A DIFFERENT APPROACH to Health & Wellness

Welcome to Virtual Health Coaches, we’re thrilled to be part of your health journey.

Welcome to Virtual Health Coaches, we’re thrilled to be part of your health journey.

We (Caitlin and Bree) met in a virtual study group while preparing for the National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) exam. The community and collaboration we experienced in that group was pretty profound, considering it was a relatively short period of time and the entire group connected 100% virtually!

Realizing we share the same goal of working remotely with health seekers to help them achieve their best, healthiest life, we decided to build a community of coaches to collaborate and support each other. Coming together allows us to deliver so much more content and cultivate better resources for health seekers.   

Virtual Health Coaches was born out of a desire to educate and empower people to take an active role in improving their health. We are a virtual space for health seekers to connect with coaches, while also providing education on what health coaching is, why it matters, and how it fits into the healthcare landscape. 

quick introductions! We want you to know who is behind VHC & what we’re all about. 

Bree Gorman, MPH, NBC-HWC

Hello! I’m Bree, native Kansas girl, raised in Southern California. After many travel adventures and moving to new cities for fun, I settled down right smack in the middle of Texas and live here with my sweet (giant) family. I studied Graphic Design at the University of Kansas and then went on to work in the medical device industry for 15 years. 

Along the way, I earned an MPH from George Washington University and completed Health & Wellness Coach training through Duke University Integrative Medicine. I’m a bit of an education junkie and am currently enrolled in an MS Nutrition program at The University of Texas. I’m fascinated by all things wellness, particularly addressing health issues with nutritional intervention.

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Caitlin Boyd, NBC-HWC

Hey! I’m Caitlin. Over the last 10 years I have been on an ever-changing path, learning more about myself and exploring what I want in life. I still have not “arrived,” by any means, but I am living out my passion for helping others achieve their greatest wishes and seeing them thrive. 

I started my career in banking and finance, but health & wellness has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. Helping others with their health has always brought me joy, but I never entertained it as a career. 

About three years ago, I took a leap of faith to wander away from the security I felt in the finance industry. I followed my heart into health & wellness and I’ve never looked back! I received a BS in Health Sciences, Healthy Lifestyle Coaching from Arizona State University and went on to get my board certification. 

Now, here I am. Co-Founder of this amazing company, connecting people to better health every day. 

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We are here for health seekers. It is our mission to empower people to take ownership of their health, helping them realize there is a better way. VHC connects consumers to coaches, to walk alongside them on their health journey.  

True health coaching is incredibly powerful in facilitating lasting behavior change. Coaches are largely the answer to addressing the burden of behavior-related health issues in our society today. There is a lot of work to be done to expand the footprint of health & wellness coaches, and to educate both the medical community and the health seeker. That's where we come in. 

We’re also a virtual home for coaches, because they need support too! 

Coaches join our supportive, professional community to work collaboratively to advance the profession, improve their coaching skills, and build connections with more health seekers.  

Health and well-being is highly individualized and extraordinarily complex. ​

The burden of poor lifestyle choices on an individual are certainly self-imposed, and it doesn’t help to point the finger and shame another’s actions. Whether intentional or not, there is a lot of prejudice and judgement toward people who engage in poor lifestyle choices, causing these individuals to feel stigmatized for behaviors they have difficulty controlling. Take obesity for example. People are quick to judge, assuming the answer is to simply stop eating so much, or eat healthier foods. It’s really not that easy. If only we could oversimplify health behaviors to that degree, we’d all achieve a perfect state of well-being without effort! 

With so many elements at play — physical, mental, emotional, biochemical, spiritual — sometimes it can be hard to even identify the reason for engaging in negative health behaviors, let alone start to make changes.  

Poor lifestyle choices have driven health care expenditures through the roof.  In the U.S. a staggering 90% of our nation’s $3.5 Trillion health care expenditures are related to chronic conditions, most of which can be prevented entirely, or better managed through lifestyle changes.

Public health programs are heavily focused on education and are mildly effective, at best. Research shows that education is not enough—this approach only works for people who are ready to change, ready to take action. 

What about everyone else? 

Different stages of readiness in the behavior change progress have been identified, and health coaches know that successful change happens by meeting individuals where they are and helping them move forward. This is nearly impossible to accomplish through population-level programs and is the exact reason health & wellness coaching is so critical and powerful as a change agent for individuals. 

You CAN thrive in every aspect of your life.

Life is full and busy. Daily demands can be overwhelming—whether you’re in a taxing corporate job, you’re a solo entrepreneur, or a stay-at-home parent. Developing healthy lifestyle habits are the best foundation to thriving and leading a fulfilling life. 

Coaches help their clients explore what their ideal health looks like, and help them find the motivation and tools they need to make sustainable lifestyle changes. The coaching process is based on positive psychology, motivational interviewing, and proven coaching techniques.

Coaches operate in a framework of positivity, acting as facilitators of human behavior change. We emphasize goal setting and help clients create realistic, actionable plans to change the trajectory of their health. 

Understanding who you’re working with is key, as this profession is not yet regulated. 

Pretty much anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a health coach, making it difficult for a health seeker to know what they're getting into.

We built this website, directory, blog, and community with the mission of providing education about health & wellness coaching, and connecting health seekers with a trusted coach who is credentialed through the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching. You can rest assured that coaches listed in our directory have been through solid training and a rigorous board exam before they hung their virtual shingle.
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As with other personal working relationships, connection often develops based on mutual understanding, trust, and shared experiences. Our connection platform does more than simply provide a list of coaches–it allows health seekers to engage without commitment, getting to know their coach through their virtual presence (profile, videos, and articles) before reaching out to start a partnership.  

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Health & Wellness info, different than what you’re used to. 

Our coaches will publish new blog articles on all sorts of health & wellness topics, but they’ll be presented from a coaching angle rather than a “quick fix” or “how-to” article. 

Sure, we’ll have our fair share of lighter reading, like “Simple Tips for Better Sleep,” because some days you just need a few ideas. Other articles will help you do some deeper self-exploration, and put into practice some methods for developing healthy sustainable habits. For our more research-minded audience, we’ll share more detailed articles that dig into clinical publications and the science of coaching.  

Ultimately, we are here to share with you what health & wellness coaching is, why it matters, and how it can exponentially change your quality of life.

We are here to set ourselves apart and to help you do the same. 

There are many ways out there to improve your health. It can be confusing and even paralyzing! We want to bring you clarity as you seek to improve your health, no matter what your path may look like. 

In this modern world of instant gratification, we want the results but struggle with the process. (And yep, even as coaches we still struggle with changing unhealthy behaviors sometimes!) ​

What are your health concerns and wellness goals? 

As NBC-HWC’s, we are trained to help you navigate through the complexities of the change process to help you develop sustainable, healthy lifestyle behaviors and reduce your risk of developing a chronic disease (e.g. diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc). 

We don't define what that change is, nor do we tell you how you're going to do it. Instead, we help you find the answers that work best for your life, providing health education only when necessary, appropriate, and welcomed. 

Wherever you are, we will meet you there. Whatever your goal, we will help you get there.

We bring connection to your journey and we invite you to join us on ours. We hope to become the go-to resource for health seekers to take that first step—the hardest one to take. 

We’ll share about our daily lives, our personal sustainable habits, and how we have developed them. Get to know us! You’ll very quickly see we are just REAL people. We eat cookies. We drink wine. We watch television. We have learned how to live a balanced life, where we can have our health and also not be restricted by it. You can, too. 

When you’re ready to take control of your health, jump back into your wellness journey, or kick some bad habits, we will meet you where you are and guide you in the right direction.

We are ready to connect you to your journey, and the perfect coach for you.

Reach out anytime at contact@virtualhealthcoaches.com  Or go coach shopping now! 

BETTER HEALTH STARTS WITH A CONNECTION.

Bree & Caitlin
VHC Co-Founders