The path to full-time health coaching.

As little as five years ago, the only path to health coaching on a full-time basis was to set up a part-time practice and work your tail off. After a little (or lot of) time and definitely a lot of hustle, you’d have the clients, income, and confidence necessary to leave that job you dreaded going to every day and fully embrace the life you’d been dreaming of.

While the part-time to full-time route is still the most popular way to build a lucrative health coaching practice, there are now many alternatives for those who don’t want to spend another second working in a soul-stealing job that has nothing to do with their passion for health and wellness and helping others.

Nine places you can work as a Health Coach

1. In hospitals and doctor’s offices

A growing number of doctor’s offices, wellness centers, alternative health practices, and even hospitals are recognizing the crucial benefits of health coaching and holistic self-care. Depending on your location you might be able to secure a part time or full-time position either as an independent Health Coach in a team environment, or alongside a medical doctor who wishes to provide nutritional guidance to patients, like IIN grad Amanda Carney.

2. For healthcare insurers

Health insurance companies now understand the value of preventive care as a tool to reduce benefit payouts and ultimately reduce the cost of insurance premiums. So much so, that many are offering free phone consultations to its customers in an effort to get them on a healthier track. Telemedicine is an ever-growing perk of both insurance carriers and brick-and-mortar doctor’s offices, giving people the ability to receive health and wellness consulting or screening without having to leave their home or office.

3. With corporations

While employers have long embraced health initiatives like subsidized gym memberships and programs to help employees quit smoking, they are taking employee wellness far more seriously now. With so much at stake, some businesses are now hiring full-time Health Coaches to lead their in-house corporate wellness programs, as well as hiring freelance coaches as consultants.

4. In on- and offline food chains

A popular and highly effective technique among many successful Health Coaches is to take clients to a grocery store and re-teach them how to shop for food based on their unique needs.

Now, many online food delivery services and progressive grocery chains are also seeing the benefit of helping their customers shop smarter by hiring Health Coaches. Some chains will even go a step further and host in-store nutrition classes and recipe demos. It’s one thing to buy healthy ingredients and pantry staples, but it’s another to understand how to use them in a way that helps you feel nourished and satisfied.

5. At schools and universities

Health Coaches are being hired to create healthier menus, oversee food preparation, and hold one-on-one consultations with students. Health Coaches in schools aren’t just tackling nutrition issues, either. They are helping students with body image, sleep patterns, and stress management issues as well.

6. As a private or group coach

One-on-one coaching is a common way for students to begin exploring and sharing their wellness with others, with many going on to do this work part time or full time.

Those who enjoy personal interaction and group dynamics opt to focus on group coaching, bringing people together who are interested in whatever wellness topic they choose to focus on, such as healthy aging, cleansing or detox, weight loss, etc.

7. Through online programs

If you enjoy communications, creativity, and marketing while being location-independent then you might want to consider developing your own unique online program. These can come in the form of virtual courses, subscription programs, or member-based offerings. Rather than individual attention to a small number of people, this is a way to provide valuable content that can influence thousands in a positive way while still giving you plenty of freedom.

8. With restaurants for recipe or product development

Have you ever dreamed of creating your own healthy product – food, body care, or lifestyle - to be sold for the benefit of people around the country, or even the world? As a Health Coach you’ll gain the knowledge and insights to fuel your creativity, gather the necessary resources and relationships, and develop both your wonderful product and the story behind it.

If you love cooking, perhaps you’ll decide to launch a healthy product line like Purely Elizabeth founder, Elizabeth Stein.

9. By writing or blogging

Publishing your work as an author or blogger is another great way to share your knowledge with the world. If you love cooking and creating recipes, you can write a cookbook or create a wildly popular health blog. You could also become a wellness writer for businesses or organizations who share your values, or work alongside wellness brands that need your professional skills as well as appreciating your education.

Cultivate a fulfilling full-time health coaching career with an IIN education.

Health Coaches have more full-time opportunities than ever, so don’t feel that you are limited to starting with a part-time private practice and growing from there. It’s highly likely that businesses are recruiting full-time positions near you now.

Health coaching roles are becoming so prolific that there are now many training programs to choose from, so just a few words of caution before you choose an online nutrition school to earn that valuable health coaching certificate; all Health Coaches are not created equal. The increased demand for Health Coaches has unfortunately given rise to more and more certificate mills that are aiming to cash in on this historic labor trend.

Do your research and spend your hard-earned dollars wisely. Finding the right training program is all about your goals and what works for you.