Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year

Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year

Course Overview

This Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year course is the most in-depth and comprehensive training in macrobiotic healing that we know of, and will give you some amazing skills in helping others heal themselves physically and emotionally, and become more in touch with their true aliveness and purpose in life.

It is spread over 16 months to give enough time for you to learn and practice some very solid medicinal cooking and health counselling skills, as well as giving time for your continuing personal development. Building on the Health Coach Year, this Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year covers all aspects of macrobiotic theory and healing as well as an incredibly thorough practical application of its many facets. 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 as a Macrobiotic Consultant.

Throughout the course you will deepen your own healing journey and by the end of it you will qualify as a Macrobiotic Consultant and Medicinal Cook ready to guide others holistically to greater physical, emotional and spiritual health with a holistic approach using changes to diet, medicinal teas and recipes, lifestyle, bodywork, compresses and the release of limiting emotional patterns.

The IMS’s professional training is divided into three parts:

• Year 1 – Holistic Nutrition & Cooking Year (foundational studies).
• Year 2 – Health Coach Year (qualify in three healing arts – Health Coach, Whole Foods Chef & Wellbeing Shiatsu).
• Year 3 – Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year (qualify as an accredited Macrobiotic Health Consultant & Medicinal Cook)

Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year

What You’ll Get

This course will take you on an ever deepening journey into your own healing whilst developing and strengthening your skills in being able to help others heal more complicated and serious health problems. It will also open up a new career path in Macrobiotic Health Consulting, Medicinal Cooking and Shiatsu bodywork.

The Macrobiotic Health Consulting aspect of the training enables you to guide clients on a healing path using detailed dietary and lifestyle advice and when appropriate emotional healing. It includes deepening your understanding of macrobiotic cooking and nutrition, learning how to design menus with specific healing properties, diagnosing imbalance and illness, men and women’s health challenges, physiology and pathology.

• Use advanced oriental medicine and diagnosis methods to accurately assess symptoms
• Learn to explain the causes of symptoms to clients
• Recommend specific exercises and practices to aid healing
• Gain in-depth knowledge of how to have a healthy pregnancy, a natural birth, how to feed babies and deal with babies’ and children’s health problems

Training to become a Medicinal Cook involves understanding the uses of specific foods, cooking techniques, recipes, and teas to promote balance and heal many health problems. It enables you to integrate healing knowledge with cooking skills.

• Refine your cooking skills and learn how to cook and design menus for specific illnesses
• Learn how to use special dishes, drinks and condiments for healing problems
• Practice hands-on cooking for different imbalances and health problems in our purpose built kitchen

Shiatsu bodywork adds another dimension to this Third Year Course. These treatments offer clients a method by which they can speed up recovery, maintain health and overcome a range of common health complaints.

• Give full body shiatsu treatments
• Alleviate a variety of back, knee, shoulder, neck and other musculo-skeletal problems
• Give shiatsu for digestive, respiratory, reproductive and a range of other internal problems

There is an option upon completion of this course for a further 4-5 day module on Shiatsu Therapy which means that you can qualify as a Shiatsu Practitioner (which is the equivalent to completing an accredited 3 year Shiatsu training program elsewhere).

You will also develop business skills on how to set up a successful Health Consultant and Medicinal Cook practice.

Course structure

The Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year consists of 36 days in nine 4 day modules, and two 6 day intensives. The final assessments will be held over two days.

In all the year courses students receive personal tutorial sessions within a small group. Students find these very useful in getting more personal guidance on their learning and with their own physical and emotional health, as well as receiving high quality support in their professional practice.

• Each day begins with do-in, breathing exercises, meditation, shiatsu or other embodiment practices
• In-depth classes in all aspects of macrobiotic healing and plant-based cooking
• Advanced oriental medicine and health diagnosis, personal development and emotional counselling training

Live practice and home practice is also an important element of the training. You will be giving full health consultations throughout the Macrobiotic Health Consultant Year with supervision and feedback on all your clients. This real life work helps build skills and confidence enormously. 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.

This training course is not just an intellectual study of how to help people, but a practical study of health and life. If we are going to truly assist other people with their healing, then we need to be fully engaged in our own healing journey.

• Work with real clients in class and at home
• Supervision, personal guidance and feedback on every client session you run
• Envisioning and building your ideal business
• As the International Macrobiotic School has been ratified by the Macrobiotic Association, you do not have to do the day of assessments with the association, but only submit a few case studies and have an online interview.

Why Study Macrobiotics & Oriental Medicine with IMS?

As with our other professional courses, 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.

• We use a person-centred approach with an emphasis on embodied nutrition and the health and deep transformation of our students.
• Solid, in-depth training and practice-oriented study leading to confident and successful practitioners.
• We keep our student numbers small to guarantee high quality care, support and mentoring to support students in their personal growth, learning and professional development.
• We offer a transformative, holistic approach which includes the study of life on a physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual level.
• Excellent advanced & post graduate studies for continuous professional development.
• Flexible, lifelong learning with options to study online or in person.

Prerequisites for IMS’s Health
Consultant Year

You need to have completed the Health Coach Year or equivalent studies elsewhere prior to booking this course.

Health Coach Year

Course times, fees & booking

Timings

 Next course begins January 2026.

Fees

The course fee is £4395, with the option of monthly instalments. There’s a £750 deposit to secure your place.

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 and complete the form at the end. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Course Details

Training Pathway