Health Coach Year
Course Overview
The aim of the Health Coach Year is to deepen your understanding of a holistic macrobiotic approach to life and health, and to learn the skills to offer professional cooking and healing to others. Upon completion of the course you will be an excellent Wholefood Chef, able to cook amazingly delicious and healthy food for clients, groups, retreats and in restaurants. We train you to the standards set by the Macrobiotic Association which has ratified these courses, and as a graduate you can then be accredited by the association and become a Practitioner Member.
You will also qualify as a Health Coach – able to guide individuals and groups in achieving greater health, knowing how to help with many common health problems, and guide people to a happier and more fulfilling life. Additionally, you will also qualify as a Wellbeing Shiatsu Practitioner, able to start a practice in giving shiatsu for relieving stress and tension and promoting general wellbeing.
The IMS’s professional training is divided into three parts:
“Holistic in the true sense of the word, a wonderful overall approach to counselling, health, healing and the meaning of life”
Dekyi, Health Coach
What You’ll Get
This Health Coach Year takes you on a transformative journey that will change your relationship with food, yourself, your work and those around you. It includes 31 days of teaching to deepen your personal journey and develop the skills to become a Health Coach, a Wholefood Chef and a Wellbeing Shiatsu Practitioner, giving you three ways of helping people, and multiple income streams.
As a Health Coach you will learn skills to enable you to offer in-depth dietary, lifestyle and exercise advice and support clients in their emotional healing. You will understand the causes and healing of common health problems in the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems and be able to tailor your advice to support others in improving their health and wellbeing.
As a Wholefood Chef you will develop the skills to be able to cook for individuals, groups, events and in cafes or restaurants, using a wide variety of ingredients to create attractive and flavourful dishes and meals that are supportive to better health. You will learn how to cook for all kinds of clients including baby food, children, families, exclusion diets such as gluten free and low fibre, as well as a range of traditional pickles and condiments, and gourmet cooking for parties, weddings and entertaining.
As a Wellbeing Shiatsu Practitioner you will be able to give relaxing and rejuvenating treatments to treat minor health problems and help others establish and regain health and wellbeing. You will deepen your knowledge of the merdians and learn how to support Ki flow and relax and rejuvenate with your healing hands.
In the Health Coach Year you will also learn business studies on how to set up a successful business catering, teaching cooking, health coaching and giving shiatsu treatments.
“The training offered at the International Macrobiotic School is unique in that it integrates emotional healing along with the physical, mental and spiritual levels. It provided a deeply held support structure for me to develop personally in order to take this level of healing out in the world on a professional level.”
Melanie – yoga Instructor, cooking teacher, and macrobiotic nutritional consultant based in Hertfordshire (nourishinglife.org.uk)
Course structure
This course is offered as a fully residential course, or primarily online with two residential parts to study more practical subjects.
The residential Health Coach Year consists of 31 days of teaching over 8 modules. There are seven modules of 4 days and an eighth module of 3 days, each starting at 6.00pm on the first evening with dinner, and ending at 3.00pm on the last day.
The online course begins with a 5 day residential in November 2024, followed by online teaching days on weekends and some weekdays, and ending with another 5 day residential at the school in October 2025.
There is a maximum of 12 students on this course to ensure that a high quality of personal guidance and support is offered throughout.
Live practice is also an important element of the training. The course includes sessions with members of the public at the school – either receiving consultations from you or cooking lessons under the supervision of our tutors.
Why Study Macrobiotics & Oriental Medicine with IMS?
As with our Holistic Nutrition & Cooking Year course, this training attracts people from all over Europe, north Africa and the Middle East, and our online course also appeals to those based in the USA. Our students are often wanting to change direction in life, develop a new career or add to existing professional skills. Many have gone on to create successful businesses as health coaches, cooks, nutrition consultants or holistic chefs. You can learn about what our graduates have achieved here.
You will be taught by a team of teachers led by Oliver Cowmeadow who has over 40 years experience of teaching as well as guiding thousands of students and clients towards greater health and is one of the country’s leading practitioners of macrobiotics. Find out more about Oliver and the other teachers for this course on our teachers page.
Other members of the team have all studied the full training at the school, and have gained wide practical experience through their own professional practice.
Prerequisites for IMS’s Health Coach Year
You need to have completed the Holistic Nutrition & Cooking Year or equivalent studies elsewhere prior to booking this course. Please email the school with details of your studies to date, and we will get back to you to discuss how you can join our Health Coach Year training.
Training pathway
Course times, fees & booking
Timings
Next Residential (all taught at the school) course runs from June 2024
Next Online course starts in November 2024
Fees can be paid in monthly instalments.
The Health Coach Year consists of 31 days of teaching over 8 modules. There are seven modules of 4 days and an eighth module of 3 days, each starting at 6.00pm on the first evening with dinner, and ending at 3.00pm on the last day.
Fees
Accommodation
We have three accommodation options on site, please email us to request accommodation and prices.
Cancellation Policy
All courses and accommodation are subject to the school cancellation policy, which includes changing dates. Please click here for details before booking.
Apply or find out more
To secure your place, please download the Course Details for either the Residential or Online course, below, and complete the form at the end. If you have any questions, please contact us.
“The school enabled me to realise a path with natural food cuisine and expand health for many others, which is hugely fulfilling for me!”
Anna Freedman – author of Pure Baby and founder of London cookery school Wholefood Harmony.
Meet our graduates
Our graduates have created successful businesses, using their cooking, health coaching, teaching and health counselling skills. Here is what a few of them are up to in their new careers.
Silvia Bifaro – plant-based chef and food styler based in London.
“I worked as a designer in Italy and then slipped into holistic nutrition when I moved to the UK where I attended the full programme at the International Macrobiotic School. I write recipes and I style food photos for an Italian blog, as well as my own. My core interests are vegan sugar-free fine patisserie and children’s nutrition. My coming projects are workshops for children and mums, based on my own experience as the mother of two very little people, and my interest in Montessori education.
My journey into macrobiotics has been not only about food. It has been a holistic approach to a new self. Oliver Cowmeadow is the most dedicated person I have ever known and I owe him more than just the immense knowledge I have gained.
In Italy we have an old saying that can probably summarise what I mean: ‘When I was hungry, I was given not only the fish, but I have been given the tools and the knowledge how to fish for myself, so I will never be hungry again’.
The empowerment and self-awareness I gained during these years have made me a new, happier person. It is a life changing programme, and a very nourishing experience. The subjects are various so at the end of the three year course you have gained a proper picture of what a client would need. I cannot recommend it enough!”
To find out more about Silvia and see some of her stunning work, visit salvialimone.com
Melanie Hubbard – yoga Instructor, cooking teacher, and macrobiotic nutritional consultant based in Hertfordshire.
“I believe that when we live in harmony with basic laws we can experience good health and ultimately the ‘freedom’ to live life to our full potential. My in depth study of macrobiotic principles involved many inspiring teachers and enhanced my work as a yoga teacher and has enabled me to work more deeply with others on their healing paths.
The training offered at the International Macrobiotic School is unique in that it integrates emotional healing along with the physical, mental and spiritual levels. It provided a deeply held support structure for me to develop personally in order to take this level of healing out in the world on a professional level. Since qualifying I regularly return to the school for further support and advanced training which is offered from some of the most experienced international teachers. I am deeply grateful for the opportunities the training has given me and I now feel I have the roots to hold and the wings to fly.”
Melanie’s practice, Nourishing Life includes teaching yoga, as well as working as a lifestyle coach and cooking teacher using the skills she developed at the school. She works with groups and individuals to inspire others to cook and enjoy delicious food based on a natural diet, which is deeply nourishing and environmentally sustainable. She also works at retreats in the South of France for people with cancer.
