A report from ProPublica in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune notes Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) receives about one complaint per month about life coaches, but the staff can do little in response. Life coaching is unregulated across the U.S. which means no qualifications are required to be a life coach. Yet many of them claim to help with a broad range of issues including weight loss, parenting, improving sex, “emotional chaos,” anxiety, and running businesses. Utah licensers can cite life coaches who diagnose clients or develop plans to manage mental health conditions with unauthorized practice, but a records analysis shows citations and fines are seldom used and aren’t always effective. [Schreifels J. When therapists lose their licenses, some turn to the unregulated life coaching industry instead. ProPublica, June 17, 2024] The report notes:In Utah during the last decade, of the 25 people cited for unauthorized practice, four were life coaches.
One life coach in Utah was cited twice for unauthorized practice. He was fined $1,000 the second time he was cited for advertising himself as a psychotherapist after his license expired. He now runs a program training life coaches.
Another life coach was cited and fined $250 three months after he surrendered his therapy license for advertising that he performed “Lifespan Integration Therapy” and could treat trauma in his life-coaching business. DOPL cited him after it received reports he engaged in inappropriate conduct with female clients. A year later, he was cited again for continuing to advertise that he treated mental health issues.
Of at least 43 Utah mental health professionals who have surrendered their licenses, let them expire on suspension, or have had them revoked or denied since 2010, about one-third have continued to promote themselves as mental health “associates,” motivational speakers, or life coaches.
In 2022, active life coaches generated more than $4.5 billion in revenue worldwide, according to an estimate by the International Coaching Federation.
A woman sued her life coach in California in 2020, claiming the coach convinced her to sign over her home to the coach’s nonprofit organization. She got the title to her home back when the case settled.
A Connecticut life coach charged last year with stealing money from a client with a traumatic brain injury was given probation.
In January, a Nevada life coach was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay back $282,980 after he admitted to spending money at casinos he was supposed to use for investments on behalf of his clients.
Therapist-turned-life-coach Jodi Hildebrandt was sentenced to prison for abusing two of her business partner’s children.
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Wellness influencers commonly oppose COVID-19 vaccines
University of Michigan researchers identified 161 “wellness influencer” accounts of individuals on Twitter (now called X) in 2019 based on their use of wellness-related words and high counts of retweets of their wellness advice. The self-descriptions in their Twitter bios included such terms as spiritual guide, tech executive, food blogger, lifestyle medical consultant, alchemist and herbalist, metabolic health coach, psychic, motivational coach, writer, and pop-culture fan. The influencers’ 3,045 posts on COVID-19 vaccines from 2020 through 2022 were compared to the 7,584 posts of a control group consisting of X accounts addressing similar topics but that don’t personify individuals or dispense wellness advice. The control group accounts included medical professionals and scientists who refrain from giving health advice on X, public health campaign initiatives, various media organizations that feature wellness segments, advocates for mental health awareness, and commentators on public health. [O’Brien G, and others. Wellness influencer responses to COVID-19 vaccines on social media: A longitudinal observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, Nov 27, 2024] The researchers reported:“Among wellness influencer accounts for which we could estimate vaccine stance, roughly half (48%) were identified as opposing vaccines, compared with 16% of accounts in the control group.”
“Our topic modeling approach provides further evidence that anti-establishment messaging comprises a core part of many wellness influencers’ rhetoric. These accounts invoked themes like parental rights, government overreach, and distrust of corrupt pharmaceutical companies when opposing vaccination.”
“Pro vaccination influencers, on the other hand, encouraged followers to get vaccinated and shared scientifically framed information about vaccine safety, efficacy, and its relationship with immunity. Their use of scientific framing suggests these influencers recognize the cultural authority science holds.”
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Almost all TikTok posts on weight-loss, muscle-building, and cleansing/detox found to mislead
Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University analyzed the promotional features of the 233 most-viewed TikTok videos as of June 2022 in the U.S. with the hashtags #dietpills (78 videos), #preworkout (86 videos), and #detox (69 videos). [Raffoul A, and others. Diet pills and deception: A content analysis of weight-loss, muscle-building, and cleanse and detox supplements videos on TikTok. Eating Behaviors, Dec 2024] They found:93.6% of the videos did not disclose the credentials of the content providers
95.7% did not identify whether the promotion of the product was sponsored by the retailer
97% did not provide any scientific evidence to support health- and appearance-related claims
The researchers concluded:
The findings echo concerns from social media researchers and public health officials about widespread misinformation regarding nutrition, weight, and eating disorders on social media, and emphasizes the need for more research on the harms of social media posts and advertisements that promote weight-loss, muscle-building, and cleanse and detox products to vulnerable users.
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Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Consumer Advocate
7 Birchtree Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Telephone: (919) 533-6009
