Pop-Up Masterclass

It's very rare. People who invest in coaching usually already understand the results are up to them. If someone is truly unhappy, I think it's noble to give the money back, and you'll usually know by session three or four, not at the end.

The real protection is how you set up the relationship. I tell clients I fully believe they can reach their goal, and that I'm not the one doing the work. It's like a personal trainer. I'm right there, you've got the bar, but I can't do your squats.

Yes. Holistic nursing has its own CEUs, and the hours you spend building your nurse coaching practice count.

With a compact license, you can coach clients in compact states under your RN license. If a client lives somewhere you aren't licensed, your contract can say you're working with them as a certified life coach or health coach. The service doesn't change. We also teach you what to avoid, like putting RN or nurse in your business name.

No. LPNs and LVNs can take the certification and run a private practice as a certified life coach, the same way an NP or a PhD could. Board certification is the one thing reserved for RNs.

For board certification, AHNCC asks for at least an ADN or diploma, plus two years full time or 4,000 hours part time as an RN in the last five years. If you don't quite fit, talk to our team. I can't promise anything, but the board wants to certify nurses, and most who have petitioned have been approved.

Our program certifies you and gives you everything you need to sit for the board exam if you want to. Think of an ER nurse with or without a CEN. Both work in the ER. When you're certified, you can practice the same way a board certified nurse coach does.

I'm a big fan of board certification because it keeps putting our specialty on the map, and most grads sit for it when they can. It isn't required for private practice. AHNCC also lists us as one of the programs they recommend.

You can, and knowing your topic matters. The coaching skills themselves are about human behavior change, though, not one subject. Your client decides the outcome she wants. If she needs information, you ask if it's okay to step into your educator role for a minute.

Where we're different from a lot of health coaching programs is range. We teach you to coach someone on finances or spirituality too, so you don't pull every conversation back to physical health.

They're similar. NBC-HWC has more hoops to jump through, and in the places that matter for nursing the two are equal, so we chose not to dual certify. ICF isn't specific to healthcare. Our program meets its requirements, and we're working toward offering that option.

My heart is with the NC-BC. I want it to be the gold standard for anything related to nurse coaching.

I started my practice in 2018. I quit a well-paying job, put my training on a credit card and gave myself 18 months. I made a lot of mistakes, hired a business coach, and replaced my income in those 18 months.

Since then, six nurse coaches I've trained have hit $250,000 in a year. All of them were single moms working full time when they started. More than 35 have crossed $100,000 a year in private practice. When my own groups filled up, I was making over $10,000 a month.

None of that happens overnight. It usually takes about as long as a master's or an NP program, and you can build it slowly while you keep your job.

I was close to 40, and I'd rather have shoved needles in my eye than dance on TikTok. So I did what my business coach told me. I gave two free sessions to anyone in my community who would take them.

Some of those people hire you. Some send you someone who does. Some come back years later when they're ready. I built my whole practice through word of mouth for the first two years. When students give two free sessions to three or four people a month, they usually have two or three paying clients in about three months.

Almost anything. My husband is a professional coach now too. He's coached a couple for a year who wanted a stronger marriage. He's coached women in their 50s looking for purpose once the kids leave, and a woman who went back to playing piano on her church's worship team.

Weight is probably the most common thing people bring to a first session. It's usually the surface, and what's underneath often ends up mattering more.

Most new nurse coaches charge per engagement, not per hour. A common starting point is around $1,200 for three months, which usually looks like 9 to 12 sessions with homework in between. Some start a little lower. Many charge more once they've been coaching for a while.

There are also companies that hire nurse coaches to coach from home over Zoom or phone, and some students do that alongside a private practice.

Less than you think. It isn't your job to have every answer. If a client asks whether she should start hormone therapy, you get curious about what she wants to find out, and you help her find the right provider or resource.

Everyone feels new at first, even my PhDs and DNPs. You usually start to feel like you know what you're doing around 150 hours of coaching. If you took time off to raise kids, AHNCC has been really understanding about that.

Coaching skills can be taught to anyone. What we bring is years of sitting with people at their most vulnerable, and nurses are the most trusted profession there is. People already come to us for help.

Being a nurse first made me bolder with my clients. I don't think I could have done this without it.