TWO-YEAR HEALTH & WELLNESS COACHING MASTER PROGRAM

Post-Graduate Training – Asynchronous/Synchronous Online Courses

The Two-Year Master Program covers 280 study hours

Awarded with a Certificate of Completion

The two-year comprehensive Health & Wellness Coaching Master Program, facilitates students and wellness professionals, such as health educators, present and future healthcare practitioners, registered dieticians, exercise physiologists, psychologists, nurses, physical therapists, and other allied health professionals, as well as professional coaches and students in coaching, who want to further develop their skills in the wellness niche with an understanding of the principles and concepts of integrated health coaching. This program is of value to anyone interested in coaching knowledge and skills.

With an evidence-based approach to integrated health and core competencies grounded in well-respected theories of change and well-being, students gain knowledge and practice to help clients achieve self-determined health and wellness goals.

This program provides knowledge of ethical and legal guidelines, as well as professional standards, in the emerging field of health and wellness coaching. It offers an overview of all the core competencies for integrated health and wellness coaching, as outlined by the International Coach Federation (ICF), Lifestyle Medicine from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), and the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC). The NBHWC Program Approval Commission approves the course Positive Psychology and Mental Health (year one) as a continuing education course for National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coaches. On completion, the student is awarded a Certificate of Completion. The master's program is not affiliated with a certifying body or examination provider.

The Master's Program covers 7 online courses in a premier teaching format. This structure optimizes student outcomes by combining the flexibility of digital learning with the vital social and collaborative elements of real-time classrooms. Medica Nova Online Education offers quality-certified online university courses that recognize instructors whose courses have implemented and provided evidence of all the Foundational Elements and Advanced Strategies of the Online Learning Excellence Framework.

 

✶     YEAR ONE     ✶

In the first year, students will enjoy the foundational course, Integrated Health Coaching (4-month course), with all required evidence-based coaching core competencies, Stress Less (1-month course) designed to examine stress, including the assessment of stress triggers and the application of stress management techniques, Sleep Better (1-month course), with its assessment of effective sleep routines and science-based sleep management techniques, and Positive Psychology and Mental Health (8-week course), about the concepts and principles of positive psychology.

With the advent of positive psychology, there has been a significant shift in the focus of mental health research and practice. At its core, positive psychology recognizes happiness and well-being as “essential human skills”. Positive psychology, an evidence-based approach to well-being, focuses on a person’s strengths, abilities, talents, relationships, positive emotions, positive experiences, and intrinsic motivation. Year 1 covers 160 study hours plus 2 supervised coaching practice sessions.

 

✶     YEAR TWO     ✶

In year two, students will explore the inspiring and educational course curriculum of Integrated Mental Health (8-week course), while gaining an understanding of the causes of mental illness, which have important implications for therapeutic uses in the treatment of depression, anxiety, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, ADHD, and other mental health problems. This section of the two-year program provides the knowledge and practice to support a whole-body approach to mental health disorders, utilizing multiple fields of medicine and nutritional sciences. It introduces students to holistic and therapeutic methodologies indicated for integrated mental health care.

Students will be further introduced to the knowledge, skills, and guidelines of the course Health By Numbers - Wellness Beyond Numbers (8-week course), which focuses on health promotion and disease prevention, as well as a comprehensive overview of Lifestyle Medicine (8-week course), with evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic approaches.

The coach should have a basic understanding of common chronic diseases and conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, and a constellation of symptoms known as metabolic syndrome, which together place individuals at higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and some cancers. Inflammation is one of the key pathophysiological processes that underlie most chronic diseases.

Lifestyle medicine portrays the use of a predominantly whole-food, plant-based diet, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substance use, and other non-drug modalities to treat, often reverse, and prevent the lifestyle-related chronic diseases that are all too prevalent. Lifestyle medicine acknowledges the link between lifestyle and health outcomes.

 

✶     YEAR ONE & TWO     ✶

By definition, health and wellness coaches are not content experts in health or disease; they do not diagnose or prescribe unless a coach holds credentials in another profession that allow them to provide expert advice. However, coaches need to have a solid working familiarity with current evidence-based recommendations provided by public health groups.

Coach competencies include enhancing client self-management, identifying risk factors, understanding measurement standards and screening procedures, knowing basic information regarding prevention and behavioral treatment, and recognizing medical red flags. Monitoring health numbers, like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, allows the coach to take proactive steps to improve the client’s health, manage existing conditions, and work towards a longer, healthier life. Since the coaching relationship is client-centered, the coach’s focus is on determining what the client already knows, needs, and wishes to learn about.

Professional health and wellness coaches need to be knowledgeable in a variety of areas, including lifestyle assessments, effective relationships, collaborating with patients, working with a team of caregivers, making referrals, utilizing medical information and technology, and promoting healthy habits as a foundation for health. Another core competency involves the need for and value of the personal practice of a healthy lifestyle. Year 2 covers 120 study hours plus 2 supervised coaching practice sessions.

 

And lastly….this unique and inspiring Two-Year Health & Wellness Coaching Master Program supports students in developing

self-awareness and consciousness related to the integration and balance of body, mind, and spirit.

 

Program Fee: $2,595 (installments: $865 yearly)

Contact Medica Nova Online Education for your syllabus at health@medicanova.net