Deb graduated with Wellness Coaching Australia in 2021, certified in the Professional Certificate in Health and Wellness Coaching. She recently passed the rigorous NBHWC board exam to become a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC-HWC) – the highest Health and Wellness Coaching credential globally so we decided to sit down and find out more about Deb’s journey with study and work since she graduated with us.
What brought you decide study Health and Wellness Coaching? Was a specific life-career pivot, a personal passion, something you saw missing from how you were working and what you thought it could instead be? We would love to hear the evolution you went
I discovered Health and Wellness Coaching when I saw a job advertised on LinkedIn for a Health and Wellness Coach at Apple in San Francisco in 2019. What drew me to the role was the focus on health promotion for workplace health and wellbeing (my passion) and the only criteria I didn’t meet was NBHWC. So, I searched for more information about health and wellness coaching and found the WCA course, applied and enrolled.
I was fortunate to apply for and receive a Health Workforce Scholarship which covered the Wellness Coaching Australia course fees and provided the funds for me to attend the face-to-face workshops which were held in Melbourne and Sydney.
Following your studies with WCA, what has your journey looked like with your change in work/career and how has your certification with us fit into this?
My initial objective was to sit the NBHWC but covid got in the way. However, I used my coaching skills when working for NPS Medicine Wise delivering education for best-practice prescribing for GPs. They used Academic Detailing which was very similar to coaching in that you start with finding where the person is in terms of their knowledge and expertise and move from there. Academic Detailing also supported the clinician exploring the solutions to issues for themselves rather than the educator providing all the answers.
Because I enjoyed the mental health subject in the Professional Certificate in Health and Wellness Coaching I went on and studied my Masters of Mental Health Nursing. I did not really use my coaching skills in this area until I did a contract working in a community mental health nursing role. It was in this role that I really drew upon my coaching skills and revisited coaching theory and stages of change. This is where I obtained enough coaching experience to fulfil the coaching log requirements to sit the NBHWC exam.
Tell us about your program ‘Resilience Coach’. Was the 2025 state workplace safety laws that burnout and “workplace wellbeing psychosocial safety” been a catalyst for this or were you well ahead of this change?
I’ve wanted to set up my own business for some time and wanted to draw together coaching with my PhD research (safety culture and error management). Mental health nursing has also exposed me to clinical supervision and I’m working at being able to provide this for health care workers.
Workplace psychosocial safety has been part of legislation for some time. It was only last year that all state workplace safety laws required it. In health care, the importance of workplace wellbeing is now becoming more visible and explicit within health service accreditation.
I have spoken at education events about self-care and in 2024 gave a webinar as part of Safe Work Month. At the time the topic of aligning health worker wellbeing with accreditation was ahead of the curve but since then the Strengthened Aged Care Standards and just this week the new Clinical Governance Model released from the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care have highlighted an increased focus on psychological wellbeing and creating a healthy work environment.
What are you looking forward to in the future?
I’m excited that through my business I will soon be able to offer clinical supervision to health workers (I am learning a model that utilises coaching) and will be offering online education for both frontline workers and managers/boards for health care accreditation.
I’m really looking forward to being able to apply my health and wellness coaching and behaviour change knowledge to this area. It’s an area I’m passionate about but I also know that I’m going to learn a lot along the way.
Connect with Deb on Linkedin – https://au.linkedin.com/in/deb-carnes
