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October 16, 2023

I started my career in human resources—an experience that showed me how people’s health impacts their ability to show up at work. I saw the many ways that health hardships caused employees to suffer.

While working a corporate job, I personally was going through some health challenges and I had a choice to make: take a lot of medication or change my lifestyle. I ultimately chose the latter, and the journey inspired me to pivot into a career helping other people feel their best.

I received my first health coaching certification in 2011 and have been practicing as a certified health coach ever since. On top of my private practice that supports people who are experiencing or recovering from mental health illnesses, I also teach the next generation of coaches as an instructor of mindbodygreen’s Health Coach Certification (HCC) program. 

If you, too, are interested in shifting into a career that helps people take control of their health, here’s why you should make HCC your starting point.

At the risk of sounding cliché, I literally love teaching every part of this program. For an inside peek at the logic behind the curriculum, we start off by teaching students coaching theory to help them understand the science and “why” behind health coaching skills. This is also the part of the program where we get to support students in their own understanding of well-being and habit change, so they can support themselves in this giving profession. I believe that health is a privilege, and I teach from a lens of health equity. I always infuse humor and authenticity too; it’s important to be both real and light. 

The 20-week mindbodygreen program includes a combination of 75 hours of flexible instruction, office hours, and practical assessments featuring personal feedback from instructors. The mix of interactive and non-interactive program elements makes it easy for students to learn at their own pace. Some students choose to take the course while continuing to work full time, while others focus on only coursework for the 20 weeks.

To make the material more accessible, we break down big concepts into digestible chunks and always weave in real-life experiences and scenarios. This way, students hear what happens out in the real world beyond lectures. I believe it’s essential that students be open-minded and have the courage to practice new skills from a personal and professional perspective. I love offering feedback to students and seeing it really “click” when they work with clients as coaches.

RELATED READ: What Exactly Is a Health Coach & What Makes a Good One?

At graduation, my heart is always full when I see the students who have worked so hard to transform their lives and create an entirely new skill set. So many of them find success as coaches and go on to bring their essential skills to patients in private practice, clinical settings, and more. Being a certified health coach is a credential that opens many doors and allows you to form the career that you want. Here are just a few ways you can use your health coach certification to help others.

The number of opportunities there are for health coaches is honestly endless. Certified coaches can work in clinics, corporations, schools, and private practice. I suspect that the movement to get health coaching covered by insurance will further help coaches have lucrative careers while making their valuable service more accessible to patients and clinics.