[2] Wellness coaching is a process that facilitates healthy, sustainable behavior change by challenging a client to develop their inner wisdom, identify their values, and transform their goals into action.
[3] Wellness coaching draws on the principles from positive psychology and appreciative inquiry, and the practices of motivational interviewing and goal setting.
In the US Dietitians are the only nutrition professionals regulated by law, and are governed by an ethical code to ensure that they always work to the highest standard.
The emphasis is on the communication that is conducted with clients, concentrating on internal motivating factors and an exploration into individual core values and goals.
[11] A wellness vision is a creative statement by the client that reveals his/her highest potential and can include physical, emotional, social, spiritual and financial realms of their life.
The wellness vision can also be a creative statement that reveals the client's highest potential and can include physical, emotional, social, spiritual and financial realms of life.
[8][page needed] Guiding the agenda and goal setting are collaborative behavior change techniques used between the coach and the client.
[13] Goals promote behavior change through a collaborative process, which includes the coach making a plan to track and evaluate progress.
Positive feedback helps the client progress and move through negative self-talk, ambivalence, resistance, and other hurdles.
However, there is a growing awareness by healthcare practitioners of the role that the health coach plays in establishing sustainable lifestyle changes through behavior modifications, which is essential for chronic diseases management and prevention.
Healthcare professionals have the knowledge about disease processes, exercise guidelines, special diets, and medications that must be imparted to the patient and caregivers in many forms: booklets, pamphlets, audio CDs, and the like.
Coaching had a positive effect on patients' knowledge, skill, self-efficacy and behavior change while a non-coached control group did not show any improvement.
[25] Another study shows that telephonic coaching is an effective program for assisting individuals with self-efficacy and weight loss.
This is considered a positive outcome because other studies have shown that when individuals reduced their tobacco usage, they find increased motivation to quit entirely in the future.