Meet The Coaches

Coaches can have clients located anywhere in the United States.

Health and Wellness Coaching is a client-centered and empowering approach that supports individuals in making sustainable, self-directed changes aligned with their values. Unlike clinical services, coaching places the client in the driver’s seat, encouraging personal responsibility and ownership of their health journey.

What We Do as Health and Wellness Coaches

As certified Health and Wellness Coaches, we serve as facilitators of change. We don’t diagnose or treat medical conditions, but we do work within healthcare environments, often collaborating with other professionals. Our focus is on helping clients build awareness, set meaningful goals, and take actionable steps toward lasting wellness.

The Coaching Process Involves:

  1. Exploring and Building Self-Awareness
  2. Taking Action
  3. Monitoring Progress and Evaluating Results

The Eight Dimensions of Wellness

We support our clients in cultivating healthy habits across the following dimensions:

  • Physical Wellness – Nutrition, movement, sleep, rest, and both conventional and complementary care (e.g., massage, yoga, chiropractic).
  • Emotional Wellness – Building resilience, managing stress, and fostering emotional intelligence.
  • Social Wellness – Improving interpersonal skills and cultivating meaningful relationships.
  • Intellectual Wellness – Encouraging curiosity, lifelong learning, and mental stimulation.
  • Environmental Wellness – Creating supportive, organized, and calming surroundings.
  • Spiritual Wellness – Exploring meaning, values, purpose, and mindfulness practices.
  • Vocational Wellness – Enhancing career satisfaction, work-life balance, and purpose.
  • Financial Wellness – Building financial awareness and healthy money habits.

Common Coaching Topics

Here are some of the areas we frequently explore with clients:

  • Building self-awareness, confidence, and independence
  • Creating healthy lifestyle routines and improving physical well-being
  • Managing stress and developing resilience
  • Enhancing communication and assertiveness
  • Establishing boundaries and improving relationships
  • Finding greater work-life balance and personal fulfillment
  • Exploring life purpose, career goals, and personal growth
  • Quitting smoking and other behavior-change goals
  • Practicing mindfulness and self-care
  • Improving time management and financial habits
  • Supporting chronic disease prevention and management
  • Improving sleep and overall quality of life

The Coach’s Role

Health and Wellness Coaches provide:

  • Evidence-based information and resources from trusted sources like the CDC
  • Frameworks that support behavior change and habit formation
  • Tools and strategies (with client permission) such as vision boards, values clarification exercises, and decisional balance worksheets
  • Education where appropriate and within scope

What Health & Wellness Coaching Is—and What It’s Not

It’s important to understand the scope of health coaching:

  • Coaches do not diagnose, treat, or prescribe.
  • We do not provide medical, psychological, or therapeutic services unless we are separately licensed to do so.
  • We do not give specific diet or exercise plans unless also certified as a nutritionist or fitness professional.

Instead, coaching focuses on helping clients:

  • Clarify what matters most to them
  • Align goals with their values and lifestyle
  • Tap into their strengths
  • Create and sustain meaningful change

Coaching vs. Therapy

Therapy often focuses on healing the past. Coaching, in contrast, is present- and future-focused. It supports personal development and growth, helping clients move forward with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Understanding Scope of Practice

Health and Wellness Coaches follow a clear Scope of Practice, which defines what we can and cannot do in professional settings. Whether coaching individuals or groups, writing blogs, hosting webinars, or collaborating with healthcare teams, we always work within ethical and professional guidelines.

Debra (Deb)

Deb does strictly Virtual appointments

Debra Banville, Ph.D., I am a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with over 20 years of biomedical research experience that I used to heal myself. I received certificates from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and the International Association of Health Coaches (IAHC). My biomedical background includes a Ph.D. from Emory University and a Postdoctoral degree from the University of California at San Francisco.

My journey to becoming a health coach started when I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in my forties despite eating a healthy diet. With no medical advice other than medications and seeing how poorly this played out for my father, I used my 20+ years of biomedical research experience to educate myself on the best options. Through experimentation and debunking much common misinformation, I put my diabetes into remission.

Through my journey, I realized the importance of taking a holistic, evidence-based approach to health and wellness. It’s not just about managing symptoms but about caring for yourself on all levels – mind, body, and spirit.

As a health coach, I’m passionate about helping others on their own health journeys. My coaching style is client-led, personalized, and conducted in a safe, non-judgmental space.   I bring a unique perspective to coaching, having experienced the challenges and frustrations of a disease-focused medical system rather than a wellness-focused one. Everyone has the potential and right to live their best lives. However, you define it!

Debra is currently accepting New Clients as of 11/2025

Specializes In:

  • Lifestyle
  • Stress/Anxiety
  • Weight/Diet
  • Physical/Mental Health
  • Spiritual
  • Relationships