FAQ

A Health and Wellness Coach is a trained professional who serves as a behavior change specialist, supportive mentor, and wellness authority. Unlike traditional consultants who simply give advice, health coaches partner with clients to create self-directed, lasting lifestyle changes that align with the client’s personal values.

In a Functional Medicine context, a coach acts as the vital link between a practitioner’s recommendations and the client’s daily reality. Their role includes:

• Behavior Change & Accountability: Empowering clients using evidence-based modalities like Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Positive Psychology. Rather than just giving orders, coaches help clients tap into their own internal motivation to create sustainable, long-term habits.
• Plan Translation: Turning complex doctor-prescribed protocols (like the Elimination Diet) into manageable action steps that are compatible with current lifestyles.
• Collaborative Care: Working in private practice, corporate wellness, or alongside physicians to improve patient outcomes.
• Holistic Support: Addressing nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management through a non-judgmental lens.

Download our Prospective Student Guide to see if this career is right for you.

No. You do not need a background in healthcare or a prior degree to become a successful Functional Medicine Health Coach. Our students come from incredibly diverse professional backgrounds, including business, education, the arts, and stay-at-home caregiving, as well as traditional healthcare roles like nursing and nutrition.

While prior medical training can be an asset, the FMCA curriculum is specifically designed to provide you with the foundational knowledge of Functional Medicine, nutrition, and behavior change science necessary to excel. What matters most is a passion for wellness and a desire to help others.

Key Career Pathways:

• Career Changers: Use your previous professional skills (like project management or communication) to build a thriving private coaching practice.
• Healthcare Professionals: Nurses, PAs, and RDs often join us to add the “behavior change” piece that was missing from their clinical training.
• Wellness Enthusiasts: Turn your personal passion for health into a professional credential recognized by the NBHWC.

Success Stories: See how students from all walks of life transformed their careers with our Alumni Stories.

No, a college degree is not required to enroll in our Functional Medicine Health Coach Certification Program or to build a successful career in health coaching.

At FMCA, we value diverse lived experiences and professional backgrounds. The primary requirements are a high school diploma (or equivalent), a passion for the connection between food and behavior, and a commitment to helping others make lasting lifestyle changes.

However, it is important to note the distinction for those seeking board certification:

National Board Certification (NBC-HWC): As of 2026, the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) allows individuals without a degree to sit for the Board Exam, provided they have completed an approved program (like FMCA) and met the required coaching session hours.

FMCA Certification: You can become a Functional Medicine Health Coach (FMCHC) without a degree.

Plan Your Career: Learn more about the NBHWC and why it’s the gold standard for coaches.

While they often work together toward the same goal, the primary difference lies in clinical assessment vs. behavior change. Registered Dietitians (RDs) and Nutritionists:

• Clinical Scope: These are healthcare practitioners who diagnose, evaluate, and prescribe specific medical nutrition therapy (MNT).
• Education: They typically hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree and have completed a supervised internship to sit for a national board exam.
• Role: They are experts in the “What” – prescribing the specific foods or nutrients needed to treat a medical condition.

Functional Medicine Health Coaches (FMCHC):

• Behavioral Scope: Coaches are experts in the “How.” They use Motivational Interviewing and Positive Psychology to help clients actually follow through on the plans provided by their doctors or dietitians.
• Education: Trained in behavior change science, communication, and the Functional Medicine framework.
• Role: They focus on sustainable habit formation, overcoming obstacles, and the “living” part of a nutrition plan.

The Power of Collaboration: In a Functional Medicine model, these roles are complementary. A Dietitian might provide a food plan, while the Health Coach helps the client navigate the grocery store, manage family dinner expectations, and stay motivated when progress feels slow.

Learn more about the differences in our article: Health Coach vs. Nutritionist vs. Dietitian: What’s the Difference?

Using positive psychology coaching techniques can help clients achieve their goals, build resiliency, manage mood, tap into Character Strengths , and strengthen internal motivation to support behavioral change.

We recommend checking out the Basics of Positive Psychology Specialty Course here if you’d like to learn more.

Your health coaching certification opens up many paths: you may start your own business and see individuals or groups in a private setting, and/or hold sessions virtually via video coaching. You may choose to work in a medical or corporate environment, such as a hospital, insurance company, physicians’ office, corporate offices, day spa, wellness center, or school. Or you may incorporate the skills you acquire into your existing healthcare or non-healthcare profession.

Many of our alumni establish their own coaching business or partner with practitioners, or a combination of both. Your options will depend on your background, interests, location, and what’s accessible to you online.

When choosing the best program for your goals and needs, consider these factors:

• Is the program approved by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC)?
• What is the curriculum composed of?
• Who are the faculty members providing the training?
• What support is offered after graduation?
• Is the program approved for continuing education?
• Does the community align with my values?
• What career paths can I take when I’ve completed the program?

Here are our 10 Questions You Should Be Asking as you go through the process of choosing the best health coach training program.

Health Coaches empower their clients to take charge of their health, meet and exceed their wellness goals, and create lasting change. Coaches provide accountability and a personalized approach, and they help the client tap into their motivation and overcome roadblocks in order to continue moving forward. Many health coaching clients report improved quality of life, physical health improvements, improved emotional well-being, and feeling less stressed.

In order to become a health coach, you must successfully complete a health coach training program or obtain a health coaching degree through a university.

In order to become a certified health coach, you must successfully complete a Health and Wellness Coach Training & Education program that has been approved by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC).

NBHWC’s mission is to lead the advancement of health & wellness coaching by establishing professional standards and collaborative partnerships. It was established in 2016 in partnership with the National Board of Medical Examiners to enhance the rigor and the advancement of health & wellness coaching. Learn more about the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching here.

In order to become a board-certified health coach, you must successfully complete an NBHWC-approved Health and Wellness Coach Training & Education Program, complete a specified number of coaching hours, and show documentation of an Associate’s degree or higher in any field. Once these standards are met, graduates may choose to pursue board certification through NBHWC’s Health & Wellness Coach (HWC) Certifying Exam. This credential, “National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach,” or NBC-HWC, is quickly becoming the indicator for coaches who meet the highest level of training standards.

NBHWC’s national certification is accelerating the professionalization of this emerging field and enabling the growth of an evidence base, and reputable coach training and education programs have joined this endeavor. This national certification allows proficient coaches to stand apart from coaches who have not received adequate coach training or assessment of their coaching skills and knowledge. A health coaching program must meet and adhere to NBHWC’s Program Approval Standards in order to be approved, and NBHWC engages in a rigorous review process. Each approved program meets set standards, including how course content is delivered to students, how students’ practical coaching skills are developed and evaluated, and the qualifications of the program’s faculty members.

Yes. FMCA’s Health Coach Certification Program curriculum is developed in partnership with The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), approved by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), and in keeping with the standards of excellence set forth by the Harvard Institute of Coaching.

The scope of practice refers to the process of coaching and the rules and guardrails that coaches follow when providing any services related to coaching. Health Coaches do not diagnose, treat, prescribe, interpret medical results, write food plans, or recommend supplements. They are behavior change specialists who work with clients to provide personalized guidance and accountability in areas like nutrition, exercise, mindfulness. The scope of practice exists to protect both coaches and their clients.

The answer depends upon how you’re using your health coach training. Many healthcare practitioners, including physicians, nutritionists, and mental health professionals, become health coaches so that they can use coaching principles in their already-established professional practices. In those instances, you would abide by the scope of practice as set forth by your chosen profession. On the other hand, a significant number of practitioners choose to “wear two hats” and may contract with clients as a health coach only. For these sessions, the coach—even though they may also hold another healthcare license—follows the coaching scope of practice.

Functional Medicine is a systems biology-based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease, with a goal of optimal wellness. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many contributing to an individual’s illness, and Functional Medicine looks beyond the symptoms to identify why illness occurs in the first place. This approach empowers patients, doctors, and health coaches to work together to resolve the complex underlying causes of disease to restore health through diet and lifestyle change.

Learn more: What Is Functional Medicine?

The Functional Medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes. By addressing root cause, rather than symptoms, practitioners become oriented to identifying the complexity of disease.

Learn more: Why Do We Need Functional Medicine?

The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) was founded in 1991 by Susan and Dr. Jeffrey Bland. Their vision combined clinical medicine with the emerging evidence and insights that would enable it to move from the drug-based model of fighting infectious diseases that worked so well in the twentieth century to a systems-oriented, patient-focused clinical model designed to reverse the growing chronic disease epidemic. Since then, IFM has set the gold standard for the education, training, and clinical practice of Functional Medicine globally.

The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy is proud to offer the only Health Coach Certification Program in collaboration with IFM. FMCA’s program shares many of the same faculty members and much of the same course curriculum as IFM’s training, so you’ll graduate able to “speak the language of Functional Medicine” and step right into the professional Functional Medicine community.

IFM incubates and propagates new research, tools, pilot projects, and partnerships that respond to the evolving trends in primary care in order to advance the clinical care provided to patients. As IFM’s partner, FMCA is the first to receive cutting-edge information and education in these emerging approaches.

They’re very similar concepts: all three approaches are evidence-based; take account of the whole person, including diet and lifestyle; and emphasize the therapeutic relationship between practitioner and patient. They are not meant to replace conventional healthcare, but rather to take a more holistic view that is inclusive of conventional healthcare as well as other approaches.

Conventional medicine tends to treat symptoms and diseases using drugs and surgery as first-line interventions. A Functional Medicine approach is not exclusive of those treatment options, but it’s not where we start. Functional Medicine’s focus is instead on searching for the root cause of the issue and addressing it to resolve the symptoms it was causing. Often, these root causes resolve through diet and lifestyle changes.

Functional Medicine Health Coaching uses Functional Medicine principles and positive psychology coaching techniques to:

• Educate clients and help them understand their doctor’s plan of care
• Offer tools and accountability when clients implement new lifestyle changes
• Motivate clients using positive psychology techniques
• Guide clients through dietary changes, food plans, and physical activity protocols
• Lead clients through group coaching sessions on specific topics
• Work directly with the client’s practitioner when appropriate
• Celebrate successes and encourage progress

Learn more: What Is Functional Medicine Health Coaching?

Often used in primary care settings, conventional health coaching helps patients with chronic diseases and other complex health needs better understand their diseases and actively participate in their care. Conventional health coaches are typically trained medical assistants, nurses, or other clinic staff members.

Functional Medicine Health Coaches bridge the gap between what clients know they need to do to be healthy and the intrinsic motivation they need to actually make and sustain those changes. Functional Medicine Health Coaches combine their unique behavior change expertise with Functional Medicine principles to cultivate personal responsibility around lifestyle changes so clients can tap into their innate strengths and self-efficacy to discover their full potential—mind, body, and spirit.

Learn more: Why Functional Medicine Health Coaching?

And read more about the difference between a health coach and a Functional Medicine Health Coach here: Certified Health Coach vs. FMCHC: What’s the Difference?