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 Training 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 Training Specialist, and Licensed Private Coach, Dr. Walsh brings a long time of expertise to each course she touches. From shaping what you study behind the scenes to guiding reside 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 reside cohort expertise so distinctive, and some enjoyable details, just like the time she did a pull-up whereas hula-hooping.
The Secrets and techniques Behind AFPA’s Curriculum
As AFPA’s Training & Curriculum Director, how do you form the coed studying expertise?
My function encompasses all the course improvement 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 aiding present college students all through their AFPA studying journey. In each stage, I prioritize the standard of the schooling we offer, making certain probably the most useful and relevant content material for our college students. It’s extraordinarily rewarding to see one thing go from an thought scribbled on a notepad in pencil to a certification college students can earn to alter the trajectory of their profession and their lives.
What’s one thing most individuals may not notice about how AFPA develops its curriculum?
Most individuals may not notice that we all the time begin by asking, ‘What’s greatest for the coed?’ The reply to that single query drives each determination we make, from the matters we educate, the educating 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 improvement, what usually goes unseen is how a lot we have a good time alongside our college students. Once they earn their certificates and discover success within the subject, we’re completely ecstatic. In spite of everything, that’s our final aim: 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, tendencies, and greatest practices?
Within the well being business, new analysis is consistently rising, offering new info and redefining greatest practices. At AFPA, we perceive that offering our college students with outdated info is solely not an choice, so we take a proactive strategy as an alternative. We make it part of our routine to observe the newest problems with main tutorial and business journals, attend business conferences, tune into webinars, and community with different skilled organizations and specialists within the subject. We’ve even been recognized to edit a reside course to tweak a reality 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 info attainable to excel of their careers.
What do you see as a number of the most precious abilities college students achieve from AFPA packages?
A number of the most precious abilities college students achieve from AFPA packages embody:
- Complete Data: Each single one in all our programs offers a wealth of information on the subject of research. For college kids actually searching for to achieve experience in a selected space, AFPA is the final 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 all the pieces we educate, supporting our college students to see the larger image.
- Sensible Software and Teaching Expertise: It’s one factor to know what to do, but it surely’s one other to have the ability to do it successfully. We don’t simply educate the talents, 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 skills, getting ready them to excel on their chosen profession journey.
What makes the reside cohort expertise particular at AFPA?
The Superior Well being Teaching Intensive is the dynamic, reside part of our Licensed Grasp Well being and Wellness Coach program, and it’s AFPA’s solely reside course. In a single Zoom room, we unite individuals from throughout the nation and across the globe. Whereas all of us come from vastly totally different walks of life, we share a profound commonality: a deep need to empower others to grow to be one of the best model of themselves. There’s magic in bringing collectively adults of all ages, with their numerous backgrounds and wealthy life experiences, watching them study and develop collectively. It’s actually transformative.
Be taught The best way to Set Your self Aside as a Board-Licensed Well being Coach
Attending to Know Dr. Walsh Exterior the Classroom
What are a couple of quirky or stunning 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 persona assessments. Once I was in first grade, my instructor moved my seat for speaking so many instances, I ended up sitting subsequent to each single child at school.
I didn’t study to journey a motorcycle till I used to be an grownup, as a result of as a child I wished to focus all my power on rollerblading.
While you’re not engaged on curriculum, educating, 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 dwelling with my household, the power I get from social connectedness fills my cup.
In case you needed to sum up your philosophy on conduct change in a single sentence, what wouldn’t it be?
In case you change your well being, you alter 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 following reside well being teaching session?
In case you’re on the fence about becoming a member of the following reside course, remind your self that this is among the most effective and reasonably priced methods to grow to be a Nationwide Board Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach. As an NBHWC-Permitted program, AFPA presents a direct and supportive path to board certification with out pointless delays or bills.
In case your aim is to offer a significant service to others by the ability of well being and wellness teaching, whereas incomes a residing doing work that makes a distinction, that is your alternative. You’ll achieve the talents to assist individuals make actual, lasting modifications of their lives—and be compensated for the worth you present. Well being and wellness teaching continues to be an rising subject, 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 shoppers—it’s a transformative expertise for you, too. By means of this coaching, you’ll deepen your individual self-awareness, develop important teaching abilities, and construct the arrogance wanted to not solely move the board examination however to really be an ideal coach.
If that sounds just like the sort of profession and private development you’ve been in search of, cease hesitating and join in the present day!
📆 The subsequent AFPA reside well being teaching session begins quickly.
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