Faculty Spotlight: Gina Burton | Health Coaching
Like so many of the programs and curricula at UCCS, the Health Coaching Internship program provides hands-on experience with members of the community and the opportunity to make an impact.
Health coaching is a one-on-one practice between a coach and their client to help the client meet any goals they have and how to change their behavior and routine in order to achieve and maintain those goals. The program is headed by Gina Burton, Teaching Professor in the Health Sciences department, and housed in the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Students are required to earn credit hours that can be split among different areas, giving them practice connecting with and coaching clients.
“We go through the protocol of the peer health coaching program, and then they start working right away with clients,” explained Burton. “We’re able to provide health coaching services to students, staff and faculty at UCCS, so it’s really cool to be able to provide that for our community.”
While health coaching is often paired with physical health and fitness, Burton notes it is really about changing behavior and habits and acting as support to clientele in a positive way. Individuals seek out health coaching for managing finances or stress, maintaining friendships and relationships, improving time management and more.
”Health coaching is helping folks identify the areas within their life that they would like to improve and assisting them in that process, whatever it might be,” Burton said. “Our expertise is the health behavior change process. We’re not experts on matters like diabetes prevention, or financial wellness, but we have the tools that we can use to help clients along the way to make the changes they’re looking for.”
“When I say health, I’m going back to the whole person,” she added. “So we could be talking about physical health, social health, community health, financial health, spiritual health. The scope of practice is very specific around changing the behavior, so we are very aware of referring clients outside our practice when needed, like if there is a mental health aspect that a client needs a mental health practitioner for.”
With the personal aspects and need for an ability to connect with others that come along with health coaching, students in the internship program learn skills that they can take to any field or occupation, such as communication and active listening, motivational interviewing, organization and task management and more.
The only prerequisite class for the Health Coach Internship is HSCI, either 001 or OL1. To learn more about the program, reach out to Gina Burton.