Master of Arts in Integrative Health & Wellbeing Coaching

What if your presence was the intervention?

Not a protocol. Not a treatment plan. Not expert advice. Integrative Health Coaching is deeply listening, truly seeing, and creating space for someone to discover their own way forward.

It’s a leadership and whole-health framework.  And it’s a career you may be discovering for the first time.

A Different Approach to Coaching

Most programs teach you to coach the problem. They give you questions to ask to get more detail about the story but the author gets lost. We teach you to coach the whole person and lead through the relationship.

Here’s the difference: Talking to someone about how to fit in more workouts is coaching the problem. Exploring how physical activity connects to their identity and their purpose, that’s coaching the person. One treats the surface. The other creates lasting, sustainable change from the inside out.

This requires catalyzing change through sophisticated skills few programs develop: radical listening, emotional intelligence, and the ability to hold space for complexity using a whole health approach. You want to lead with purpose, not just credentials.

 “The growth I have experienced during this program has been incredibly rewarding.

Quite frankly, and I don’t say this lightly, it has changed my life.” 

- Chris, Health Coaching Student

Who This Is For

You’ve always wanted to help others, but traditional healthcare feels limiting. You want to be a leader in health coaching and believe sustainable change honors both the science of behavior, the wisdom of the heart, and should include all approaches not just western medicine. 

You may be transitioning careers, seeking more meaning, or wanting to bring humanity back into healthcare. You value diversity, cultural humility, and working across differences. You want to be part of a community that’s building something better.

Who This Isn’t For

If you’re looking for a quick certification, shortcut formulas, or a side hustle with minimal effort, this isn’t it. If you want to tell people what to do, give expert recommendations, or treat coaching like cheerleading, you’ll be disappointed.

This is a graduate program for those ready to do their own inner work, develop mastery, and lead with depth.

A Program with Depth 

Small cohorts. Extensive practice. Personalized feedback. Rigorous curriculum grounded in behavior change science. And perhaps most importantly: we teach you to understand the human condition.

You’ll become board-certified (NBC-HWC) and prepared to lead in healthcare systems, wellness organizations, or private practice. But you’ll also become someone who can truly meet another person in their struggle and help them change for the long-term.

What You’ll Master

• Coaching Presence and Mindfulness
  • Deep listening, motivational interviewing, and creating conditions for change without pushing your agenda
• Systems Thinking
  • Understanding how individual behavior lives within family, cultural, and healthcare systems
• Coaching Skills with Cultural Responsiveness
  • Trauma-informed practice, diversity, equity, and belonging—explicitly taught, not add-ons
• Emotional Intelligence
  • Self-awareness work that lets you show up fully for others
• Leadership Capacity
  • Bringing coaching to teams, organizations, or your own practice
• Evidence & Art
  • Grounding in research while honoring the human condition

Accessible From Anywhere

Our 30-credit program is delivered online with just two weekend intensives your first year. Build deep cohort relationships while maintaining your life. This format makes world-class coaching education available across the U.S.

The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing pioneered academic health coaching education. We were first and we continue to set the standard, including being co-founders of the National Board of Health & Wellness Coaching. We prepare coaches who understand that lasting change requires addressing the whole person within the context of their whole life.

Meet the faculty who are actively shaping the field and mentoring the next generation of coaching leaders.  Our instructors aren’t just academics, they are master practitioners who model the sophisticated, heart-centered approach you’ll learn.  We’re training the next generation of leaders in integrative health and wellbeing coaching. Leaders who know presence is powerful. Leaders who coach the person, not the problem.

Career Impact: Where Presence Meets Purpose

Our graduates lead in places where coaching transforms systems:

Where They Work

Hospitals & health systems (Mayo Clinic, HealthPartners, VA Medical Centers) • Community health centers • Corporate wellness • Private practices • Academic medical centers • Mental health facilities • Fitness and Wellbeing Centers

What They Earn

According to this recent report on the health coaching industry, coaches with a master’s degree or higher reported earning $39.11 per hour more than coaches with a bachelor’s degree. Coaches who manage other coaches were 3.95 times more likely to make $50k+.