What occurs when a Ph.D. with a ardour for habits 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 Diet, 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 stay Zoom classes with vitality 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 stay cohort expertise so distinctive, and some enjoyable information, 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 coed studying expertise?
My position encompasses your entire course improvement lifecycle. This ranges from the starting stage, the place we strategize new course choices and subjects 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, making certain 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 notice about how AFPA develops its curriculum?
Most individuals may not notice that we at all times begin by asking, ‘What’s finest for the coed?’ The reply to that single query drives each resolution we make, from the subjects we train, 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 rejoice alongside our college students. Once they earn their certificates and discover success within the subject, we’re completely ecstatic. In any case, 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, traits, and finest practices?
Within the well being trade, new analysis is continually rising, offering new info and redefining finest practices. At AFPA, we perceive that offering our college students with outdated info is solely not an possibility, so we take a proactive strategy as an alternative. We make it part of our routine to watch the most recent problems with main educational and trade journals, attend trade conferences, tune into webinars, and community with different skilled organizations and specialists within the subject. We’ve even been recognized to edit a stay course to tweak a reality or two based mostly on newly gleaned data. We do that to ensure that when our college students graduate, they’ve probably the most present info potential to excel of their careers.
What do you see as among the most respected abilities college students acquire from AFPA packages?
A few of the most respected abilities college students acquire from AFPA packages embrace:
- Complete Information: Each single one in every of our programs gives a wealth of data on the subject of examine. For college students actually searching for to realize 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 purpose, we infuse holistic views into every part we train, supporting our college students to see the larger image.
- Sensible Software and Teaching Expertise: It’s one factor to know what to do, however it’s one other to have the ability to do it successfully. We don’t simply train the talents, we additionally present ample apply 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 stay cohort expertise particular at AFPA?
The Superior Well being Teaching Intensive is the dynamic, stay element of our Licensed Grasp Well being and Wellness Coach program, and it’s AFPA’s solely stay course. In a single Zoom room, we unite folks 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 need to empower others to turn 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 you can Set Your self Aside as a Board-Licensed Well being Coach
Attending to Know Dr. Walsh Outdoors the Classroom
What are a couple 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 in school.
I didn’t study to trip a motorbike till I used to be an grownup, as a result of as a child I wished to focus all my vitality on rollerblading.
If 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 vitality I get from social connectedness fills my cup.
If you happen to needed to sum up your philosophy on habits change in a single sentence, what wouldn’t it be?
If you happen to 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 subsequent stay well being teaching session?
If you happen to’re on the fence about becoming a member of the subsequent stay course, remind your self that this is likely one of the best and inexpensive methods to turn into a Nationwide Board Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach. As an NBHWC-Accredited program, AFPA affords 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 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 talents to assist folks make actual, lasting modifications of their lives—and be compensated for the worth you present. Well being and wellness teaching remains to be an rising subject, which suggests there’s room to develop, contribute, and set up your self in an rising career.
On the identical time, this isn’t nearly your purchasers—it’s a transformative expertise for you, too. By way of this coaching, you’ll deepen your personal self-awareness, develop important teaching abilities, and construct the boldness wanted to not solely move the board examination however to really be a fantastic coach.
If that sounds just like the sort of profession and private development you’ve been on the lookout for, cease hesitating and enroll as we speak!
📆 The following AFPA stay well being teaching session begins quickly.
Be a part of a worldwide group of aspiring coaches and study from among the subject’s main educators.
