Wellness Foundations
Seven evenings to understand how your own body actually works.
Who this is for
Anyone who wants to understand health properly before deciding what to do about it — and anyone considering this field as a career who sensibly wants to try a week before committing to a year.
What you will actually be able to do
- Read your own vitals and know what the numbers mean
- Tell the difference between a wellness problem and a medical one
- Stop being sold to by anyone using the word 'detox'
- Decide, on evidence, whether this field interests you enough to continue
Modules
What health actually is
Function over appearance, and why the two get confused.
The body's systems, plainly
Digestion, circulation, sleep and stress — how each affects the others.
Measurement
Vitals, body composition and what a number does and does not tell you.
Where wellness ends
Red flags, referral, and the limits of anything taught outside medicine.
Evaluating claims
How to read a health claim, a label and a marketing promise.
Day-by-day curriculum
Published in full, because you should know what you are buying before you pay for it.
Day 1
Health, defined usefully
Why 'feeling fine' is a poor measure. Function, capacity and risk. The six-stage model used at the centre, and why assessment comes before recommendation.
Day 2
Measuring a person
Blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, temperature. Hands-on practice taking each on a partner, and what a reading outside range should make you do.
Day 3
Body composition and what it hides
Weight versus composition versus waist. Practical session on the analyser. Why the scale is the least informative number you own.
Day 4
Digestion and sleep
How the two systems interact, common everyday disruptions, and the difference between a habit problem and a condition needing investigation.
Day 5
Stress, measured
The physiology of sustained stress. Guided practical: slow breathing with heart-rate observation before and after.
Day 6
Red flags
The symptoms that mean stop and see a doctor. Worked through condition by condition, because this is the single most important session of the week.
Day 7
Reading a health claim
Dissecting real advertisements and supplement labels. Group exercise, then a short assessment and close.
Practical exercises
- Taking blood pressure and pulse on a partner, to a checklist
- Body composition analysis and interpretation
- Guided breathing with before-and-after heart rate observation
Assignments
- A seven-day log of your own sleep, meals and movement, reviewed on Day 6
- One health claim of your choosing, dissected in writing against what you have learnt
How the certificate is earned
Short written paper on the final evening, plus participation across the week
Pass requirement
Attendance-based
Weighting
- Attendance of at least 6 of 7 evenings
- Completion of the personal log
- Short written paper
Certificate of Participation
Learning outcomes
- Take and interpret basic vitals
- Recognise the red flags that require medical referral
- Explain how sleep, stress, food and movement interact
- Evaluate a health claim rather than absorb it
Career opportunities
- Not a career programme on its own — this is the entry point
- Common first step towards the Therapist Foundation Programme
Apply for Wellness Foundations
A fifteen-minute counselling call first, with no fee and no obligation. If this is the wrong programme for you, that is what we will say.