National Wellness Institute

The National Wellness Institute (NWI) is a United States non-profit organization focused on working with health professionals and groups to improve health and wellbeing.
Origins
The NWI was initially formed in 1977 as the Institute for Lifestyle Improvement under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Foundation. Three UWSP faculty members (NWI Founders)—Dennis Elsenrath, Ed.D., CWP, director of counseling services; Fred Leafgren, Ph,D., director of student life; and Bill Hettler, M.D., CWP, director of health services—believed that balance and self-awareness contributed to people's wellbeing. Prior to its official launch in 1977 UWSP held two wellness workshops led by Robert Bowen Ph.D. in the summers of 1975 and 1976. The year after its launch in 1978, the Institute held the Wellness Promotion Strategies Third Annual Summer Workshop.The 1978 conference was attended by more than 250 people and today, participation typically numbers around 1,000 attendees. In 1985 the organization changed its name to the National Wellness Institute and three years later the NWI separated from the UWSP Foundation and became a non-profit in 1989.
Ethos
According to the NWI, wellness is “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” In the view of the Institute, wellness is an “active process through which people become aware of, and make choices towards, a more successful existence”. This definition is one that has been adopted by the American Physical Therapy Association. The Institute promotes a connection between health and wellbeing and conducts research into achieving healthy lifestyles. As a membership organization, it provides resources to individuals and organizations, including professional development programs, certification programs and educational lifestyle assessments.
Models and tests
In 1979, Bill Hettler, M.D., co-founder of the National Wellness Institute, developed a model of wellness, which he named the Six Dimensions of Wellness. This model was built on the earlier work of numerous professionals such as: Bryan Furnass, M.D., Luther Gulick, M.D., Donald Ardell Ph.D., John Travis, M.D., James Albertson, Ph.D., Halbert Dunn, Ph.D., M.D., and many others. These dimensions incorporated different aspects of people's lives, such as physical health, emotional wellbeing, intellectual development, job satisfaction, social and spiritual connectedness.
In 1976 Hettler created the first edition of the Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire (LAQ).

Hettler donated his copyright interest in the first edition of the LAQ to create the Institute for Lifestyle Improvement.This assessment tool was initially used as an alternative to a pre-enrollment standard health history and physical exam for UWSP students. The first edition of the LAQ had four sections:
*A wellness inventory section with 86 questions encompassing the areas dealt with by Hettler's model.
*Topics for Personal Growth section which had 27 items listed. Next to each item students could request from three options; Information, Group Activities, or Confidential Personal Assistance.
*Risk of Death section which asked 47 questions that were used to provide a health risk analysis (HRA) and
*Medical Alert Section comprising 39 questions that were used as part of the students medical record by the University Health service.
Hettler was joined by two colleagues, Fred Leafgren, Ph.D. and Dennis Elsenrath Ed.D. to revise and improve the subsequent 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions of the LAQ. The LAQ enjoyed widespread use in the US and Canada. The LAQ also provided a major revenue stream for the Institute. Hettler, Leafgren and Elsenrath were the founders of the Institute for Lifestyle Improvement which evolved to be the National Wellness Institute.
Programs and events
The National Wellness Institute runs the Council on Wellness Accreditation and Education (CWAE), which recognizes third level academic programs in the field of health promotion and wellness and awards annual scholarships to students in wellness, public health or other relevant fields. The Institute presents an annual award (the Halbert L. Dunn Wellness Award) to recognize individuals' contribution to the field of wellness. Past winners have included Donald Ardell, Elaine Sullivan, Bill Hettler, Sandy Queen, and William B. Baun.
The Council on Wellness Continuing Education (CWCE) monitors standards for the Institute’s educational programs and certifications and acts in an advisory capacity to the NWI’s board of directors.
The NWI holds an annual National Wellness Conference, the first conference of which was held in 1978 and attended by 250 people. Today in the region of 1,000 attendees contribute and past speakers and attendees have included Mike Huckabee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Patch Adams, Geoffrey Canada, Barbara Fredrickson, David Katz, Candice Pert, Herbert Benson, Joan Borysenko, and Richard Davidson. Specifically focused breakout tracks at the conference are broken out into "Academies" of wellness coaching, worksite wellness, and integrative health.
In recent years, the National Wellness Institute has contributed to efforts to introduce a national certification credential in the U.S. for professional health and wellness coaches as part of the National Consortium for Credentialing Health and Wellness Coaches (NCCHWC). In 2010 a national summit was held to devise a strategy to create a set of national credentials and with participation from seventy groups from the fields of medicine, nursing, credentialing criteria, academia and coaching. Contributors included the California Institute of Integral Studies, American Occupational Nurses Association, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, GlaxoSmithKline, Harvard Medical School, and the Mayo Clinic.
Affiliations
The National Wellness Institute is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Approved Provider Program, an international grouping of organizations that are based in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The NWI also has affiliations with student groups at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and Cabrini College, a liberal arts college in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

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