Are Wellness Consultants Real Health Care Providers?

The frazzled looking mom sitting next to you on the bleachers is one. So is the polished dad in the crisp kahkis that you see every day in the pick-up line at school. What are they? They call themselves "wellness consultants" and you can find them everywhere these days. Fancy title aside, what exactly is a "wellness consultant" and what makes one qualified to give you medical advice? The answers may surprise you.

What Wellness Consultants Really Are

Whether they're hawking their goods door-to-door or they're ambusing people at a PTA meeting, wellness consultants have one thing in common--they're salespeople for some of the biggest multi-level-marketing firms in the country.

What You HAVE To Know About Wellness Consultants

Titles like "wellness consultant" look impressive at first glance but have you ever asked yourself what that phrase actually means? I did and what I found was that the "training" required to use that phrase, assuming that training was provided at all, consisted mainly of lessons on selling products. The truth is, if wellness consultants had any legitimate medical training, they'd use the titles that came along with it instead of making up titles like "wellness consultants".

What About "Certified" Professionals?

When someone talks about being "certified" in some area natural health, it's natural to assume that certification means that your consultant has gone through rigorous training. Often, that's true but sometimes it isn't. Certification is very different from licensure. When someone is licensed to provide consulting services, it means that they have met competency standards set up by a legally-recognized regulatory agency. Additionally, it also usually means that to maintain a license, a practitioner has to earn a certain number of continuing education credits every year.

But there is no legal defination for the word "certified" in most states. In fact, when it comes to wellness consultants working for multi-level-marketing companies, the "certification" often comes from the very company providing the product. In other words, that "certified consultant" who has been trying to sell you the latest miracle fruit juice was probably "certified" by the company manufacturing the juice. Perhaps her "certification" only proves that she sat through a 2-hour sales training seminar. No medical training, need for professional liability insurance and no need to go back to school next year to stay up on the latest research. Just a class on how to sell supplements.

The Bottom Line on "Wellness Consultants"

By now, you're probably assuming that I hate wellness consultants and the products they sell. The truth is, I don't. But what I do have a problem with are people with no legitimate medical training pressuring people suffering from very serious illnesses like lupus, cancer and depression into purchasing expensive, and often uproven, "remedies". Do I think that all MLM reps do that? Of course not. But I've seen far too many who do.

It's your health. Don't entrust it to someone who can only make money by selling you something.