Peer Wellness Coaching

What is Peer Wellness Coaching?

Peer Wellness Coaching (PWC) is a supportive, one-on-one conversation where your needs, goals and values come first. You’ll meet with a trained HOW Peer Wellness Coach who will listen with compassion, ask thoughtful questions, and help you explore what’s most important to you right now. Whether you’re managing a health condition, facing a life transition, or simply seeking more balance in your life, coaching offers space to:

• Feel heard and understood
• Set personal goals around health and well-being
• Discover practical next steps
• Receive encouragement and accountability
• Enjoy social connection

Coaching is not therapy or medical advice—it’s a unique relationship centered on you.

What to Expect

• Free and Confidential: No cost. And everything you share stays between you and your coach
• One-on-One Sessions: 30–45 minutes per session, scheduled in advance
• Supportive Coaches: Women from your community trained in effective communication and wellness strategies
• Flexible Meeting Options: Your first meeting will take place in person. You will then have flexible options for scheduling follow-up sessions with your coach

You’ll never be pressured or judged—your coach is there to listen, reflect, and support
your decisions.

Coaching might be a great thing to try if you’re:

• Exploring how to improve your physical or emotional well-being
• Feeling stuck and want to take the next step
• Living with a chronic condition and seeking support
• Looking for help setting or reaching personal goals
• Hoping to build confidence, structure, or motivation

Interested in Becoming a Peer Wellness Coach?

What is Peer Wellness Coaching? As a Peer Wellness Coach (PWC), you will address a specific situation with each woman you empower, helping her to set and achieve her personal wellness goals.

Your training to become a coach will teach and allow you to practice specific communication techniques— to encourage others to speak openly, to take an appreciative stance about their life, to identify what matters most about the situation at hand, and to consider next steps. In addition to teaching communication skills, the PWC training offers specific resources and proven healthy living strategies to inspire your work together.

Coaching consists of a series of 1-to-1 conversations of 30-45 minutes. A collaborative process, coaching employs open-ended questions and reflecting techniques to support each woman’s unique journey.

Each Peer Wellness Coach will…

• Participate in an online 20-hour training program and receive a training manual with educational materials and resources
• Learn comprehensive skills to enhance personal and professional life
• Earn a certificate upon successful completion of the program
• Agree to volunteer as a Peer Wellness Coach for HOW a minimum of 4 hours/month for a minimum of 12 months, including monthly continuing education

How does a Peer Wellness Coach serve the community?

HOW-approved Peer Wellness Coaches will become volunteer coaches, working with HOW clients and community members in a variety of ways:

• Coaching and supporting HOW clients or women from the community during
  a formally-scheduled 30-45 minute appointment
• Making outreach calls
• Supporting social connection and engagement in workshops and groups
• Hosting drop-in office hours to help women advocate when communicating with
  their healthcare providers
• Sharing information about specific health and wellness resources
• Driving HOW clients to medical appointments