Navigating Boundaries: Certified Health Coaches and the Importance of Respecting Scope of Practice

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Navigating Boundaries: Certified Health Coaches and the Importance of Respecting Scope of Practice

Health coaches can play an important role in supporting clients’ health and wellness efforts, but it’s imperative that they recognize and respect their defined scope of practice and avoid encroaching into the territory of traditional therapy or counseling. This article examines the boundaries between health coaching and therapy, and presents ethical considerations that certified health coaches should prioritize.

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Should Health Coaches Specialize?

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Should Health Coaches Specialize?

It’s not uncommon for personal trainers to work with specific populations or for group fitness instructors to specialize in teaching certain classes, but what about health coaches? Is specialization something worth considering? Here, we delve into the ways in which specialization can enhance the impact of your coaching interventions, cater to unique client needs and contribute to the overall evolution of the health coaching profession.

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How to Find the Right Balance Between Coaching and Training

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How to Find the Right Balance Between Coaching and Training

It can be a challenge to provide clients with both personal training and health coaching services. While there is no single, magic formula for incorporating both into your sessions, there are models and perspectives that can be adapted to suit your personal needs and approach. Read on to explore a few approaches worth considering if you find it challenging to integrate coaching and training.

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Virtual Bonds, Real Results: Connecting With Clients in the Online World

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Virtual Bonds, Real Results: Connecting With Clients in the Online World

Online coaching and training offer exciting opportunities to reach, motivate and guide clients from all corners of the globe, yet it also presents a unique set of challenges. From building trust and rapport to customizing workouts and tracking progress, this article presents a comprehensive guide to fostering a deep connection with your clients that transcends the digital divide.

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1% Better and the Power of Incremental Change

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1% Better and the Power of Incremental Change

When working with clients, you know that radical changes are never the focus, as they are neither sustainable nor effective. The same holds true when working on your skills and business. Learn why making small improvements each day will incrementally lead to the big changes you want—not just in how you coach, but in how your clients experience your services.

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1% Better and the Power of Incremental Change

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1% Better and the Power of Incremental Change

When working with clients, you know that radical changes are never the focus, as they are neither sustainable nor effective. The same holds true when working on your skills and business. Learn why making small improvements each day will incrementally lead to the big changes you want—not just in how you coach, but in how your clients experience your services.

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How to Find the Right Balance Between Coaching and Training

| by
How to Find the Right Balance Between Coaching and Training

It can be a challenge to provide clients with both personal training and health coaching services. While there is no single, magic formula for incorporating both into your sessions, there are models and perspectives that can be adapted to suit your personal needs and approach. Read on to explore a few approaches worth considering if you find it challenging to integrate coaching and training.

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It’s Time to Ditch Diet Culture for Good

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It’s Time to Ditch Diet Culture for Good

When it comes to health and wellness, one of the loudest and most pervasive sources of misinformation is “diet culture”—the insidious belief that things like appearance and having an “ideal” body shape is more important than anything else. This article examines the steps you can take to help your clients identify diet culture and avoid falling into the trap of prioritizing often unattainable ideals at the cost of one’s health and well-being.

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Recognizing Signs and Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder

| by in Lifestyle Medicine
Recognizing Signs and Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder

While the fall and winter seasons bring colorful changes, they can also be a source of struggle for many. Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD (aptly named), is defined as a type of depression that results from the change in seasons. It's common to experience seasonal blues, but you do not have to suffer in silence. The first step to combatting seasonal depression is to recognize the signs and symptoms associated with SAD.

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How Daylight Savings Time Impacts Health

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How Daylight Savings Time Impacts Health

DST causes a cascade of reactions in the body and in our daily routines – much like a row of dominoes carefully organized, one small movement affects the entire system. Think about the human body as that row of dominoes and let’s take a deep dive into how that system is disrupted twice a year (depending on your geographic location as some states and areas do not observe DST).

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It’s Time to Ditch Diet Culture for Good

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It’s Time to Ditch Diet Culture for Good

When it comes to health and wellness, one of the loudest and most pervasive sources of misinformation is “diet culture”—the insidious belief that things like appearance and having an “ideal” body shape is more important than anything else. This article examines the steps you can take to help your clients identify diet culture and avoid falling into the trap of prioritizing often unattainable ideals at the cost of one’s health and well-being.

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Make Your Mark by Mastering the Rules of Evidence-based Program Design

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Make Your Mark by Mastering the Rules of Evidence-based Program Design

It can be tough to differentiate between quality, science-based information and the often-questionable advice of online fitness influencers. In this article, we examine the consequences of social media influence, outline specific program design rules you can use to create quality programs, and offer action steps you and your clients can take to identify and avoid garbage science.

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Goal Setting and the Ethics of Steering a Client Toward Different Goals

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Goal Setting and the Ethics of Steering a Client Toward Different Goals

As a coach, you are a partner on your client’s journey, not the director, but what do you do when a client’s goals seem misdirected or unrealistic? While it’s important to avoid steering a client toward the goals you think they should pursue, you can apply the theories and principles of goal setting to thoughtfully help clients better define their goals and create a roadmap for achieving them.

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Why Coaches Need a Coach

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Why Coaches Need a Coach

All helping professions, to varying degrees, experienced some sense of loss and even fear because of the ongoing pandemic. As such, there is a growing need for health coaches to unite and offer support and guidance to each other in more meaningful and formal ways. Read on to learn why health coaches need coaches to help them continually perform at their best.

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What to Do When Clients Share Sensitive, Dangerous or Inappropriate Information

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What to Do When Clients Share Sensitive, Dangerous or Inappropriate Information

As a health and exercise professional, it’s not surprising that your clients may come to view you as a trusted confidant, but do you know how to manage information that is considered sensitive, dangerous or inappropriate? Planning for the unexpected topics and situations will allow you to elevate your service to clients, keep them (and yourself) safe and remain within your scope of practice. 

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How to Enhance Mental Well-being: Insight From the Pros

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How to Enhance Mental Well-being: Insight From the Pros

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced many of us to make immediate and difficult changes to the ways in which we live, learn and work, and triggered significant mental health and well-being concerns. Three veteran health coaches offer their strategies for adapting, overcoming and thriving in the face of these challenges, both personally and professionally.

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What Does Wellness Mean to You?

| by in Lifestyle Medicine
What Does Wellness Mean To You?

Wellness can be described in many ways. It is a concept that means something different to everyone. How we imagine wellness on an individual level varies from how our family and friends see their respective pictures of wellness. Identify the dimensions of your personal wellness, prioritize, and begin to understand more deeply what wellness means to you.

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Common Misperceptions About Behavior Change

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Common Misperceptions About Behavior Change

Prior to starting your professional journey, you may have held on to some not-so-helpful beliefs about behavior change—and chances are your clients still do. Veteran ACE Health Coach Dr. Erin Nitschke examines some of the common misperceptions about behavior change that might be hampering your clients’ progress and impeding your effectiveness as a health and exercise professional.

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Why Coaches Need a Coach

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Why Coaches Need a Coach

All helping professions, to varying degrees, experienced some sense of loss and even fear because of the ongoing pandemic. As such, there is a growing need for health coaches to unite and offer support and guidance to each other in more meaningful and formal ways. Read on to learn why health coaches need coaches to help them continually perform at their best.

Read More

Common Misperceptions About Behavior Change

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Common Misperceptions About Behavior Change

Prior to starting your professional journey, you may have held on to some not-so-helpful beliefs about behavior change—and chances are your clients still do. Veteran ACE Health Coach Dr. Erin Nitschke examines some of the common misperceptions about behavior change that might be hampering your clients’ progress and impeding your effectiveness as a health and exercise professional.

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Best Practices in Virtual Health Coaching 

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Best Practices in Virtual Health Coaching 

Like many health and exercise professionals, you may be integrating virtual offerings into your existing services or migrating your practice to an entirely virtual platform. If you’re finding these processes challenging, you’re not alone. Read on to learn the necessary steps to successfully launch and/or transform your business to include virtual services. 

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