Setting Standards for Health & Wellness Coaching in Healthcare - Jennifer Lundman

Host Barbara Zabawa interviews Jennifer Lundman, executive director of the Institute for Behavior Change, about why the Institute was founded in the last year to develop credible, sustainable standards for health and wellness coaching—especially for coaches working inside healthcare systems. Lundman describes collaborating with coaches, health systems, and healthcare professionals to confront skepticism and stigma around “wellness,” clarify scope of practice, and build governance, integrity, and evidence for the profession. She shares that the Institute has developed standards, psychometrically validated competencies, and will launch a beta exam soon, with next steps including advocacy, implementation science-based clinical workflows, and research to strengthen generalizable evidence and expand access in underserved communities. They discuss billing codes as still “to be determined” and announce the Catalyst Convening in Columbia, Missouri (July 31 reception; August 1–2 main event), with details at instituteforbehaviorchange.org.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions
01:13 What Is the Institute
03:22 Why Standards Matter
05:09 Healthcare Skepticism and Scope
09:10 Validated Competencies and Exam
10:04 Implementation and Research Pillars
13:12 Protecting Coaching as a Profession
15:43 Billing Codes Reality Check
17:10 Catalyst Convening Details
19:34 Wrap Up and Resources

Learn more about Wellness Law at www.wellnesslaw.com.