Skills of a Health Coach

If you want to become a personal health coach and run your own business, there are many skill areas that you need to know something about. These skills will help you to grow your business. More importantly, these skills will help you to improve the health and quality of life of your clients while developing a strong client-coach relationship.

Depending on what type of health coach you are and how involved you are with your clients, will determine the breadth and depth of the training and the skills you need to be successful.

In general, if you run your own business, you'll have to have more skills than if you were working for a company.

Here is a list of some of the skills and knowledge areas that you (or a member of your staff) may need:

Medical Skills
-- Science
-- Biology
-- Physiology
-- Pathophysiology
-- Medical Testing
-- Western Medicine

Nutrition-related Skills
-- Nutritional Science
-- Types of Diets
-- Meal Design & Planning
-- Nutrition vs. Different Diseases
-- Emotional Eating
-- Vitamins & Minerals
-- Phytonutrients
-- Herbs
-- Detox

Technical Skills
-- Research
-- Problem-solving Analysis
-- Diagnostics Analysis
-- Computer tools, i.e. MS tools (Word, PowerPoint)
-- Internet tools
-- Website/Blog Design

People Skills
-- Empathetic Listening
-- Verbal skills
-- Public Speaking/Presentation Skills
-- Writing
-- Mentoring
-- Collaboration
-- Cultures

Emotional Support
-- Psychology
-- Lifestyle (habits, recreation)
-- Inner spirit (Spirituality)
-- Sleep
-- Family relationships

Medical Support
-- Blood tests, exams
-- Healthcare team
-- Drugs/medications

Alternative Medicine
-- Integrative Medicine
-- Eastern Medicine
-- Physical Activity & Exercise Methodologies
-- Wellness s. Disease Models
-- Other Healing Modality Experiences
    (i.e. acupuncture, biofeedback, Reiki, hypnosis, meditation, bodywork, etc.)

Business Skills
-- Entrepreneurship
-- Business Planning
-- Marketing
-- Networking
-- Social Media Platforms

Personnel
-- Staff/Employee Hiring
-- Staff/Employee Management
-- Organization Design/Infrastructure
-- Project Planning
-- Performance Measurement
-- Communication Methods

Engineering Skills*
-- Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
-- Diagnostics Engineering Analysis (DEA)
-- Knowledge Base Engineering (KBE)
-- Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
-- Reverse Engineering Methodologies (REM)
-- Statistical Engineering Analysis (SEA)
-- Force Field Analysis (FFA)
-- Current State/Desired State Gap Analysis
-- Mathematical Modeling & Computational Methods
-- Predictive Modeling
-- Biomedical Engineering
-- Stress Test Analysis (STA)

Note 1: The specific skills that you need will be based on the products and services that you plan to provide to your clients. But, it is not necessary that you have all of these skills! However, your staff or business partners should be able to cover those areas where you are lacking any specific experience or skills.

*Note 2: These engineering skills are not required to become a health coach, but, if you have any of these skills, it definitely won't hurt!