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Nutritional therapists help people by giving advice on diet and nutrition.
You could work: freelance / self-employed; managing your own hours
As part of this role, you could:
You could work at a client's home, at a GP practice or in a therapy clinic.
You can get into this job through:
You'll improve your employment prospects if you get a qualification that is recognised by one of the professional organisations for nutritional therapy.
The Nutritional Therapy Education Commission (NTEC) accredit courses in nutritional therapy. Graduates are eligible to apply for direct entry to the professional register held by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
Courses are available at undergraduate degree, postgraduate diploma and Master's level.
You should make sure that you are satisfied that courses have a good reputation and you understand how they will be taught. It's also important to find out how much clinical experience you will gain as this may vary.
You'll usually need:
Your prospects will be greatest as a self-employed therapist. To be successful you need to build up and maintain a sound reputation and client base which may mean working long hours at first.
Networking and training in other therapies may help to increase the number of clients that you see.
You can find more about careers in nutritional therapy from the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine and the Naturopathic Nutrition Association.
You could specialise in working with people with specific medical conditions like arthritis or chronic fatigue.
You could grow your business and supervise or manage other staff.
With experience you could move into teaching, writing content on nutritional therapy or doing research.