The Essential Reading List for Health Coaches

Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change, by Dr. Michael Arloski

Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change (Second Edition) is widely recognized as a cornerstone resource in the health and wellness coaching field. Frequently used in professional coach training programs, academic settings, and clinical practices, the book offers a structured, research-informed approach to helping clients make meaningful and sustainable lifestyle changes.

Blending principles of wellness with coaching psychology, the authors provide practical frameworks and strategies that coaches can apply directly in their work with clients. Drawing on extensive experience training thousands of coaches worldwide, the updated edition expands on the original methodology with refined tools, real-world examples, and insights that support effective behavior change.

Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth, by Richard E. Boyatzis, Melvin L. Smith, and Ellen Van Oosten

In Helping People Change, emotional intelligence researcher Richard Boyatzis, along with colleagues Melvin Smith and Ellen Van Oosten from the Weatherhead School of Management, explores a transformative approach to supporting personal growth. The authors emphasize that lasting change does not come from focusing on problems alone, but from helping individuals reconnect with their personal aspirations, values, and vision for the future.

The book highlights how effective coaches inspire change by tapping into what motivates people most—their dreams, purpose, and sense of possibility. When coaching begins with a person’s positive vision, it creates energy and resilience that help sustain growth even through challenges. By contrast, approaches centered only on correcting problems can trigger defensiveness and limit openness to new perspectives.

Through compelling real-world examples and decades of research, the authors introduce the concept of “coaching with compassion,” a method that encourages creativity, learning, and meaningful development. With reflective questions and practical exercises throughout, Helping People Change invites readers to rethink how they support others in achieving lasting transformation.

Motivational Interviewing in Life and Health Coaching: A Guide to Effective Practice, Patty Bean, Stacey Arnold, and Cecilia Lanier

Functional Medicine Coaching contains inspirational stories that describe the personal transformations and journeys toward physical health and well-being as a result of working with a health coach. Both aspiring coaches and those already working in the field will learn the power of combining the principles of Functional Medicine with positive psychology coaching.

The powerful blending of these two approaches addresses what individuals need to thrive. Anyone with a passion for helping others should consider entering the rapidly exploding fields of health coaching and specializing in Functional Medicine coaching.

This book is recommended by FMCA faculty and is an essential part of the curriculum.

Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners, by Ryan M. Niemiec

This practical guide explores how character strengths, the core building blocks of positive psychology, can be applied in coaching, education, and professional practice. By focusing on what individuals naturally do well, practitioners can help clients build resilience, strengthen relationships, enhance well-being, and cultivate more supportive environments in their work and communities.

Drawing on both scientific research and extensive practitioner experience, the book bridges the gap between theory and real-world application. It introduces foundational concepts such as character and signature strengths while also addressing more advanced topics, including how strengths can be overused, how different strengths interact, and how strengths-based work connects with practices like mindfulness, savoring, and flow.

Designed as a hands-on resource, the book includes practical tips and tools that practitioners can immediately incorporate into their work. Highlights include summaries of the 24 universal character strengths and a collection of evidence-based exercises that support goal setting, personal growth, resilience, and meaningful engagement in everyday life. Whether you’re new to strengths-based coaching or looking to deepen your expertise, this guide offers actionable insights for bringing the science of well-being into practice.

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, by BJ Fogg, PhD

In Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, behavior scientist Dr. BJ Fogg introduces a practical approach to building lasting habits through small, manageable actions. Drawing on more than two decades of research at Stanford University and insights from coaching tens of thousands of people, Fogg explains how meaningful change can begin with tiny behaviors that are easy to start and repeat.

The book introduces Fogg’s Behavior Design framework, which focuses on simplifying habits so they fit naturally into daily routines. Rather than relying on motivation or willpower alone, the method shows how small, intentional steps can gradually lead to significant improvements in health, productivity, and overall well-being.

Filled with clear explanations, practical strategies, and step-by-step guidance, Tiny Habits offers readers a fresh perspective on habit formation. At its core, the book highlights an empowering idea: building a healthier and happier life doesn’t have to be overwhelming—lasting change can begin with small actions that feel both achievable and enjoyable.

How to Be A Health Coach: An Integrative Wellness Approach, by Meg Jordan

The third edition of this widely used health coaching textbook offers an updated guide to behavior change science, lifestyle medicine, and the practical skills health coaches need to support clients effectively. The book covers key theories, biometric concepts, and step-by-step coaching processes used in real-world practice.

Aligned with competencies from the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), it also serves as a helpful resource for exam preparation. Readers will find practical tools such as intake templates, client agreements, Wellness Wheel exercises, and guidance for conducting coaching sessions from the initial meeting through the close of the coaching relationship.

Used in more than 100 training programs, this comprehensive resource also explores topics such as stress physiology, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, Nonviolent Communication, and the neurobiology of behavior change, along with emerging perspectives on diversity, equity, and inclusion in health coaching.

Young Forever, Mark Hyman

Aging has long been considered a normal process. We think disease, frailty, and gradual decline are inevitable parts of life. But they don’t have to be. Science today sees aging as a treatable disease. By addressing its root causes we can not only increase our health span and live longer but prevent and reverse the maladies of aging–including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia.

In Young Forever, Dr. Mark Hyman challenges us to reimagine our biology, health, and the process of aging. To uncover the secrets to longevity, he explores the biological hallmarks of aging, their causes, and their consequences–then shows us how to overcome them with simple dietary, lifestyle, and emerging longevity strategies.

With dozens of science-based strategies and tips, Young Forever is a revolutionary, practical guide to creating and sustaining health–for life.

Unexpected, Jill Carnahan

There have probably been times in your life when you’ve felt all alone and unsure where to turn for answers. It may come with the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or an unexpected circumstance that threatens to change everything you know to be true in your life and relationships. In Unexpected: Finding Resilience through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith, Dr. Jill Carnahan introduces a new paradigm for readers who are going through or want to prepare for those uncertain times. Dr. Jill’s riveting and compassionate exploration of healing through functional medicine helps replace darkness and fear with hope, resilience, profound healing, unconditional love, and unexpected miracles.

Unexpected reveals practical advice that can be readily used for conditions like mold toxicity, cancer, autoimmune conditions, Lyme disease, and more. Dr. Jill’s raw and honest account of her own challenges in facing a life-threatening illness, living with autoimmunity and mold toxicity, and working in a medical system that has no tolerance for stepping outside the lines, offers a new path of empowerment for taking control of our own health and wellbeing. For the skeptic or the faithful, Unexpected is a valuable guide for living an extraordinary life of love and resilience.

Forever Strong, by Gabrielle Lyon

After years of watching patients cycle through her practice, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon noticed a pattern. While her patients struggled with a wide range of conditions, they all suffered from the same core problem: they had too little muscle rather than too much fat.

When we think about muscle, we tend to think about strength or aesthetics, but in reality, muscle accounts for so much more than that. As the body’s largest endocrine organ, muscle actually determines everything about the trajectory of health and aging. Many of the conditions Dr. Lyon’s patients were experiencing were actually symptoms of underdeveloped or unhealthy muscle.

Now, Dr. Lyon offers an easy-to-follow food, fitness, and self-care program anchored in evidence and pioneering research that teaches you how to optimize muscle–no matter your age or health background. Discover how to overcome everything from obesity to autoimmune disorders and avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and diabetes by following Dr. Lyon’s powerful new approach to becoming forever strong.

Functional Medicine Coaching: Stories from the Movement That’s Transforming Healthcare, by Sandra Scheinbaum and Elyse Wagner

Functional Medicine Coaching contains inspirational stories that describe the personal transformations and journeys toward physical health and well-being as a result of working with a health coach. Both aspiring coaches and those already working in the field will learn the power of combining the principles of Functional Medicine with positive psychology coaching.

The powerful blending of these two approaches addresses what individuals need to thrive. Anyone with a passion for helping others should consider entering the rapidly exploding fields of health coaching and specializing in Functional Medicine coaching.

This book is recommended by FMCA faculty and is an essential part of the curriculum.

Disease Delusion, by Jeffrey Bland

For decades, Dr. Jeffrey Bland has been on the cutting edge of Functional Medicine, which seeks to pinpoint and prevent the cause of illness, rather than treat its symptoms. Managing chronic diseases accounts for three-quarters of our total healthcare costs, because we’re masking these illnesses with pills and temporary treatments, rather than addressing their underlying causes, he argues. Worse, only treating symptoms leads us down the path of further illness.

In The Disease Delusion, Dr. Bland explains what Functional Medicine is and what it can do for you. While advances in modern science have nearly doubled our lifespans in only four generations, our quality of life has not reached its full potential. Outlining the reasons why we suffer chronic diseases from asthma and diabetes to obesity, arthritis and cancer to a host of other ailments, Dr. Bland offers achievable, science-based solutions that can alleviate these common conditions and offers a roadmap for a lifetime of wellness.

Positivity, by Barbra Fredrickson

World-renowned researcher Dr. Barbara Fredrickson gives you the lab-tested tools necessary to create a healthier, more vibrant, and flourishing life through a process she calls “the upward spiral.” You’ll discover:

• What positivity is, and why it needs to be heartfelt to be effective
• The ten sometimes surprising forms of positivity
• Why positivity is more important than happiness
• That your own sources of positivity are unique and how to tap into them
• How to calculate your current positivity ratio, track it, and improve it

With Positivity, you’ll learn to see new possibilities, bounce back from setbacks, connect with others, and become the best version of yourself.

The Gap and the Gain, by Benjamin Hardy

Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an “ideal,” a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we’re in “the GAP.” However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we’re in “the GAIN.”

That is where the GAP and the GAIN concept comes in. It was developed by legendary entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan and is based on his work with tens of thousands of successful entrepreneurs. When Dan’s coaching clients periodically take stock of all that they’ve accomplished-both personally and professionally-they are often shocked at how much they have actually achieved. They weren’t able to appreciate their progress because no matter how much they were getting done, they were usually measuring themselves against their ideals or goals.

In this book you will learn that measuring your current self vs. your former self has enormous psychological benefits. And that’s really the key to this deceptively simple yet multi-layered concept that will have you feeling good, feeling grateful, and feeling like you are making progress even when times are tough, which will in turn bolster motivation, confidence, and future success.

If you’re finding that happiness eludes you no matter how much you’ve achieved, then learning this easy mindset shift will set you on a life-changing path to greater fulfillment and success.

Building a Story Brand, by Donald Miller

If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue.

In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers.

The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.

In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses.

As a health coach, commitment to continuous learning and growth is essential in providing effective support to your clients. These essential readings offer a diverse range of topics to help you navigate the world of health coaching successfully. From health coaching basics to industry expert advice to positive psychology, Dr. Sandi’s essential reading list will help you continue to be a great and effective health coach.