WELLNESS COACHING CERTIFICATION

Index:

1. The New Wellness Paradigm and Coaching
2. Why Certification Is Essential
3. The Extraordinary Wellness Coaching Master Classes
4. How to Become a Certified Wellness Coach

1. The New Wellness Paradigm and Coaching

Wellness coaching requires a unique set of skills that are not taught in traditional coach training programs. A wellness coach works with individuals or groups who want to make changes in their lifestyle to optimize their health and wellbeing.

They may also work with clients who wish to prevent or decrease their risk of disease. Or their clients may want to make better lifestyle choices in order to help them better manage a health condition they already have.

Wellness coaches may also work in organizations and industry with employees to help them make lifestyle changes to improve their health.

As a result, a wellness coach needs to be sufficiently knowledgeable about evidence-based processes of lifestyle change and about lifestyle, wellness and positive psychological knowledge and skills.

It is because of this unique skill set that health and wellness coaches around the world have felt that a credential from the International Coach Federation alone cannot identify who may be a competent wellness coach.

By becoming a credentialed coach, a wellness coach becomes part of a growing community of health and wellness coaches who possess a professional standard of skill, experience and training. It also signals to clients and to the wider community that the wellness coach has made a commitment to deliver the highest level of wellness coaching.

2. Why Certification Is Essential

•Certification establishes a minimum standard for credentialing professional wellness coaches

•Certification assures the public that participating wellness coaches meet or exceed these minimum standards

•Certification builds a network of credentialed wellness coaches

•Certification meets the growing demand by clients to hire credentialed wellness coaches that are professionally set apart from other coaches

There are currently teams of industry and academic leaders who have begun to build a consensus on much-needed national standards for the competencies and training needed for the certification of wellness coaches

While national standards, education and certification for wellness coaches are not yet established, the consensus from experts is that such a body of knowledge and skills should include: Science-based coaching knowledge and skills built upon psychological and behavioral processes of change and development; and evidence-based lifestyle and integrative health interventions for disease prevention and wellness.

The MentorCoach Wellness Coaching Master Classes have been created to give participants the professional hours of wellness coach training that exceed what are thought to be the minimum required knowledge and skills that are necessary in this field.

3. The Extraordinary Wellness Coaching Master Classes

We offer four extraordinary Wellness Coaching Master Classes, totaling 52 hours of training. Three of the four Master Classes have no pre-requisite. So you can enter the Wellness Coach training classes by taking one or more of these three Master Classes. You can effectively begin either in the Fall or the Spring.

1. Your first class could be: Becoming a Wellness Coach: Living and Coaching the Good Life - Part I with Ann-Marie McKelvey.

And/or

2. Your first class could also be: Mastering Wellness Coaching: Healthy Lifestyles with Darlene Trandel.

And/or

3. Your first class could also be Mastering Wellness Coaching Interventions with Darlene Trandel (this requires a phone call to Darlene and her permission to take the class).

All three Master Classes are required. It does not matter with which you begin.

And, yes, you can take classes from both Darlene and Ann-Marie simultaneously if you want to move quickly. Many people do.

The Four Wellness Master Classes are below. For full class descriptions and teacher bios, click on the links.

Becoming A Wellness Coach: Living and Coaching the Good Life - Part I No prerequisite	Ann-Marie McKelvey, MCC	12 hours
Mastering Wellness Coaching: Healthy Lifestyles No prerequisite	Darlene Trandel, Ph.D.	14 hours
Becoming A Wellness Coach: Living and Coaching the Good Life - Part II No prerequisite	Ann-Marie McKelvey, MCC	12 hours
Mastering Wellness Coaching Interventions No prerequisite	Darlene Trandel, Ph.D.	14 hours

4. How to Become a Certified Wellness Coach

There are three routes toward becoming a Certified Wellness Coach.

(1) If You Are Already Certified:
If you have already received the designation of a Certified MentorCoach (CMC) from MentorCoach or if you are an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC), you have already demonstrated that you have coaching skills at or above the level of an ICF Professional Certified Coach.

To become a Certified Wellness Coach, you must simply:
• Complete the four wellness coaching classes
• Pass a multiple choice exam on the class content with a grade of 80%
• Demonstrate that you have completed, at least, 40 hours of coaching focused on such wellness coaching issues as weight management, eating, and nutrition; physical activity and exercise; stress and mindfulness; sleep and energy; and/or addiction issues involving, for example, smoking or alcohol.

(2) If You Are Not Certified--The MentorCoach Route:
You can also become a Certified Wellness Coach by becoming a MentorCoach CMC (Certified MentorCoach). For this route, you need to:
• Complete the four wellness coaching classes
• Demonstrate that you have completed, at least, 40 hours of coaching focused on such wellness coaching issues as weight management, eating, and nutrition; physical activity and exercise; stress and mindfulness; sleep and energy; and/or addiction issues involving, for example, smoking or alcohol.
• Successfully pass your final oral coaching exam on a wellness coaching topic.

• Please note that upon receiving your CMC (Certified MentorCoach) and meeting the requirements above, you are immediately eligible to receive your Wellness Certification and your ICF Certification as well.

(3) If You Are Not Certified--The External Certification Route:
If you are not certified as an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), you can also become a Certified Wellness Coach by achieving the PCC independently of MentorCoach. For this route, you need to:

• Complete the four wellness coaching master classes
• Pass a multiple choice exam on the class content with a grade of 80%
• Become an ICF PCC independently of MentorCoach by successfully completing the requirements to be an ICF Professional Certified Coach either through the ICF Portfolio Approach or through another ICF Accredited Coach Training Program;
• Successfully complete the requirements to be an ICF Professional Certified Coach
• Demonstrate that you have completed, at least, 40 hours of coaching focused on such wellness coaching issues as weight management, eating, and nutrition; physical activity and exercise; stress and mindfulness; sleep and energy; and addiction issues involving, for example, smoking or alcohol.

Note: MentorCoach reserves the right to modify the requirements for certification at any time.