The Nutritional Supplement

Which Course(s) did you graduate from at CNELM and when did you graduate?

MSc Personalised Nutrition and NLP practitioner in 2018.

What did you do before doing this course?

I worked part-time as a Nutritional Therapist and full-time mother. Prior to that, I worked as a Market Research Associate Director and did a lot of work in the food, travel and retail sectors.

What made you decide to embark on this course of study and what attracted you to CNELM?

I was drawn to its good reputation: Lorraine Nicolle was a module leader at the time and she recommended the MSc at CNELM. A number of the lecturers had an excellent reputation, such as Lucille Leader and Dr Nina Bailey. 

I wanted to further my understanding regarding how nutrition and diet works at a cellular level and affects all body systems and to deepen my understanding of the mechanisms involved in health and disease. I knew that the MSc at CNELM could offer this. I also wanted to be able to write to doctors and consultants with greater authority and understanding of nutrition and health.

When at CNELM, I also decided to undertake the Health coaching Diploma (NLP), as it enabled me to gain a greater insight into the psychology of health and how to discuss barriers and action steps with clients to initiate change. This was a great course to do.

Where has your career taken you?

After finishing my MSc in Personalised Nutrition at CNELM, I started working with patients with Parkinson's Disease in collaboration with Lucille Leader.

I also recently started a position as a Nutritional Therapist at the award-winning London Clinic of Nutrition, which is going really well and I am loving it. 

Which part do you think has been the most rewarding or successful?

Giving clients hope and seeing real change. For example, a client with an autoimmune disease recently wrote to me and said the following: 

“I have seen drastic improvement in my physical and mental health. I feel more focussed, energetic and my muscle and joint pain has decreased dramatically. Thank you so much “

It doesn't get much better than receiving this feedback!

If you were graduating now, would you do anything differently?

Mindset:  when starting out as a Nutritional Therapist 12 years ago, I didn’t realise how life changing nutrition, diet and lifestyle advice can be. 

So, be firm but understanding with clients, knowing that the changes they make will improve their health. If clients are resistant to making a change you suggest (and don’t worry many are not), then suggest they do it for 1 month, as this doesn’t seem too long for them, even if you intend for them to do it longer and sometime forever. Once they start feeling better, they will be happy to continue!

Having an online consultation offering going forward is really effective, as Covid-19 has shown us, and something I am going to work on.

I think it is a good idea to work with a business coach when you are first setting up your business. I haven’t used anyone from the Zest4life coaching, but I think they understand the nutrition world well and could offer benefit from their business coaching. 

Is there anything you wish you’d known before finishing your studies that you might have prepared for differently?

Yes – the complexity of the research dissertation. Every other module was fine, but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of work involved in this. Luckily, the module leader, Dr James Neil, was extremely helpful.

What or who has most inspired you in your work?

My clients inspire me everyday with the changes they are prepared to make to their lives to improve their health.

Lucille Leader and Dr Geoffrey Leader are also inspirational for me for their pioneering work with patients with Parkinson's Disease. 

So is Lorraine Nicolle, who has a fantastic ability to translate complex research into easy to understand lectures on behalf of Lamberts Healthcare.

Dr Dale Bredesen is inspiring too - he has demonstrated that Alzhiemer's can be reversed and its decline slowed down. 

There are many others, like the team I work with at the London Clinic of Nutrition, as they all achieve fantastic results for their clients on a daily basis.

Do you have any tips, hints, things you’d have done differently...?

Get your CV ready as soon as possible, as responding immediately to Nutritional Therapy positions will stand you in good stead.

Persevere. If you make a good contact, then keep in touch with them to remind them that you are interested in working with them.

Say ‘yes’ to job interviews, even if you are not sure they are suitable or you can commit to the position or hours required. You won’t know unless you speak to people and most people are happy to negotiate if you are a good fit with their business.

Get to know the laboratories that do nutritional testing, such as Biolab Medical Unit and Genova Diganostics, and the tests that they offer. Pinpointing and correcting nutritional deficiencies, and assessing other areas of health, can hugely help support your clients’ healing process and/or make the management of their health condition more effective and improve quality of life.

Lastly, develop a good network of contacts who work in other healthcare disciplines that may be needed to support your clients – such as osteopaths and psychotherapists.