How Certified Health and Wellness Coaches Are Transforming Healthcare and Saving Lives

When someone leaves a doctor’s office with a new diagnosis, the medical advice often comes down to common-sense lifestyle changes — the same ones we all know we should do but struggle to implement. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Manage stress. Take your medication. Get a good night's sleep. 

For many, the gap between recommended and actual implementation is where progress stalls. That gap is where the growing profession of Health and Wellness Coaching is stepping in.

"We're specialists in lifestyle behavior change," said Taylor Colvey, a board-certified Health and Wellness Coach and instructor with the Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate Program at UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies. “We help to close that gap so people can navigate uncertainty and actually follow through.”

With the rise of national Health and Wellness Coach Certification through the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), the field is now recognized as a credible and increasingly essential part of the healthcare landscape.

To understand the benefits of certification, both for aspiring Health and Wellness Coaches, as well as the medical industry and patients, we spoke with Colvey, also a private-practice coach who works closely with functional medicine models, and Emily Marquis, another instructor in the Health and Wellness Certificate program, as well as a clinical health and wellness coach with 15 years of experience on research teams and in integrated care. 

Both describe health and wellness coaching as a rapidly growing and increasingly vital aspect of the medical field and patient care.

The Real Work of Health and Wellness Coaching

Most people assume health coaching is about motivation, accountability, or getting a personalized diet plan, but Marquis describes the work more precisely.

"We bridge the gap between recommendations and making it happen through habit building and understanding what works best for the individual," said Marquis. “It's about reducing overwhelm and connecting the knowledge to action."

Both Marquis and Colvey describe the role as translating a doctor's general guidance into small, achievable steps — transforming overwhelming goals into realistic habits that fit a person's values and daily life.

In this respect the profession provides exactly what today's healthcare system struggles to deliver: sustained, behavior-focused, relationship-centered support. Where doctors and specialists often have limited time, health coaches provide continuity, partnership, and ongoing care—week after week, month after month.

“We hold space for people, empathize, and help them align actions with their values, time, and money,” Marquis said. “It’s an underappreciated dynamic of care that can be a huge difference maker.”

Why Health and Wellness Coach Certification Matters

In 2011, when Marquis became a health coach for the first time, the profession was still largely unrecognized. "It wasn’t understood as a real profession yet,” she recalled. “I spent a lot of time trying to convince people about what I did.”

The creation of the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) changed everything. “The NBHWC changed my life,” Marquis said. “It opened doors, gave me credibility, and connected me with job opportunities.”

She added that the emergence of the NBHWC certification also established a clear code of ethics and continuing education requirements for the field—elements that help both clients and medical professionals take the profession more seriously. The NBHWC has also been working hard to create more opportunities for certified coaches, which will in turn create more accessibility for patients. 

“The NBHWC has worked tirelessly in conjunction with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to make Health & Wellness Coaching (HWC) part of Medicare’s Chronic Care Management,” said Colvey. “These partnerships are helping to open doors for insurance reimbursement. This is going to be an especially important development for professionals in the field.”

How UC San Diego Extended Studies Prepares Students for Health and Wellness Coaching Careers

As one of the few NBHWC-approved pathways to certification in the country, UC San Diego Extended Studies’ Health and Wellness Coaching program prepares students to enter the field with both credibility and competence.

“Students can finish in as little as six months or take up to five years.” Colvey said. “They take coursework, complete skills training, and then log 50 coaching sessions to qualify for the boards.”

Those who pass the board exam become National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coaches (NBC-HWC). But even those who don’t immediately sit for boards still receive significant professional benefit. “Graduating from an approved program already gives you an important level of credibility,” Marquis said. “It shows you’ve completed ethics training and met a national standard.”

The program attracts a wide range of students, including nurses (who can earn American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) continuing education credits), fitness trainers, career changers, human resources professionals, and even people recovering from their own chronic illness. 

“It’s such a rich mix,” said Colvey. “We have herbalists, nurses, yoga teachers, former military, and people struggling with their own conditions taking our courses. Our graduates say their self-growth from the program is huge too. People are often crying on the last day.”

Where Certified Health and Wellness Coaches Work Today

Today, the profession is scaling rapidly. Employers now include:

• Primary care and specialty clinics
• Functional medicine practices
• Insurance companies
• Employee assistance programs (EAPs)
• Digital health and telehealth companies
• Community health centers
• Universities and research teams
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (the largest employer of health and wellness coaches)
• Fitness and wellness facilities
• Private practices

Marquis notes that insurance companies often hire coaches to proactively call people with chronic conditions to offer support. “Helping people with lifestyle or medication adherence saves them money,” she explained. “Instead of someone going to the ER, coaches support them before it gets that far.”

From the private practice side, Colvey emphasized how the field blends entrepreneurial possibility with growing institutional legitimacy. “You can coach anybody, anywhere, anytime,” she said. “Executive coaching, workplace wellness, healthcare, digital health… We train you on the foundational skills so you can coach in any direction.”

And thanks to emerging flexible HSA/FSA options, even private clients can sometimes use pre-tax dollars to pay for coaching. “It’s another way to make coaching more accessible,” Colvey added.

The Future of Health and Wellness Coaching in the U.S.

The profession is young but the momentum is real and the need is undeniable. Both coaches speak with deep conviction about the impact of their work. “Certification gives me confidence. But more importantly, it helps clients feel supported in ways the traditional system doesn’t offer,” said Colvey.

Marquis takes it one step further. “By training more Certified Health and Wellness Coaches, we can help more people, make coaching more accessible, and I don’t say this lightly — we can save more lives.”

For those who feel called to a meaningful, impactful career in health, this moment is an opportunity to enter the growing evidence-based field of Health and Wellness Coaching.

To learn more, visit the Health and Wellness Certificate Program page.