How to Become a Health and Wellness Consultant

Across the globe, people are becoming more and more aware of how a healthy diet, regular exercise, and stress reduction techniques can increase their personal wellness. A health and wellness consultant is a professional who assists individuals in achieving and maintaining optimum wellness by advising them about healthy diets and exercise, as well as methods to cope with stress. Becoming a health and wellness consultant could offer a rewarding business opportunity.

Learn about the career. Before going down the career path towards becoming a wellness consultant, you should get a sense of what the career entails. A health and wellness consultant is a diverse career with a variety of specializations and focuses.

·         In short, a health and wellness consultant helps people live betters lives physically. As a health and wellness consultant, you would advise people on nutrition, physiology, anatomy, and fitness.

·         You would work one-on-one with clients looking to improve certain aspects of their health and well-being. You would have to think of solutions for your clients depending on their lifestyle, physique, and individual wants. As a health and wellness consultant, you have to have a diversity of tactics and plans at your disposal to fit the needs of a number of different clients. For example, the fitness plan you would write up for a single mother of three would be vastly different than the one you'd write for a single 33 year-old businessman.

·         Communication is an important skill to have if you're looking for a career as a wellness consultant. You need to understand your client's lifestyles, comfort zones, and personal wants and needs in order to best assess their situation and advise them on how to improve. You also need to communicate in a way that is encouraging and non-judgmental.

·         There are a variety of specializations in health and wellness consulting. Some people focus on homeopathic, natural lifestyle changes. Others focus on fitness and exercise. Others focus mainly on nutrition. The specializations you choose later in your career will depend on your individual interests and expertise.

Get started in high school. If you're interested in becoming a health and wellness consultant, your path should begin in high school. Develop a strong interest in fitness and health early on.

·         Enroll in health classes in high school. In addition to the regular PE requirements, see if your high school offers any electives on nutrition or fitness.

·         You can get certain certifications, like a CPR certification, as early as high school. Look into what programs are available in your area. Many hospitals and community centers offer CPR classes.

·         Talk to your teachers about wanting to be a health and wellness consultant, especially teachers from health or fitness related courses. They may be able to suggest college programs.

·         Take summer and after school jobs that focus on fitness, nutrition, and overall well being. Work at a yoga studio or health food clinic. Lifeguard. Coach little league. Work at a summer camp.

Choose the right undergraduate program for your goals. There is not a standard educational path to become a health and wellness consultant. The level of education you need will depend on your specific goals, but you should start tailoring your education towards health and wellness during your undergraduate years.

·         Some schools offer career development or certification programs focusing on a specific aspect of health and wellness consulting. They may offer a path to become a fitness consultant, nutrition consultant, holistic health, and other areas that fall under the health and wellness umbrella. These programs may be shorter, and cheaper, but they also tend to limit your focus to one area. Unless you're certain of the path you want to go down early on, it's better to get a four year degree and keep your options open.

·         Biology, health sciences, kinesiology, and nutrition are majors you may want to consider if you want to be a health and wellness consultant. As the career itself is often multifaceted, it might be a good idea to double major. Also, health and wellness requires communication skills and focuses on client's emotional well being as well as their physical well-being. A minor in psychology or communications may help.

Consider furthering your education. Yet again, there is no set educational path to becoming a health and wellness consultant. You do not necessarily need more than an undergraduate degree, but furthering your education beyond a bachelor's degree could help you in the job market. This is particularly true if you want to work in a particular field of health and wellness consulting, such as placing your primary focus in fitness or holistic wellness.