The entrepreneurial characteristics of national board certified health and wellness coaches

Abstract

ABSTRACT Efforts to professionalise the health and wellness coaching field led the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching to establish a national board certification for health and wellness coaching in 2017. The certification helped define the boundaries of the field and created standards of practice. Definition of the health and wellness coaching field makes possible research focused on quantifying characteristics of national board certified health and wellness coaches (NBC-HWCs). While much is known about the efficacy of health and wellness coaching, little is known about NBC-HWCs. This study documented the sociodemographic characteristics of NBC-HWCs and examined their interest in entrepreneurship as related to gender and age. More than half of the NBC-HWCs wanted to enter private practice after training. Entrepreneurial intention was similar for women and men, and age was positively correlated. Understanding the entrepreneurial intention of NBC-HWCs has implications for health and wellness coach training programs to examine how students’ career goals are supported.