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METHODS article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Mindfulness
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1478525
This article is part of the Research TopicMind-body medicine and its impacts on psychological networks, quality of life, and health - Volume IIView all 39 articles
Integrating Mind-Body Processes and Motivational Interviewing in Health Coaching: Enhancing Support for Health Behavior Change
Provisionally accepted- 1Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, United States
- 2Vanderbilt Health Coaching Program, Nashville, TN, United States
- 3Weinand Coaching Services, LLC, Merryville, TN, United States
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The global rise of chronic disease presents a need for effective prevention and treatment grounded in mind-body science and autonomy-promoting lifestyle interventions. Health and wellness coaching has emerged as a new field as the evidence for it has grown. However, there continue to be significant discrepancies in how the HWC role is defined, trained, and practiced. HWC is an evidence-based approach integrating well-established behavior change theories and techniques to help individuals explore and sustain self-determined health targets. The National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching in the United States guides credentialling for the field and establishes minimum training standards and competencies for practicing health coaches. Foundational knowledge of the mind-body connection is newly included in these coach competencies. In this paper, we present the overall process of HWC used in the Vanderbilt Health Coaching Program, emphasizing how mind-body processes can be integrated with motivational interviewing. We specifically present three mind-body processes that we have entwined with motivational interviewing and iterated with over 700 trainees: use of mindfulness, the whole person Wheel of Health, and guided visualization. We also present two structural tools that overlay the mind-body processes with motivational interviewing: the Vanderbilt Health Coaching Funnel and it's brief derivative for clinical encounters, the IVA (Importancce Visioning Activation) Funnel. Each mind-body process and the two structural tools are described in detail as each promotes the underlying development of sustainable behavior change. Our aim is that these mind-body processes and structural tools will help clarify the evidence-based strategies upon which true coaching is developed and that other clinicians, researchers, and coaches will utilize them to empower their patients in pursuing their best health.
Keywords: health coaching, health and wellness coaching, Motivational Interviewing, mindfulness, guided visualization, Wheel of Health, Vanderbilt Health Coaching Funnel, IVA Funnel
Received: 12 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wolever and Weinand. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ruth Q. Wolever, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.