Many Doors, Many Paths

How I Found Health and Wellness Coaching

I used to think life coaching was something reserved for the upper class—an intervention for people who “had it all” yet still found themselves in a midlife crisis. I assumed it was helpful, but ultimately inaccessible. Not something meant for people who were struggling just to stay afloat.

I had no idea that health and wellness coaching exists to the extent that it does—that there is an entire evidence-backed method of conversation designed to support sustainable behavior change. That it’s something you can be professionally trained in. And that it’s increasingly recognized as a meaningful part of preventive healthcare.

Health and wellness coaches focus on empowering others to set and achieve their goals by way of collaboration and support of one’s inner strengths and values. Often resulting in the prevention—and in some cases reversal—of non-communicable diseases. These are conditions largely influenced by lifestyle and behavior: things like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction.

Coaching doesn’t replace medical care, counseling, or training. It works alongside them, helping people bridge the gap between what they know and what they’re actually able to implement in their daily lives.

Still, I hesitated.

What’s the point, I wondered, if I can’t help the people who are barely standing—those who can’t afford the basics, let alone private coaching sessions? I had no interest in pursuing a profession that only served a specific class of people. I wanted to help anyone, especially those who needed support the most.

I even considered studying coaching simply because it interested me. I could learn the material, use it informally in conversations, and still pursue my actual next step. But the more I came to understand what it stood for, that didn’t feel like enough. I wanted this work to be impactful. Purposeful. Widely recognized as a fundamental piece of human health and wellness.

What changed things for me was learning that health and wellness coaching is now a board-recognized certification, with some insurance providers beginning to cover sessions. This means coaching can exist in workplaces, healthcare systems, and community settings. Some corporations already employ health coaches to support their teams.

That matters. And it makes all the difference.

It means coaching doesn’t have to live on the margins. It can sit alongside social workers, probation officers, and healthcare providers—supporting real people, in real life, where change is hardest and most needed.

Around the same time I was considering investing a significant portion of my savings into health and wellness coaching certification, it happened to be National Yoga Month. A major sale for YogaRenew’s 200-hour online yoga teacher training crossed my screen—September 29th, to be exact. The sale ended the next day.

By then, I was already studying beginner-friendly herbalism through Herbalista Free School. Forever a student—although sometimes an overzealous one. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always had something I was “looking into” on the side.

Yoga teacher training had been on my heart for years, but I’d never viewed it as a viable opportunity. My traveling work routine made teaching feel unrealistic, at least in a way I could rely on financially. Still, the timing felt meaningful. The course was deeply discounted, and even if it didn’t fit my right-now priorities, it clearly belonged on the path ahead.

So I purchased it.

And then I made a decision that surprised even me: I chose to put yoga teacher training—and herbalism—slightly in the background, and commit first to health and wellness coaching through AFPA.

Not because yoga or herbalism mattered less. But because coaching offered something foundational. A way to meet people where they are- now. A framework for change that’s collaborative, evidence-based, and deeply human. A tool that could support any modality I might offer in the future.

Health coaching didn’t replace the other paths—it clarified them.

It gave shape to the question I’d been circling for months: How do I help people help themselves, sustainably?

And for the first time, I felt like I had an answer that matched both my values and my reality.