In teaching, mentoring, and writing curriculum for nutrition and health practitioners, especially new graduates, I heard the same things over and over:
I don’t know how to use my coaching skills effectively to really help clients.
I don’t feel confident or competent in situations that are complicated.
I feel like I learned a lot of information and theory, but not how to actually help real people.
I feel like an impostor.
If you’re one of those practitioners (or someone who helps teach them), this interdisciplinary textbook is my gift to you.
You’ll learn the people work of nutrition coaching.
Most training teaches you what to say about nutrition (e.g., meal prep, nutrients, hydration needs).
This textbook teaches you how to navigate the human side of coaching — the part where real change happens.
You’ll develop skills to handle the messy, unpredictable reality of human interaction, such as:
- Navigating power imbalances (such as when working with vulnerable people)
- Managing our own emotions as coaches
- Supporting clients with trauma-based coping patterns (such as disordered eating)
- Seeing through many lenses — such as brain chemistry, psychology, relationship dynamics, and cultural context
You’ll feel prepared when conversations get messy or unpredictable, instead of lost or frustrated.
You’ll build coaching creativity.
Rigid training leaves you anxious about “making mistakes”, feeling like some good tools and ideas are off-limits, or frustrated with “non-compliant” clients. It keeps you stuck in narrow, inflexible thinking when your clients need you to adapt.
This textbook helps you:
- Borrow simple, safe, proven approaches from other fields respectfully and effectively
- Think creatively and flexibly about complex problems
- Build the supportive coaching relationships that behaviour change requires
- Keep learning and evolving throughout your career
You’ll stop feeling like an impostor and start feeling like the capable, confident practitioner you want to be.
You’ll build confidence through practice.
To get better, you need deliberate and purposeful practice, combined with ongoing feedback.
Each chapter includes real-world exercises so you immediately practice what you learn. You’ll build skills progressively, from foundational to sophisticated, with feedback along the way.
You’ll move from knowing concepts to actually using them reliably, even under pressure.
There’s other cool stuff too.
On the Cognella Active Learning platform, students get:
- The next best thing to real-person mentorship and experience with 18 original videos (including 10 full client sessions of about 30-40 min each).
- Practice using new and unfamiliar terms and concepts with flashcards
- Extensive and hands-on practice, exploration, and self-reflection with 49 directed reflection exercises
- Resources you can use with clients, including 7 worksheets
If you’re an instructor, there are quizzes and other assignments all prepped and ready to go. Just roll in and start teaching! (Save yourself that start-of-semester freakout.)
