Not all health coaching is the same. To be effective in the digital age, you need to develop a core set of health coaching skills that make the difference between good and great. While getting certified is important, it’s just one part of the whole picture. Do you have an innate desire to help people change their lives? Do you possess the self-awareness to know what you excel at, and the humility to see where you can improve? 

At HG Institute, we build our coaching programs around exactly these questions. In this article, we’ll explore the skills you need to excel as a modern health coach, and how you can develop them.

What is a health coach?

A health coach is a trained professional who partners with clients to support behavior change. It’s future-focused and client-led: you're not diagnosing, treating, or prescribing. You're helping someone identify what they want and develop the skills and confidence to move towards them. 

On the other hand, therapists and counselors are licensed to diagnose and treat mental health conditions, work with clinical presentations, and provide evidence-based psychotherapy. 

Health coaches operate in a different but similarly important lane: one focused on behavior change, goal-setting, and whole-person wellness rather than clinical treatment. Knowing where that scope begins and ends, and how to work skillfully within it, is one of the most important things you can develop as a coach.

Coaches often reach people at stages of life that clinical care doesn't, and in settings where a therapist isn't available or appropriate. The two roles work best when practitioners both understand each other well enough to collaborate, understand their respective scopes, and refer with confidence.

What health coaching skills actually look like in practice

Being an effective health coach means empowering clients to find answers on their own, make lasting changes, and take control of their lives, not telling them what to do or handing them solutions on a silver platter. Your clients may not know the strengths they have within themselves; your job is to help them see what they’re capable of.

As the relationship progresses, your client should feel more equipped to face challenges and achieve their goals. You know you've done your job when they reach the point of self-sufficiency and don’t need to meet with you as regularly, or maybe even at all.

The core skills every health coach needs

These health coach competencies are the foundation upon which you can build a successful practice, helping clients create the life they truly desire. 

1. Active listening 

To be an active listener, you need to listen to understand, not just what your client is saying, but the emotions behind their words, too. 

How to be an active listener:

• Focus on what your client has to say, not how you’re going to respond

• Acknowledge what they’re saying and show you’re listening through nonverbal cues 

• Don’t interrupt; let them finish their thoughts

• Actively respond to questions

• Focus all your attention on them (remove distractions in your environment)

• Approach with curiosity, not judgment

• Make eye contact

• Paraphrase or summarize what the client said to you to make sure you’re both on the same page

2. Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a type of interviewing that respects the client’s autonomy to take action and change their behaviors. It focuses on guiding the client to recognizing what or why they need to change on their own, if they truly want to, rather than telling them what they should do (taking a paternalistic or authoritarian stance).

Take, for example, a client who’s compulsively playing video games for several hours every day. They neglect their health, relationships, and work, and feel stuck in their life. While it would be easy to conclude that your client lacks drive or purpose, motivational interviewing is designed to uncover their motivation, as it might not be immediately obvious.

Some questions you can ask in this situation could be: 

• Are there any concerns you have about the effects of your gaming?

• Have your goals been impacted by gaming? If so, how?

• If you continued gaming excessively, what would your future look like?

• Are there other activities you would like to do that gaming prevents you from doing?

Emphasize to your client that their decision to change is entirely up to them. It’s not your job to convince them of anything; you’re there to create a space where they can reflect on what they desire and what they’re willing to do to get it.

3. Goal-setting

Help your clients create personal goals that follow the SMART framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

• Break big goals down into smaller steps to ensure that they’re achievable and progress is sustainable.

• Ensure your client’s goals are aligned with their values and vision for their future.

• Help clients develop self-efficacy by asking them to share their previous successes and which behaviors led to that, as well as examining the behaviors of people who were able to achieve the success that they desire.

• Create a plan with actionable steps that they can follow to make progress every day. 

• Do regular check-ins to help keep your client accountable. 

4. Behavior change frameworks

Behavior change frameworks are actionable, evidence-based tools that help us understand and influence human behavior. They are more pragmatic than scientific in nature. Here are a few examples of some of the most widely used behavior change frameworks:

• Self-Determination Theory (SDT): This theory says that people are driven by three main things: the need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. By helping your clients understand their intrinsic motivation, you can create interventions that are more sustainable in the long run.

• The Transtheoretical Model (TTM): The TTM identifies five stages of change to describe a person’s readiness for change and its execution: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. As your clients progress through these stages (at their own pace), they will need self-efficacy, decision-making, and supportive environments to facilitate successful behaviour change.

• COM-B Model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behavior): The COM-B model focuses on an individual’s levels of Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation to result in a Behavior. If your client can successfully implement these levers of change, they will experience the desired behavior change.

5. Holding space without overstepping your scope

As a health coach, you want to empower your clients to take action and create a safe space for them to express themselves freely. However, both parties must be clear about the rules of engagement in your relationship.

• Choose clients who align with your practice: As you become more established in your coaching career and gain more experience, you can be more discerning about who you choose to work with. Not everyone will be a good fit for you as a health coach. 

• Establish clear boundaries and the scope of your practice: Do this in writing from the start, and reiterate it in meetings. This includes knowing and communicating the limits of health coaching (e.g., coaching is not therapy; it focuses on action, not diagnoses).

• Share information and guidance rather than give advice: Don’t tell your clients they should do this or that. Present them with the necessary information. Ask the right questions so they can come to conclusions on their own. Empower them to take action.

• Build a network of referrals: Have a list of contacts ready in case your client needs support that other health professionals are better equipped to provide.

• Follow ethical codes of conduct: This is necessary to ensure both parties are protected, and mutual respect is established.

6. Building rapport across diverse client backgrounds

In your practice, you will likely work with people with different backgrounds. It’s crucial to connect with and help various types of personalities. Here are some tips for building rapport and being respectful of all your clients, regardless of who they are:

• Educate yourself about your client’s background: If you know about their background beforehand and you don’t have similar lived experiences, do some research before you start coaching them. This includes searching online, reading books, and speaking to people who do have similar backgrounds. This doesn’t mean you’ll understand them inside and out, but creating a solid foundation of understanding at the very start of the coach-client relationship is necessary for building trust and emotional safety.

• Adapt to their communication style: Some clients like to take more time and pause before answering questions. Others will need less time and space to talk. Be conscious of your clients’ communication style and adjust accordingly.

• Don't make assumptions: Channel your curiosity and ask questions without judgment. For example, don’t assume that all of your clients will communicate in the same way with their parents. Several factors, such as your client’s cultural background, familial upbringing, physical environment, and how healthy their relationships are, will impact how they communicate with their guardians or parental figures.

• Apologize for mistakes: We’re all human. Sometimes we make mistakes; health coaches are no different. Create a safe space for clients to be honest with you when they feel hurt or uncomfortable. Have the humility to acknowledge where you went wrong, apologize for it, and make a conscious effort to do better.

Skills that set digital wellness coaches apart

The mental health landscape of today looks vastly different from what it was even a decade ago. Today’s world requires a digital-focused approach to coaching as technology is deeply embedded in our lives, creating lasting impacts on our behaviors and ability to achieve our goals.

Recognizing problematic tech-related behaviors in your clients

Is your client’s technology use negatively impacting their health, relationships, and responsibilities? For example, your client is chatting with AI all night, regularly foregoing much-needed sleep. They’re often late completing tasks at work, and their boss has given multiple warnings. Dig deeper into the why behind their excessive AI use. Are they avoiding tough problems in their lives? Are they so bored that they’re seeking challenges and excitement through video games?

Coaching around screen time, social media, and device habits

Technology isn’t inherently bad. If used properly and in moderation, it can make our clients’ lives better. For example, social media can empower them to find community, and their phones can make them more productive, giving them more time for self-care. To be an effective tech-conscious health coach, help your client set healthy boundaries around technology use and implement strict guidelines around respecting those boundaries. 

Looking to level up your health coaching skills for digital natives? The Digital Wellness Expansion Pack (approved by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching) was designed to prepare coaches to help clients navigate modern mental health challenges in a technology-obsessed world.

How to build these skills before (and after) you get certified

Getting certified is an important part of your development as a health coach, but it shouldn’t be your only focus. Seek out other types of professional training, such as attending workshops, reading relevant literature, and speaking to other mentors and coaches to increase your competency as a health coach. 

Outside professional settings, helping your clients become as successful as possible (whatever their definition of success is) necessitates that you live your personal life in a way that aligns with your values as a health coach. Practice being a curious, non-judgmental, empathetic, and self-reflective person so you can show up for your clients in the way that they need.

Build health coaching skills in today’s mental health landscape

Traditional approaches to coaching are no longer sufficient to help clients navigate burnout, tech overwhelm, and the psychological challenges of the modern world. HGI is offering a first-of-its-kind, 20-week NBHWC-approved certification program that specializes in both mental health and digital wellness. Are you ready to rise to the challenge?