Nutrition and Wellness Coaching

Executive Education

June 26 - November 6, 2025

Registration Deadline: July 3

Deadline Approaching Enroll now to secure your seat.

This learning journey integrates two Harvard Medical School executive programs—Health and Wellness: Designing a Sustainable Nutrition Plan and Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching—along with additional modules focused on advanced nutrition planning with behavior change techniques.

Online; Self-Paced

Self-paced learning complemented by live sessions with faculty and weekly office hours conducted by program leaders.

$4,995

Flexible payment and team-based learning options are available.

Certificate

Upon completion of this program, you will receive a digital certificate from Harvard Medical School.

15 Weeks, 4-6 Hours/Week

Each week you will engage with recorded video lectures from faculty, attend webinars and office hours, complete quizzes and required activities, engage in moderated discussion groups with, and work on your final project, if required.

Overview

The 15-week Nutrition and Wellness Coaching learning journey is designed to offer an integrated experience of two popular online executive programs from Harvard Medical School—the Health and Wellness: Designing a Sustainable Nutrition Plan and Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching programs—and deliver a highly impactful curriculum that combines nutritional plans and health-coaching techniques to enable comprehensive wellness support.

Learning Objectives

Assess an individual's lifestyle, considering the societal and environmental factors that impact health.
Apply effective coaching techniques and relationship-building strategies to facilitate client behavior change.
Design and implement personalized health plans by incorporating tailored interventions for nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, and social support.
Evaluate and refine lifestyle plans using peer feedback and self-reflection, fostering a growth mindset and resilience in clients.
Explore how healthy lifestyles prevent and manage diseases and chronic conditions through evidence-based guidelines for nutrition and lifestyle choices.
Use the five-step collaborative cycle, growth mindset, and self-compassion to motivate clients to adopt and sustain healthy behaviors.
Design personalized plans that incorporate the six pillars of lifestyle medicine to support healthy practices across all life stages.
Communicate effectively to address the six pillars of a healthy lifestyle and build authentic rapport, even in challenging situations.
Use behavior change theories and interview techniques to foster collaboration and empower individuals to maintain healthy living patterns through life's disruptions.
Apply the latest research and guidelines to inspire and motivate people to adopt and sustain healthy behaviors for a lifetime.

Curriculum

By integrating nutrition expertise with behavior change strategies, the learning journey supports health and wellness professionals in acquiring advanced capabilities to drive lasting health and wellness outcomes.

Part 1 — Health and Wellness: Designing a Sustainable Nutrition Plan

Module 1: Behavioral Causes of Disease and Lifestyle Impact
Module 2: Coaching and Inspiring Others
Module 3: Eating Patterns for Optimal Health
Module 4: Empowering People to Adopt Healthy Eating Practices
Module 5: Diet, Lifestyle, and Disease Connection
Module 6: Healthy Eating and Living through the Ages and Stages of Life
Module 7: Applying Nutritional Concepts at the Individual Level
Module 8: Assessing Nutritional and Lifestyle Needs to Develop a Plan

Part 2 — Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching

Module 1: The Basics for Using Lifestyle Coaching
Module 2: Building and Sustaining Rapport as the Foundation of Lifestyle Coaching
Module 3: Coaching While Addressing the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine
Module 4: The Power of Resilience: The Secret to Adopting and Sustaining Healthy Lifestyle Patterns
Module 5: Key Coaching Concepts, Part 1
Module 6: Key Coaching Concepts, Part 2

Part 3 — Exclusive Learning Modules

Module 1: Collaboration for Behavior Change
Identify a practice individual to apply initial coaching strategies, beginning the journey of supporting behavior change.
Module 2: Communication and Connection
Explore client motivation and learn techniques for fostering deeper connections that drive effective wellness outcomes.
Module 3: Understanding Your Client's Lifestyle Landscape
Reflect on your client’s environment, assessing how their surroundings influence their lifestyle choices and overall well-being.
Module 4: Evaluating the Impact of Holistic Factors on Nutrition
Understand how other pillars of lifestyle medicine, including sleep, stress, and physical activity, impact nutrition and overall health.
Module 5: Identifying Mental and Environmental Needs for Nutritional Success
Support clients in setting them up for success by addressing their mental and environmental needs in achieving nutritional goals.
Module 6: Eating Patterns for Optimal Health
Cocreate a SMART goal by establishing healthy eating patterns that promote long-term wellness.
Module 7: SMART Goal Analysis
Analyze and revise SMART goals, ensuring they are aligned with your client’s evolving needs and progress.
Module 8: Mid-Program Summary
Recognize the value of being coach-like, reflecting on how your coaching approach influences client outcomes.
Module 9: The MOSS Technique and Building Relationships
Learn to use the MOSS technique to build relationships, creating a foundation of trust with your clients.
Module 10: Interviewing and Rapport-Building Techniques
Assess how expressing appreciation enhances rapport, strengthening the coaching relationship.
Module 11: Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Self-Compassion
Understand how to develop a growth mindset and self-compassion plan, both for yourself and to support your clients.
Module 12: Resilience and Overcoming Obstacles
Explore how to create a resilience and obstacle plan, helping clients maintain progress despite challenges.
Module 13: Theories of Behavior Change
Assess the application of behavior change theories in supporting clients to achieve lasting change.
Module 14: Revisiting SMART Goals
Cocreate another SMART goal, refining techniques to support ongoing client progress.
Module 15: Program Wrap-Up
Compare your two codesigned SMART goals, reflecting on progress and identifying key insights for future practice.

Questions?

Contact one of our program advisors at learner.success@emeritus.org.

This Harvard Medical School Executive Education program is taught by HMS faculty and is promoted by Emeritus. Emeritus is responsible for advertising, marketing, registration, and collecting payment.

Teaching Team

Elizabeth Frates

Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director of Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital
Director of Wellness Programming, Stroke Institute for Research and Recovery, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Walter C. Willett

MD, DRPH

Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Meghan Ariagno

MBA, RD, LDN

Program Director, Brigham and Women's Hospital

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