How To Become A Nutrition Health Coach

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Hello! I am currently an ER Nurse and in the Fall I will be working on becoming a NP. After I graduate with my NP degree, I would love to integrate that with health coaching. I want to teach others about nutrition and healthy eating habits. I would love to help patients obtain healthy goals and reversing certain conditions; such as HTN and Diabetes and getting them off their meds eventually. Are there any nutrition certification courses I can take? Are these courses really sufficient to where you can competently counsel others? Or should I maybe obtain a degree as a RD? Any insight would be helpful!!!

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I want to do that also! I totally agree with you on the importance of nutrition and all these diseases. I'm currently researching the entire process. You can probably complete all the requirements for health coaching b4 you finish your NP program. One thing I noticed is a lot of clients would rather work with someone that's Certified, that way you can also get . However, as an NP, the certification may not be necessary. You can look up the various nutrition certification programs, I've found a few online courses which are a couple thousand dollars.

If you don't really want to become an NP, you don't need it to work as a health coach. google "how to become a health coach"

Hope this helps.

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Specializes in Nutritional Therapy, Functional Health.

If you are definitely interested in nutrition versus the more generic "health coaching", I would recommend looking into nutrition certification programs. I also thought about the RD-route, but I ruled it out after a lot of thought and research. I obtained my holistic nutrition certification through the Nutritional Therapy Association and I was very pleased with my experience.

If you aren't as interested in focusing on the nutrition-aspect of things, a health coaching cert may suit you. Personally, I don't believe that a health coaching certification is necessary to practice health coaching because everything that a health coach does is well within the scope of practice of a nurse. I know that view is controversial, but I practiced as a health coach for several years and I never had an official certification. I did do self-education on coaching theories, motivation techniques, etc, but I never found it necessary to go through a formal program. If you do go that route, make sure that you choose a reputable program that will provide valuable education to you.

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On 5/26/2015 at 2:14 PM, PaleoNurse said:

If you are definitely interested in nutrition versus the more generic "health coaching", I would recommend looking into nutrition certification programs. I also thought about the RD-route, but I ruled it out after a lot of thought and research. I obtained my holistic nutrition certification through the Nutritional Therapy Association and I was very pleased with my experience.

If you aren't as interested in focusing on the nutrition-aspect of things, a health coaching cert may suit you. Personally, I don't believe that a health coaching certification is necessary to practice health coaching because everything that a health coach does is well within the scope of practice of a nurse. I know that view is controversial, but I practiced as a health coach for several years and I never had an official certification. I did do self-education on coaching theories, motivation techniques, etc, but I never found it necessary to go through a formal program. If you do go that route, make sure that you choose a reputable program that will provide valuable education to you.

Hello ? Did you feel that the nutritional therapy association program provided enough evidence based research? I have a strong interest and personal knowledge base of nutrition but would really like some expert information combined with pathophysiology, etc. Is that achieved in the NTA program?? Thank you!

Also, what state do you practice in? Thanks!

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Are you aware that you can become a nurse coach? American Holistic Nurse Credentialing Corporation offers that exam. You are correct in that coaching is part of nursing practice. I'm not sure why there is so much confusion about that. Nurse Coach is a protected title just like RN is a protected title.

Nurse coaching is a certification process as above. There are other coaching programs as well that are also ICF endorsed. The time is fast approaching when one will need to be certified. The education criteria is set for each level of exam.

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