Integrative Wellness Coaching

The IHL Program features an innovative learning format and skill-building opportunity to prepare for careers in Integrative Wellness Coaching and Integrative Wellness Management within the MA program. The CIIS Integrative Wellness Coach is able to:

• Facilitate others in health-enhancing behaviors and assist them in attaining their health goals
• Develop effective coaching skills for individuals or groups
• Deepen their personal commitment to holistic self-care practices 
• Investigate career opportunities and practice professional marketing techniques.

The courses designed to build competencies include: Health Assessment and Evaluation, Integrative Wellness Coaching, Integrative Wellness Management, Integrative Nutrition, Movement and Stress Management, Somatic Psychology electives, Creativity & Healing, and Healthy Aging. These courses provide the theoretical and practical skills for learning about healthy lifestyle, common stressful health challenges, mind-body-spirit modalities, key complementary and alternative interventions, and fitness and movement regimens. The courses also provide competencies for designing, implementing, and evaluating wellness programs for individuals and organizations, and are appropriate for either clinical or non-clinical students.

Coaching is a rapidly growing profession that is not about fixing people but a way for people to be in supportive relationship that results in a more effective, meaningful lived experience for the client. After establishing a coaching alliance, the Integrative Wellness Coach supports clients’ growth towards optimal well-being, through communication skills reinforcing accountability and goal-oriented action plans, and by being a resource for nutrition, exercise, supportive relations, and stress management. However, the Integrative Wellness Coach also goes the extra measure of creating an empowering relationship that reawakens and supports a commitment for holistic self-care, belonging, spiritual connection, meaning and purpose, recognized in health promotions research as necessary antecedents for improved self-care. Students also gain competencies in motivational interviewing, participant enrollment, assessment of needs and interests, program design and implementation, biometric marker collection, and program evaluation. The coaching curriculum is based on the best practices employed by Fortune 100 corporations and the National Wellness Institute.

The CIIS Integrative Wellness Coach can either work independently or follow through with the recommended regimens from licensed health professionals.  For a society struggling with unaffordable models of health care, coaching provides support at accessible, bottom-up strategic positions. Coaches offer a de-stigmatized means for friendly, “level-playing field” support for the critical task of reducing lifestyle-generated illness among diverse populations. Many people recognize the need to change personal health habits in order to halt or reverse a chronic condition, but they don’t believe that medical or psychological counseling is warranted. However, they welcome a coach to help them demystify the steps required for successful change.  Opportunities exist with the internship program for applied learning and professional skill development.

Classes within the Integrative Wellness Coaching module include:

IHL 6031 Integrative Wellness Coaching  
IHL 6032 Integrative Wellness Management
IHL 6033 Health Assessment & Evaluation
IHL 6034 Mind/Body Approaches
IHL 6035 Movement and Stress Management
IHL 6055 Integrative Nutrition
IHL 6510 Healthy Aging