Last updated on February 8, 2024
Health coaching is a complex field. It embodies physical health, mental health, developing healthy habits, nutrition, and supporting clients throughout their transformation. If you don’t want to settle for being good—if you’re aiming for greatness—continual learning and absorbing new knowledge is essential.
While coaching courses, webinars, and certification programs are all pivotal for building your expertise, we can’t forget the limitless source of knowledge—books. In this post, we’ll share the best books for health coaches so you can expand your reading list with quality literature.
Table of Contents
1. Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Habit formation is a pivotal step in health coaching, which is why the bestseller Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones deserves a spot on your TBR list. This book has achieved global success, and even though habit-building guidance isn’t solely focused on health and well-being, it can apply to health coaching.
Clear explains the power of small changes (or atomic habits), and how compounding them can create life-changing transformations. He decodes the science behind how habits form and gives you direction on how to implement practical strategies to break the bad ones and replace them with beneficial habits.
This book can be a game-changer in helping your clients build healthier, long-lasting habits. By understanding the psychology behind habit formation, you’ll be able to guide clients in developing and sticking to healthier routines.
2. The 4 Keys: How to Win in Your Business, Body, Relationships, and Mindset by Andrew Sillitoe
The 4 Keys: How to Win in Your Business, Body, Relationships, and Mindset by Andrew Sillitoe
If you want to dive deeper into the secrets of unlocking the best versions of yourself across the key areas of life—business, body, relationships, and mindset—this book is the answer.
Andrew Sillitoe is a business psychologist, speaker, author, and Primal Health Coach, and he draws from his extensive experience to explain the significance of maintaining a balance between work, physical health, family, and mindset. Sillitoe highlights the consequences of putting all your energy into work—a burning topic in today’s fast-paced, success-obsessed world. He explains that when we focus only on work, our health can suffer, relationships strain, and even our business can take a hit.
This book can be great for coaches who want to support clients in achieving health-work balance.
3. Masterful Health & Wellness Coaching by Michael Arloski
Masterful Health & Wellness Coaching by Michael Arloski
Masterful Health & Wellness Coaching is the book you turn to when you want to take your health and wellness coaching to the next level. Dr. Arloski shares advanced methods and approaches in health and wellness coaching to help those who are pursuing this career to become masters of their craft.
The book is divided into three parts, including transformation, a coach’s presence, and the finer details of wellness coaching. Consider this book a health coaching playbook filled with expert tips and cutting-edge techniques.
4. Changing to Thrive by James and Janice Prochaska
Changing to Thrive by James and Janice Prochaska
Breaking free from bad habits is the most difficult part of the road to a healthy and balanced life. Changing to Thrive: Using the Stages of Change to Overcome the Top Threats to Your Health and Happiness can give you a fresh perspective on behavior change.
The Prochaskas have leveraged extensive research to guide coaches through each of the six stages of change, with a special focus on the pre-contemplation phase. The key emphasis is on teaching you how to create stage-aligned action plans with your clients collaboratively. The book also includes 12 Principles of Progress designed to steer clients towards healthy lifestyle improvements.
Why should you read this book? Well, it can show you how to detect where the clients are on the journey, how to guide them through each stage, and how to inspire them to keep making progress.
5. Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change by Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S.
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change by Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a fundamental tool for health and wellness coaches who want to inspire change. This book breaks down MI in a simple yet thorough way so that it can be easily implemented.
The book covers the four key processes of motivational interviewing: engagement, focus, evocation, and planning. It demonstrates how the application and correlation of these four processes bring about notable results. Motivational Interviewing also contains real-life interview examples and incorporates case studies and counseling scenarios so you can witness the practical application of these concepts.
6. Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change by Michael Arloski
Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change by Michael Arloski
Described as “foundational work in wellness and health coaching,” Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change brings together coaching principles and wellness knowledge. Arloski has created a manual for coaches that includes theories on behavior change, strategies for creating long-lasting plans, hands-on coaching tools, and more.
One of the key concepts that Arloski emphasizes is the Wellness Mapping 260 Methodology. However, the essence of the book is how to develop and set lasting changes. Overall, this book is considered a must-have for any coach who wants to adopt more techniques for lasting health and wellness results.
7. Six-Figure Health Coach: The 12-Step Blueprint to Doing the Significant, Soul-Satisfying Work You Love by Shaunna Menard
Six-Figure Health Coach: The 12-Step Blueprint to Doing the Significant, Soul-Satisfying Work You Love by Shaunna Menard
We’re wrapping this list up with a book that targets the business side of coaching—that is, how to build a business that rewards you for your efforts. While following your calling is the initial motivator, the financial aspect of it is essential for staying in the race. Six-Figure Health Coach by Dr. Menard is a blueprint for building a thriving coaching business while also making a meaningful impact.
We love that this book is practical and takes you step by step through business aspects that make a coaching practice successful. The chapters are dedicated to defining your niche, finding clients, structuring your coaching sessions, avoiding common mistakes, and all of those nitty-gritty details you should know about when running a health coach business.
Conclusion
The book can help you learn more about health coaching, and practices that work in this field, and what’s also invaluable, is that they can inspire personal growth. No matter how much you already know about coaching, there’s always a new idea, an inspirational sentence, or an informative story that can lead to growth and improvement.
We hope that one (or more) of these books has caught your attention and that it will take you on a journey of new realizations. Let us know in the comments which books for health coaches have been transformative for you.
The Life Coach Magazine staff is your team for high-quality content on topics from personal development, to coaching tips, to how to grow your coaching business.
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