A couple of years ago, I asked a friend at one of the international educator recruitment agencies if schools were recruiting wellness coaches. He replied that yes, they were, and it can be a role separate from being a counselor or possibly a PE/Health teacher.

It has been on my mind what a job description for a wellness coach might look like, so I did a web search for “elementary wellness coach.” Here are the first results that came up with a brief descriptor of what the positions seem to be about.

  • School Wellness Program – It seems to be a nutrition-oriented program.
  • What Is A Wellness Coach – Working with groups, mindfulness, and mental health support.
  • Wellcoaches | School of Coaching – They provide a coaching manual to help one become a National Board Certified Coach. Digging a little, I found this board-certified position for healthcare professionals working with patients and clients.

I went through several more results and found nothing connected to K-12 education and the role of a wellness coach. I did one more search for “high school wellness coach.” The first result was how to get a college degree in wellness coaching. The degree seemed to be oriented to only working in the private sector.

I thought more about my being hired a few years ago to help design and implement a wellness program at an international school. I was told that my background as an instructional coach for technology and as a school counselor, along with my experience in curriculum writing, was why I was hired for the position.

Upon arriving at the school, my natural inclination was to connect with the three instructional coaches in my building. I saw myself as a change agent who would work to facilitate curriculum planning meetings to integrate the principles of Positive Psychology into the regular classroom curriculum. While I did have periodic meetings with the counselors in the other buildings and the school psychologist, it was clear that their roles were the normal and conventional ones of working to support student mental health and behavior issues, specifically for students who were struggling with potential deficits. The wellness coaching aspect of my school counseling position would be to help support the wellness of all students and staff and, in my mind parents helping them engage their character strengths within PERMAH to hopefully thrive. And yes, at the same time, I would do my regular counseling duties of supporting students struggling socially and/or emotionally.

My next step was to review the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for coaches which had guided me previously in my work. The ISTE coaching standards definitely feel like a better fit as I work to think about what the job description and possible standards might look like for wellness coaching in K-12 schools. I also reviewed the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) school counselor standards.

Here are the ISTE coaching standards, which line up directly with almost any coaching of teachers, whether it be in coaching reading, writing, STEM, etc.

  • Change Agent
  • Connected Learner
  • Collaborate
  • Learning Designer
  • Professional Learning Facilitator
  • Data-Driven Decision-Maker
  • Digital Citizen Advocate

I think going forward that I might write individual blog posts on each of these standards and how they, in my mind, fit the role of wellness coaching. I will also see if I can get my hands on any wellness coaching job descriptions from some international schools.

Supporting Post> Counseling Job Description

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