What occurs when a Ph.D. with a ardour for conduct change, a knack for curriculum design, and a present for connection leads your well being coach coaching? You get Dr. Shana Walsh—AFPA’s Director of Schooling and Curriculum, and the chief of our Grasp Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach program.
With a Ph.D. in Kinesiology, Train Vitamin, and Well being Promotion, in addition to credentials as a Nationwide Board-Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach, Grasp Licensed Well being Schooling Specialist, and Licensed Private Coach, Dr. Walsh brings many years of expertise to each course she touches. From shaping what you study behind the scenes to guiding dwell Zoom periods with power and empathy, she’s each the architect and advocate in your teaching journey.
On this interview, Shana shares her strategy to constructing student-centered packages, what makes AFPA’s dwell cohort expertise so distinctive, and some enjoyable info, just like the time she did a pull-up whereas hula-hooping.
The Secrets and techniques Behind AFPA’s Curriculum
As AFPA’s Schooling & Curriculum Director, how do you form the scholar studying expertise?
My position encompasses the whole course growth lifecycle. This ranges from the strategy planning stage, the place we strategize new course choices and matters that align with scholar wants, to creating written and video studying supplies, and securing top-tier instructors which might be specialists of their respective areas. I’m additionally concerned in helping present college students all through their AFPA studying journey. In each stage, I prioritize the standard of the schooling we offer, guaranteeing probably the most beneficial and relevant content material for our college students. It’s extraordinarily rewarding to see one thing go from an concept scribbled on a notepad in pencil to a certification college students can earn to vary the trajectory of their profession and their lives.
What’s one thing most individuals may not understand about how AFPA develops its curriculum?
Most individuals may not understand that we all the time begin by asking, ‘What’s greatest for the scholar?’ The reply to that single query drives each resolution we make, from the matters we train, the instructing strategies we make use of, the instructors we choose, and even the little particulars, just like the on-screen colours in our programs (nay for orange, yay for blue).
Past course growth, what usually goes unseen is how a lot we have a good time alongside our college students. After they earn their certificates and discover success within the discipline, we’re completely ecstatic. In spite of everything, that’s our final objective: to offer the schooling they should actually propel them into the skilled roles they search.
How do you guarantee AFPA’s packages keep present with analysis, traits, and greatest practices?
Within the well being business, new analysis is continually rising, offering new data and redefining greatest practices. At AFPA, we perceive that offering our college students with outdated data is just not an possibility, so we take a proactive strategy as a substitute. We make it part of our routine to observe the most recent problems with main educational and business journals, attend business conferences, tune into webinars, and community with different skilled organizations and specialists within the discipline. We’ve even been identified to edit a dwell course to tweak a truth or two primarily based on newly gleaned data. We do that to ensure that when our college students graduate, they’ve probably the most present data potential to excel of their careers.
What do you see as a number of the most respected expertise college students acquire from AFPA packages?
Among the most respected expertise college students acquire from AFPA packages embrace:
- Complete Data: Each single one in every of our programs offers a wealth of information on the subject of examine. For college kids actually searching for to achieve experience in a selected space, AFPA is the last word useful resource.
- Holistic Views: At AFPA, we deeply perceive how intertwined all areas of well being are. For that cause, we infuse holistic views into every little thing we train, supporting our college students to see the larger image.
- Sensible Software and Teaching Abilities: It’s one factor to know what to do, nevertheless it’s one other to have the ability to do it successfully. We don’t simply train the abilities, we additionally present ample follow alternatives to use them to actual world situations.
- Skilled Confidence and Profession Readiness: Our packages are designed to construct college students’ confidence of their talents, getting ready them to excel on their chosen profession journey.
What makes the dwell cohort expertise particular at AFPA?
The Superior Well being Teaching Intensive is the dynamic, dwell part of our Licensed Grasp Well being and Wellness Coach program, and it’s AFPA’s solely dwell course. In a single Zoom room, we unite individuals from throughout the nation and across the globe. Whereas all of us come from vastly completely different walks of life, we share a profound commonality: a deep want to empower others to change into one of the best model of themselves. There’s magic in bringing collectively adults of all ages, with their various backgrounds and wealthy life experiences, watching them study and develop collectively. It’s actually transformative.
Be taught How one can Set Your self Aside as a Board-Licensed Well being Coach
Attending to Know Dr. Walsh Exterior the Classroom
What are a number of quirky or shocking issues about you that your college students may not know?
I’ve efficiently accomplished one pull up whereas hula-hooping.
Additionally, I’ve scored within the 99th percentile for extroversion on a number of character assessments. After I was in first grade, my instructor moved my seat for speaking so many occasions, I ended up sitting subsequent to each single child at school.
I didn’t study to experience a motorcycle till I used to be an grownup, as a result of as a child I needed to focus all my power on rollerblading.
If you’re not engaged on curriculum, instructing, or teaching, how do you recharge?
As a quintessential extrovert, I recharge by spending time with others. Whether or not it’s from good dialog with my neighbors sitting across the firepit, some pleasant competitors in rec pickleball, or absorbing high quality time at residence with my household, the power I get from social connectedness fills my cup.
In the event you needed to sum up your philosophy on conduct change in a single sentence, what would it not be?
In the event you change your well being, you modify your life.
Her Recommendation for Aspiring Coaches
What recommendation would you give to somebody who’s on the fence about becoming a member of the subsequent dwell well being teaching session?
In the event you’re on the fence about becoming a member of the subsequent dwell course, remind your self that this is likely one of the most effective and reasonably priced methods to change into a Nationwide Board Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach. As an NBHWC-Permitted program, AFPA gives a direct and supportive path to board certification with out pointless delays or bills.
In case your objective is to offer a significant service to others by way of the facility of well being and wellness teaching, whereas incomes a residing doing work that makes a distinction, that is your alternative. You’ll acquire the abilities to assist individuals make actual, lasting adjustments of their lives—and be compensated for the worth you present. Well being and wellness teaching continues to be an rising discipline, which suggests there’s room to develop, contribute, and set up your self in an rising career.
On the similar time, this isn’t nearly your purchasers—it’s a transformative expertise for you, too. Via this coaching, you’ll deepen your personal self-awareness, develop important teaching expertise, and construct the boldness wanted to not solely go the board examination however to actually be an ideal coach.
If that sounds just like the sort of profession and private progress you’ve been in search of, cease hesitating and enroll at this time!
📆 The subsequent AFPA dwell well being teaching session begins quickly.
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