How Functional Medicine Health Coaches Work In The Behavioral Health and Mental Health Industry

Do you work in the behavior health or mental health sector? Are you interested in leveling up your career? Become a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach—the world needs YOU!

86% of the United States’ $3.5 trillion annual healthcare expenditures are for people with chronic mental health conditions. Now think about mental health globally. These costs can be reduced through health coaching; eliminating bad habits, improving nutrition, promoting regular exercise, managing chronic conditions, and supporting healthy lifestyle change.

In a recent webcast, our co-founder and Chief Wellness Officer Elyse Wagner, MS, CN, LMHCA explores how behavioral health and mental health professionals can take their career to the next level by becoming a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC), with three alumni who are doing just that!

Meet our alumni who are actively working as health coaches in the behavioral health and mental health sectors:

Meg Magnusson, NBC-HWC, FMCHC

Tuscaloosa, AL | August 2020

Meg Magnusson is a National Board Certified Health Coach and Associate Licensed Counselor. As a staff member at Lifeline Solutions, she coaches clients who are feeling stuck in their health and wellness and are needing a partner to support their concerns, goals, and vision for a thriving life.

An advocate for mental health, Meg works closely with clients experiencing gut health issues,
inflammation, anxiety, and depression. Together they explore the impact of gut health on overall physical and mental wellbeing, rooting out triggers, creating an environment of healing, and equipping them with additional lifestyle tools.

Through a collaborative partnership, clients are engaged and empowered to take their next steps. Whether it be through learning stress management, creating life-giving habits, or gaining a new understanding around the impact of food, movement, sleep and stress on one’s health. Meg graduated from FMCA in August of 2020.

Andrea Cook, PhD, FMCHC

San Francisco, CA | August 2019

Andrea Cook, PhD is a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach and Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She graduated from FMCA in August of 2019.

Andrea’s dual training helps her to understand the various factors that contribute to overall health and well-being. She collaborates with her clients to explore areas where they feel stuck and overwhelmed. Together they come up with solutions to help them move forward and feel better in their lives.

She’s passionate about facilitating her clients’ personal understanding of ways to utilize a mind-body-spirit approach to health. She works with them to create a personalized plan to help them learn about and develop tools that allow them to thrive. In addition to her work as a therapist/coach, she is also a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz, where she teaches Abnormal, Clinical, Health, and Nutritional Psychology courses.

Nicci Lefson, FMCHC

Dunkeld, South Africa | February 2021

Nicci Lefson started her professional journey studying primary education but soon realized that she wanted to help children (both big and small) on an emotional level and went on to study Clinical Psychology. She has practiced both privately and run groups in schools.

Nicci has also helped set up a community counseling centre and is passionate about helping people deal with loss—inspired by Nicci’s own loss of her father when she was 10 years old of a heart attack. His sudden loss, and the effect it had on her family, ignited her passion to pursue a career in the helping professions with a focus on health and wellness.

Nicci’s main desire is to help people live a healthy life and help themselves thrive so that, where preventable, other children don’t have to endure the loss of a parent. Her passion for all things health-related led her down the road of Functional Medicine and she completed the FMCA course in February 2021.

Are you ready to start on your path to becoming a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, or have any questions? Schedule a call with our Admissions Team to learn more!