Collaboration and Synergy in the Field of Health and Wellness Coaching: Naïve or Necessary?

Abstract

The rise of health and wellness coaching holds significant promise for facilitating sustainable behavior change to help legions of individuals prevent and manage chronic disease. We all know the threats associated with the staggering epidemic of chronic disease and associated unhealthy lifestyles. But did we get here through a failure of personal responsibility? A failure of family units to support appropriate health behaviors? A failure of educational systems to teach healthy behaviors? A failure of medicine to cultivate health behaviors in patients? A failure of municipalities from an urban planning perspective? A failure of the social sciences to apply the latest in adult learning theory, psychology, and behavioral economics to health behaviors? A failure of government to incentivize or reinforce health behaviors? A failure of industry to prioritize health over capital? A failure of society to integrate all of the above? Or is this just the perfect time to synergize all that we know from numerous disciplines to conquer the challenge of unhealthy behavior that creates chronic disease? From my perspective as a health psychologist, understanding the origins of the problems will help us draft the solution. But from my perspective as a coach, how we got here is much less important than how we get out of here.