From Passive to Partner: Integrative Health Coach Training Using Motivational Interviewing for Behavior Change

Summary: Integrative medicine includes the best of conventional medicine but expands the definition and focus of health to the person's body, mind, spirituality and community, explains Ruth Wolever, Ph.D., clinical health psychologist and director of research at Duke Integrative Medicine. Central to Duke's integrative health coaching program is mindfulness training and the "Wheel of Health" --- a key to defining health and assessing the individual's readiness to change. Encouraging health coaches to implement their own personalized health plans allows them to "walk the talk" and empathize with the client's position. Dr. Wolever, along with Dr. Karen Lawson, program director for the health coaching track at the Center for Spirituality and Healing, the University of Minnesota, examined integrative health coaching --- how health coaches can benefit from training in motivational interviewing, self-management and even spirituality and healing --- during, From Passive to Partner: Integrative Health Coach Training Using Motivational Interviewing for Behavior Change.