When Is it Time to Call A Wellness Coach?

When is it time to call in a wellness coach? When you’re willing to pay $50 to $150 an hour to talk on the phone with someone who will help you stick with the program. As this piece in the New York Times makes clear, almost all of the programs have something to do with weight loss. Another thing this story makes clear is that wellness coaches are doing well–hence the name–most make between $50,00 and $150,000 year, and they are sprouting like mushrooms after a summer rain. The paper reports that in 2000, Wellcoaches, an alliance whose training program is endorsed by
the American College of Sports Medicine, trained 100 coaches. Last
year, it trained 1,000.  The bad news, the Times reports, is that because the wellness coach business is completely unregulated, there is no telling how many people are doing well simply by calling themselves wellness coaches, but lack meaningful credentials. In fact, a correction that has been added to the Times piece suggests just how hard it is to keep all the credentials straight: the paper misstated the credentials of one of the story’s main sources.
Read more in the New York Times.