Getting Started as a Home-Based Health Coach

Have you been wondering what it takes to work as a home-based health coach? Ask most coaches who work from home and they’ll likely say that working from home as a coach is quite rewarding. But knowing what it to get started coaching from home is sometimes a mystery. And when you start looking for a job where you can work remotely as a coach, you may feel like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. So how can you work as a home-based health coach?

If one of your goals is to find a job where you can coach from home, you’ll want to read this article in its entirety. I’m going to share with you everything about how to get started in coaching, and what it takes to work as a virtual coach. 

Coaches can work from home, serving the needs of a wide range of clients or customers. And you don’t necessarily have to have a degree to work as a home-based coach either.

What is a coach?

Let’s start with a little overview of what a coach is and does. While there have been a few standards established around the term “coach,” the truth is that the definition of a coach is still very open for interpretation. It seems that anyone can call themselves a coach. But according to the International Coaching Federation (ICF) – one of the top regulatory agencies in the coaching field – a coach is a person who “partners with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

There are many specialties or “niches” that coaches can render their services. For instance, coaches can specialize in health and wellness, parenting, career, business, and many other areas.

The International Consortium for Health and Wellness Coaches (ICHWC) defines health and wellness coaches as those who “partner with clients seeking self-directed, lasting changes, aligned with their values, which promote health and wellness and, thereby, enhance well-being.”

The ICHWC also says that in the course of their work, health and wellness coaches display unconditional positive regard for their clients and a belief in their capacity for change, and honor that each client is an expert on his or her life while ensuring that all interactions are respectful and non-judgmental.

ICHWC is one of the few organizations in the coaching field that has established quality standards for certification, as evidenced by their partnership with the National Board of Medical Examiners.  And as we all know, a little external accountability and oversight is a good thing in the sometimes “free for all” field of coaching.

What training do coaches need?

There are a few different ways to get training to start a coaching career. Many colleges offer degrees in coaching that prepare you to go to work as a coach or start a coaching business.

Another option is to attend a training program specific to your coaching niche. Depending on what type of coaching you’d like to pursue, you’ll look for a program that aligns with that industry’s regulatory or certifying agency.

For instance, life coaches may want to look for a program with a curriculum and requirements that align with ICF standards. If you choose, you can seek certification through ICF at one of their various levels including Associate Certified Coach, Professional Certified Coach, and Master Certified Coach. Each level of coaching certification has different requirements for the level of training, the number of coaching hours, passing an exam, and providing letters of reference.

Health and Wellness Coaches also have many options for training. There are many programs and schools that offer Health and Wellness Coach Training, but as you can imagine, there is a lot of variance in the amount and quality of training within each program.

By attending a program certified by NBHWC (National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching; formerly ICHWC / International Consortium for Health and Wellness Coaching) and completing their exam, you would be able to earn the designation National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). The programs approved by NBHWC must include 30 real-time, synchronous contact hours of training and education classes or sessions on the four domains of their Job Task Analysis.

Now that you know more about how to get training to become a coach, you might be curious about earning potential. Let’s dive into that next.

How much can home-based health coaches earn?

The range for earning potential for home-based health coaches is quite broad. And if you’re looking to work as a home-based health coach, you’ll want to consider a few variables when thinking about your potential salary. Let’s start by looking at what companies that hire home-based health coaches might be looking for when making hiring decisions. Just like any other company, they will look at the following when they look over your resume:

• Whether you have a degree in coaching or a related field
• How long you have been coaching
• Your prior work experience in areas within your niche
• Your training and/or certifications

As you can see there are quite a few factors involved in getting hired by a company that provides remote coaching services. Sites like Glassdoor.com and Paysa.com can be accessed for more detailed insight into salary ranges.

Why more companies are hiring coaches

The world is slowly but surely awakening to the increasing health epidemics, especially in the United States where obesity is at an all-time high.  With this, more companies are recognizing and validating the efficacy and benefits of coaching. And when it comes to health coaching, this profession is growing not only in the “alternative” medicine world, but it is claiming its own space alongside western healthcare approaches.

A growing base of healthcare companies is adopting health coaching as a strategy within their formulary of medical offerings, while other companies are on the rise offering health coaching as a stand-alone product.

If you want to work from home, this area is worth exploring as many of the positions offered by these companies are remote, telecommute or “work-from-home” situations which allow you to plug into your workplace from virtually anywhere. This flexibility enables staff to achieve their own work-life balance while servicing clients and supporting company objectives. A win, win, win!

As a remote, virtual or telephonic coach, you would support clients at their convenience, meeting clients where they are. And nowadays that appears to be online more than sitting in an office for a  face-to-face session. And it’s not only companies that are able to do this either. Home-based health coaches can deliver virtual services or programs online as well through platforms that are built to meet this demand.

Companies that hire home-based health and wellness coaches

Here are a few types of companies that hire coaches to work from home:

• Career coaching companies
• Insurance companies
• Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

In addition, many hospitals and healthcare companies hire coaches; however, bear in mind that many of these positions will be prioritized for RNs, RDs or those holding advanced degrees in a counseling profession such as Social Work, Mental Health Counseling or Marriage and Family Therapy. 

How to find employment as a home-based health coach

Traditional job-hunting practices like looking through the Classified probably won’t cut it when trying to find a job as a work-from-home coach. You’ll need to do some digging. Start by conducting online searches on job databases like Glassdoor, Simply Hired, Monster, Indeed and Zip Recruiter. If nothing turns up, you’ll need to go deeper. Here are some additional tips for finding a position as a remote health coach:

• Network with your peers.
• Contact your school’s career services department for assistance.
• Search on Linked In and be sure to keep your profile updated.
• Go offline. Ironically, you can often find online jobs by networking in your local community.

Working as a remote health coach has it’s advantages, but these jobs are few and far between. In order to secure a position as a work-from-home health coach, you’ll need to do your due diligence in searching out opportunities. Get clear on the type of company you’d like to work for and what you have to contribute to that type of setting.