to pursue higher education, go for it, and build your health coaching business while you do.
Not only will you help improve the health and lives of those you coach, you’ll gain invaluable experience and knowledge you won’t get sitting on the side lines. You’ll be able to earn income to help cover school costs, grow your social media following, and get comfortable with digital marketing and other steps required to run a successful business.
The fear of failure is much worse than trying something and actually failing. So stop with the excuses, procrastination, and perfection paralysis, and start moving forward and building your business by taking action, today!
