Nutritional Therapy Diploma

Description

The prevalence of ill health is real. Become an expert practitioner in treating individuals using a truly holistic approach.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

The great need for practitioners is emphasised today, not only by the prevalence of well-established diseases, but also by the appearance of quite new conditions which are not necessarily regarded as being nutritional illnesses. In fact many students come to Nutritional Therapy after experiencing and their own health problems and seek to help others with similar difficulties. We know that nutrition lies at the very heart of these problems and it is our absolute intention to share that knowledge with you. Every person's nutritional needs differ and our courses teach students to recognise this at the outset - there is no haphazard approach. We are absolutely certain that you will find this a fascinating course as you train to become a practitioner of the highest degree.

DR. LAWRENCE PLASKETT

Course Duration

Study Hours

Course Content

Course Fee

The Plaskett Professional Diploma in Nutritional Therapy is the most scientific and advanced practitioner level course that we offer. Nutritional Therapy is a form of therapy that uses food, supplementary nutrients and cleansing procedures to alleviate or prevent chronic health problems and this course will train you to practise as a Nutritional Therapist of the highest degree. You will:

BREAKDOWN OF THE COURSE SECTIONS

The Nutritional Therapy Diploma includes the following 14 folders:

FOLDER 1

THE HOLISTIC MODEL OF HEALTH CARE

This Folder starts with a suggested programme of study and some simple hints on how to make best use of your study time.

It then teaches an understanding of basic principles that underpin your entire grasp of nutrition as a biological process. The naturopathic emphasis is upon freeing the body tissues of toxins and the damaged cell components that drag them down to the chronic level. 

The Folder looks closely at the nature of toxins and their sources. It looks at their behaviour and effects when they enter the body, the character and mechanisms of the damage they do and, above all, the mechanisms by which they can be removed and the damage repaired. 

These are no flights of fancy, as orthodoxy would often have us believe. Rather they are strongly supported by medical science, as the course material will demonstrate. In order to develop a grasp of these processes they have to be visualized as they really happen, on the cellular level. 

A Side Book is included covering the structure and life of the cell.

Areas Covered

FOLDER 2

MINERALS AT WORK IN NUTRITION - PART 1

The minerals come forward as the strongest contenders for pride of place among the nutrient classes because they are so critically vulnerable to deficiency and imbalance in today’s western world. 

“Get the minerals right before anything else” is a penetrating summary of their necessary priority. You will learn how the bulk minerals (those we need in greatest amount) depend upon each other and how the micro minerals cannot fulfil their function correctly without a correct balance of the bulk ones. 

This Folder takes “first things first” by laying the soundest possible foundation for the study and management of the bulk metals – sodium, potassium, calcium, with magnesium to follow in Folder 5. 

We believe that few course providers deal as thoroughly with this absolute cornerstone of nutrition as we do. The effects of these mineral balances permeate the entire subject of nutrition. You will look at many aspects of the subject that affect health.

Areas Covered

Side Book: The Chemistry of Nutrition

Whilst it is possible to teach nutrition to some degree without studying the chemical nature of the nutrients, it is much better that you have at least a superficial understanding. Folder Two therefore includes a side book on Chemistry for those who are new to the subject. However, no one expects you to become highly informed on chemical structures. Access to the facts and to an explanation is what is important. This side-book will free you, as a future practitioner, from the need to manipulate the nutrients without understanding them as many others try to do.

FOLDER 3

THE BULK NUTRIENTS – PROTEIN, CARBOHYDRATE, LIPIDS AND ENERGY

These nutrients provide both the fuel and the building materials for the body. Orthodox nutrition teaches these topics very thoroughly. As to the structures of the compounds, we teach the same things they do. 

However, all three main classes of bulk nutrients have their distinctive “wrinkles” when examined from an alternative viewpoint. 

With the proteins this has to do with avoiding excesses and, to some degree eschewing animal sources for naturopathic and other reasons. 

With the carbohydrates it involves recognizing at a sensitive level the long-term harm that can be done by free sugars and the crucial importance of blood sugar maintenance and control. Orthodox treatments may claim to do these things but there is a vast difference of emphasis and effect. 

Among the lipids the “wrinkles” have to do with intricate management of the balance among the essential fatty acids and the importance of the phospholipids in the diet. 

You will also learn about the propensity of fats to form toxins and the need to moderate fat intake. All of these so-called alternative “wrinkles” have weighty scientific support, which you will have explained for you. 

The chemical nature of these bulk nutrients is fully presented for those who wish it, with a “faster track” through for those who do not.

Areas covered

FOLDER 4

FOODS AND FOOD CLASSES

Properties, Composition and Naturopathic Effects

The merits and disadvantages of wheat, milk and meat are carefully analysed and exposed from the standpoint of both scientific and also naturopathic considerations. 

There will be much here to ponder, whilst the scientific evidence leaves little to doubt. You will look rather exhaustively at the merits, nature and composition of vegetables and fruits, not only as groups but also as sub-groups and down to the individual plants. 

You will find yourself in a position, when it comes to prescribing, to be directive when necessary about which individual fruits and vegetables it will be best to use. 

The groups of pulses, nuts, seeds, fish, shellfish and other seafood’s, as well as beverages, will be closely examined for their composition and suitability for prescription in treatment diets. 

Acidity and alkalinity in foods is carefully examined. This Folder is “all about food” but it is also food for thought from beginning to end.

Areas covered

FOLDER 5

MINERALS AT WORK IN NUTRITION - PART 2

Each and every member of the micro minerals group will prove a fascinating area of study and will face you at times almost with disbelief that such minute amounts of substance can exert such extraordinarily powerful effects upon the way the body works and therefore upon health. 

Each micro mineral displays its own particular pattern of effects arising from either deficiency or excess. This is almost like a personal signature of the mineral. These will be learnt now but employed later in diagnosis to help determine the likely patterns of micro mineral imbalances in your patients.

The role of all-important magnesium is examined together with the principles of using magnesium in therapy. This element plays a key macro mineral role and exerts decisive control over naturopathic elimination. 

Areas covered

Body content; physiology functions; effects of deficiency or excess; toxicity; factors promoting retention or loss; occurrence in foods; different chemical forms; associated diseases; the use of the appropriate supplements

FOLDER 6

THE VITAMINS AT WORK IN NUTRITION

The vitamins are mostly micro catalysts just as the micro minerals are. Sixteen of them are the subjects of this Folder. 

We first explain their known effects in the body and then go on to set out the ways that they may be used, either for direct therapeutic effect, or in support of other components of nutritional therapy. 

As in the cases of all the other nutrients, there will be both scientific and naturopathic evidence presented. Good reference material will be provided.

Areas covered

FOLDER 7

BOWEL FLORA AND THE MAINTENANCE OF HEALTH

It is possible to manage and manipulate the bowel flora – the bacteria that inhabit the intestines – so as to produce optimal benefits to health. 

Antibiotics and certain dietary errors appear to work in the opposite direction and encourage a flora that will generate more toxins.

This Folder deals with both scientific and naturopathic facts and technique and explains how to harness the potential that resides here for bringing better health or maintaining health. It is a crucially important area of nutritional management. Every case you will treat will need the possible prescription of bowel flora products to be reviewed.

The other part of this Folder is about the maintenance of health. We provide a general round-up of this pre-clinical part of the course with an overview of nutritional requirements and wise practice in the design of those diets that may be intended to be “healthy” but not necessarily therapeutic. 

It includes examination of the special needs of vulnerable groups. You can expect, of course, to meet patients of all ages and conditions and, often enough, you will be asked merely to provide guidance upon what type of diet will best maintain their health. 

It also reviews the production of toxin-free food and the hazards posed by the industrialization of food. Finally, there is an approach to the use of supplements for health maintenance and a discussion of strategies for on-going cleansing and toxin avoidance so as to assist in maintaining good health.

Areas covered

FOLDER 8

DIAGNOSIS

This Folder is divided into two parts. The first gives a detailed understanding of the basis of diagnosis, while the second gives direct instruction in performing diagnoses. 

These two parts, taken together, comprise a major step in your induction as a naturopathic nutritionist. The induction into technique and approach is an essential step, but even more than that, the moulding of your thought process is so very important. 

You have to move into the particular “observer” position, mentally, from which the diagnosis is best carried out. The first part of the Folder both provides the “nuts and bolts” of nutritional diagnosis but it also provides the mental positioning to enable you to carry it out with confidence and expertise. 

The diagnosis requires understanding of the “constitution”, defined both naturopathically and genetically. An optional side book covers both the miasms and the Chinese 5 elements in respect of their bearing upon diagnosis within nutritional therapy.

Fundamental to the practical aspect is the technique for taking case histories and then interpreting them along combined naturopathic and scientific lines. 

This logically leads onto the next stage – treatment – in a rational sequence. This Folder contains five “demonstration” case histories.

FOLDER 9

TREATMENT

This is in many ways the crux of the whole course. 

However, being released into nutritional treatments – with their full power – without having made the most thorough preparation, would be most unwise. 

Absolutely every topic that has been covered before is required in one way or another at this point. It is here that the interpretation of the case history becomes translated into a prescription of diet and supplements that is honed in a sensitive way to the patient as an individual. 

We outline a number of “levels” of the diagnosis that feed into the treatment decisions. There is a “whole person” level, a “weak organ” level, a “metabolic imbalances” level, a “nutritional deficiencies” level and, finally, the lowest in the hierarchy, a “named diseases” level.

We also introduce here the profound concepts of intensity, direction and level as they apply to the very basis of Nutritional Therapy prescriptions. All these contributions must converge to provide the best overall treatment. 

The focus at this point is on defining the dietary guidelines and the careful orchestration of the essential minerals and vitamins that are to be used. 

However, this is also the point at which various named treatments are considered, including bowel cleansing procedures, bowel flora treatment and some of the contributions towards Candida treatment. 

These options are set out here and then developed more in the later Folders of Part Two. Special approaches such as the liver cleanse are also considered here along with amino acid therapy, antioxidant therapy and the anti-inflammatory prescription. 

We also provide guidelines on how detailed analysis of the composition of diets, and the design of special diets based on such analysis, can contribute to treatment. This Folder provides the “core” of all this, with various modulations and variations being available from the subsequent Folders for “fine tuning”.

FOLDER 10

STUDY OF CASE HISTORIES

There is nothing quite like practice where case histories are concerned. To be able to study them with great facility and insight and then discern the routes by which they lead towards exact treatment – that is to be your aim here. The Folder provides the challenge of “interpreting” a number of case histories, with help and with feedback. This is an approach that can lead you towards confidence and competence in this task, which is at the centre of practitioners’ daily work. Approaches and solutions are presented. This Folder gives 11 abridged case histories and 20 fully detailed case histories for analysis by the student, 31 case histories in all. These are selected to provide a variety of different types of treatment situation including some that are special or unusual.

FOLDER 11

ADDED OR SPECIAL NUTRIENTS AND HERBS

In covering the prescribing of supplement programmes in Folder 9, you will have been focused primarily upon those that rank in orthodox nutrition as “essential nutrients”, particularly minerals and vitamins. 

However, Nutritional Therapy is enormously enriched by a wide range of other biochemicals that cannot be classified as “essential”. Life does not stop without them, yet they can be extremely helpful, especially to individuals with compromised health. 

These are more often metabolic intermediates than recognised nutrients, but they can be extraordinarily valuable for organ-directed therapy. Many of these involve up-to-the minute discoveries. 

We teach about phytonutrients in foods (eg carotenoids, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, isothiocyanates, organic sulphides and curcuminoids) and about the possibilities, when necessary, to provide them in supplement form.

Herbs are covered too in their special role of support-therapy to Nutritional Therapy, usually in an organ-directed or system-directed role. Echinacea, silymarin, aloe, ginkgo, bromelain and St John’s Wort are just examples of these herbs. 

We also teach the use of herbal combinations for specific purposes. This wide choice of “extra” items is the subject of specific instruction in this Folder.

FOLDER 12

TREATING NAMED MEDICAL CONDITIONS - PART 1

Folder 9 makes it plain that, because this is a holistic discipline, the named medical condition is generally low on the hierarchy of treatment criteria. 

Although that is generally the case, the extent to which it holds good may depend upon how advanced is the particular disease condition. At all events, the practitioner does need a degree of disease-related training, which is provided in this Folder and the next. 

Some 180 different medical conditions or classes of conditions, mostly chronic, are addressed. Special space is provided to cover fully selected topics that are of key importance in an alternative medicine practice, such as obesity, alcoholism, allergies and the menopause. 

We also provide you with specific treatment guidance with the proviso that whole-person treatments and organ-system related treatments either take priority or are provided alongside. 

Where appropriate some insights are given into the prior allopathic treatments and environmental and social conditions that may cause or exacerbate the listed conditions. 

This provides for the patient’s circumstances and lifestyle to be adjusted in rather specifically apt directions.

The main categories in this Folder are: circulatory, rheumatic and digestive diseases, along with obesity, alcoholism and immunity states including autoimmunity and allergies. 

All the disease conditions addressed are closely studied from the standpoint of orthodox pathology as well as their Nutritional Therapy treatment. 

Hence Folders 12 and 13 in their own right amount to a course in the medical science of pathology and this represents a substantial expansion over earlier versions of the course. 

These Folders will constitute invaluable reference material for use when you have set up in practice.

FOLDER 13

TREATING NAMED MEDICAL CONDITIONS - PART 2

This Folder continues the work started in Folder 12. 

Here included are diseases of the nervous system and brain, skin, reproductive system, urinary system, endocrine system, liver/gallbladder, respiratory system, eye, ear, mouth, nose and bone. Also included are psychological and systemic diseases (including ME), infectious diseases and some directly nutritional diseases. The detailed attention to pathology is maintained throughout.

During the course of Folders 10-14 inclusive, students undertake no less than 12 cases on their own, covering full data-collection, analysis and interpretation, with prescription of diet and supplements. 

Together with the 36 case histories studied in earlier Folders this gives 48 case histories studied

FOLDER 14

MONITORING TREATMENT, THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Having got the treatment going, there is a need for specific instruction in the on-going task of monitoring the patient’s condition and reacting accordingly with adjustments to the therapy. 

Patient and practitioner alike have to be aware that the first prescription is likely to be just the start of a process. Reading the signs of change looms large in this instruction and familiarization. Responding to them is the second part. Here there is a need to understand the terms “intensity” and “direction” in therapy. “Intensity” refers to the degree of healing and naturopathic pressure being applied and “direction” refers to the aims of the particular choice of treatment being applied. 

You will learn to distinguish between situations that call only for a change of “level” and those that call upon you to rethink and change “direction” when the patient’s progress levels off as this may then initiate a new burst of healing changes. 

Another way to break out from the “plateau” situation is to assess the exact nutrient composition of the whole diet – an action that is too detailed and time-consuming to do with every patient and usually not needed. 

A part of the Folder is about drugs, when and when not to encourage their use, and how to manage the drug-dependent patient. You need to acquire at least a passing familiarity with the main classes of prescription drugs, which are explained in this Folder.

This Folder also provides information on Laboratory testing procedures that may be recommended to patients.

Finally we offer subjects of crucial importance to working practitioners, namely a study of “The Therapeutic Relationship” and “Practice Management – Running The Practice as a Business”.

TESTIMONIALS

Here's what students have to say about the course

UK

"I was recommended Plaskett by my own functional medicine practitioner. I knew that if she was recommending it, it would be worthwhile. I wanted a full body overview and not a “match the supplement to the symptom” approach, and that is certainly what the Plaskett Dip;oma in Nutritional Medicine course delivered. I wanted to be qualified to run my own business as a practitioner afterwards, and it is the most complete and highest level course that the Plaskett College offer. My knowledge of naturopathy and nutritional medicine was pretty solid before I started due to personal experience, but I’ve really built on this now and feel confident that I know how to help others. I’ve also learnt a lot more of the biochemistry behind the science too. The study experience was really good, but it’s a lot of self-motivation, and if you don’t have that then it might be touch to finish it, as it’s completely self-driven".

South Africa

The Plaskett Nutritional Therapy Diploma was one of the most rewarding programmes of my life. Apart from the media hype around healthy living it is only after the completion of a proper programme that one truly start to understand the intricacy of the human body and what healthy living really is. Within the Plaskett programme the combination of nutrition, pure science and a naturopathic view provided me with a completely new perspective on health management. Against a fairly orthodox background it took me some time within the programme to understand the true principles, and once realized fundamentally changed the way I view personal health management. Throughout the programme the support from my tutor was phenomenal with concise and very valued feedback, and certainly at exceptional detail. The course content was of a high standard and must not be underestimated in both volume and complexity. For me personally, the programme delivered immense value and I will recommend it to any of my peers and clients.

Canada

When I first started thinking about taking a course in nutrition, I was living in Botswana, in Africa. I was looking for a college that would offer me the support and guidance that is so important for long distance learning. I’m probably one of the college’s longest registered students because my family moved to five different countries during my studies! I am very thankful for the college’s patience and continued support.

Plaskett College impressed me with their personal approach to the course and the fact that all modules were composed by Dr. Lawrence Plaskett, a medical research biochemist and the college’s Founder and Principal.

I studied the Diploma in Nutritional Medicine because my plan was to have my own practice. I practised at a herbal clinic as a Nutritional Therapist and Iridologist after I completed my diploma, but then decided to study massage therapy, so put my practice aside while at school. I recently established Revitalife Therapeutics and offer massage therapy, manual lymphatic drainage, nutritional therapy and iridology.

Namibia

I chose Plaskett College because I really wanted to make a difference where natural medicine was concerned. After losing my father to Cancer, and experiencing malpractice with all the orthodox medicine we followed, this pushed me even more to pursue an in-depth education in nutritional medicine. I chose Plaskett College’s, Nutritional Medicine Course, because I found this to be very informative for anyone interested in perusing a future in the field of Natural medicine and Nutritional Therapy.
My studies have been such a memorable journey for me. I started studying just over 2 months, after losing my father. A very difficult time in my life. The course I chose to do with Plaskett would take me 4 years to complete. I am in my 5th year (nearly my 6th year), doing this particular course and I have only experienced encouragement, understanding of my situation and support from the college to continue to complete the course in my time. I could not show more gratitude towards them for this. I did not expect that after losing my father my life would hit lots unforeseen hurdles, causing my study time to suffer greatly. Yet, through all this, Plaskett College only showed me more support and encouragement to persist with my studies.