Curriculum Plan

The Certificate Program in Narrative Health Coaching involves a considerable commitment to learning and practice. The program is completed in 7 months including live and online coursework, observation and mentorship. Divided into four overlapping phases, the program begins with two months of live online curricula taught in weekly sessions. During the third month, the clinical component of the program begins as students enter the Online Coaching Clinic, during which a faculty member directly coaches a client with students observing in a “grand rounds” style of learning.  Health and Wellness Lifestyle curriculum also begins in the third month, in an independent learning format. In the fourth month, the mentorship begins with students working directly with two volunteer clients.  Mentorship sessions convene in small groups of up to 6 students throughout the remainder of the program.  3 individual tutorials with faculty occur during months four through six, providing direct assessment and feedback. The program completes with a live oral final exam in which students coach a client.

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Core Coaching Curriculum (Months 1 – 7)

The four principles of Narrative Health Coaching (NHC) form the basic template for the core curriculum of the Certificate Program.  Students learn an integrative approach to health coaching by engaging the behavioral approaches of traditional health and wellness coaching with the additional benefit of the powerful developmental skills of NHC. Growing the coach’s healing presence is essential for enhancing the coach’s effectiveness. Engaging the client with this presence leads to a more dynamic coaching relationship.  NHC uses a learning approach unique in the coaching field, one that is firmly grounded in the most progressive learning pedagogy.

Students learn to create a personalized coaching plan for each client, including a healing topic and learning objectives. This client-specific coaching plan serves as the template for the transformative learning.  In fact, learning serves as the healing agent in NHC, unlike some health and wellness coaching methods which often only offer co-active behavioral feedback. Powerful new healing resources can be identified and mastered through NHC, allowing for ongoing healing. Coursework offers student coaches the opportunity to experience and internalize these principles, enhancing their commitment to life-long learning.

Online Coaching Clinic (Months 3 – 6)

Observing a master coach’s skillfully unpacking the coaching process in detail, provides a unique learning environment for integrating NHC principles and coaching core competencies.  Dr. Kreisberg leads the clinic by coaching, then offering analysis and engaging Q&A with students.  Coaching notes, plans and assignments are shared, providing an opportunity to literally sit in on the full process of coaching.

Lifestyle Medicine for Health Coaches (Months 3 – 7)

21^st-century health coaches will increasingly be asked to work with lifestyle challenges with their clients.  Topics in Lifestyle Medicine for Health Coaches curriculum include nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress reduction, substance abuse and common chronic conditions – hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome.  With the help of several leading integrative physician educators, our Lifestyle Medicine curriculum consists of 15 hours of recorded webinars allowing for students to learn at their own pace during months 3 through 7.

Mentorship (Months 4 – 7)

The Certificate Program mentorship offers direct supervision of the student’s casework by certified mentors.  Students meet regularly in small mentor group sessions of up to six, while concurrently working with two volunteer clients on their own. Three one-on-one tutorials with an assigned faculty mentor provide direct supervision of each student’s coaching casework.