Newswise — INDIANAPOLIS—The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Wellcoaches Corporation (Wellcoaches) announced today an expansion of their 16-year partnership that will deliver two cobranded programs to those working in the fitness and wellness professions.
“The relationship between ACSM and Wellcoaches has been extraordinarily beneficial to both organizations and to those we collectively serve,” said ACSM Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President Jim Whitehead. “This partnership expansion is the next step in fulfilling our mutual vision to ensure a better quality of life through the promotion of physical activity, health and wellness.”
The two cobranded offerings include a health and wellness coach training and education program and behavior change coaching skills program for fitness professionals. These programs will allow ACSM and Wellcoaches to meet the growing needs for evidence-based, high quality and innovative coach training and education across the health care, employer and community sectors.
Since the launch of the industry-first health and wellness coach training and certification programs in 2002, Wellcoaches has been a global leader, having trained almost 11,000 health professionals as health and wellness coaches in 50 countries.
The Wellcoaches coaching protocol, described in the ACSM-endorsed Wellcoaches Coaching Psychology Manual published by Wolters Kluwer, is supported by a rapidly-growing evidence base of 18 peer-reviewed journal articles demonstrating statistically significant benefits in more than 21,000 coaching clients.
“I’m delighted that the longstanding partnership we started with Wellcoaches, when the field of health and wellness coaching was just beginning, has grown and blossomed into national standards and robust leadership at a global level,” said ACSM Immediate Past President Walt Thompson, who led the creation of the Wellcoaches partnership with ACSM in 2002.
“Together ACSM and Wellcoaches continue to lead the health and wellness coaching industry. We are delivering a gold standard for the eligibility, training and education of health and wellness coaches, which is a key to the successful rollout of population health that is one of the triple aims of health care reform,” notes Wellcoaches Founder and CEO, Margaret “Coach Meg” Moore.
About the American College of Sports Medicine
The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 50,000 international, national and regional members are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine. More at www.acsm.org.
About Wellcoaches
Wellcoaches founded the first coaching school for health and wellness professionals in 2002, in collaboration with the American College of Sports Medicine, and now the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Wellcoaches is also a first-mover in establishing coaching science in the US. Wellcoaches has trained almost 11,000 coaches in nearly 50 countries and trains 1,000 coaches per year. More at www.wellcoaches.com.