Private Membership Associations recommend having the proper credentials is the single most important step you can take to protect yourself from having conflicts with licensing boards in your state. It pays in the short and long term to help everyone associated with your business to become properly credentialed.
Becoming properly credentialed means:
Properly licensed by your state in a health care field, or
Properly licensed as a spiritual healer, or
Properly certified by an accredited board.
If your state licenses your profession, then to practice that profession with the public you need to be licensed by your state.
You can avoid practicing most professions by being certified as a "coach" or "instructor" in that profession. By doing that you may be able to avoid being licensed.
My State/Province Does Not License My Profession
If your state or province does not license your profession, and what you do can be considered a health, nutrition, therapies or wellness profession, then by federal law you must be certified by an independent accredited certification board. To our knowledge and belief this is the most complete list of accredited certification boards.
If your state or province does not license your profession, and you are not a health care provider of any kind, then please contact us to find out more about which kind of association will serve your needs the best. We already have programs for the following professions in addition to health, nutrition and wellness professions:
Independent means that certification board is not associated with an education or a sales and marketing or manufacturing organization. Accredited means that certification board is accountable to an independent accountability and competency assurance organization.
What Kind of Certification is the Best?
We believe the certification designations which give you the highest level of protection are those designating you as a "coach" but a good second choice is "specialist." The words we suggest you avoid are counselor, consultant and therapist unless you are licensed.
"Counselor” is a problem with counseling and psychology licensing boards.
“Consultant" is a problem with most boards because it's considered an illegal multilevel marketing term.
The title Practitioner is a problem with some licensing boards but not others because "Practitioner" is commonly used by illegal paper mills and non-accredited certification boards.
Your best bet is to become a Certified Coach, Certified Instructor or Certified Specialist. In some professions you can use the word "Public" followed by the title of your profession. For example: Certified Public Accountant, and Certified Public Insurance Coach.
In some professions the word "Public" is not required. For example: Certified Yoga Instructor, Certified Travel Agent and Certified Cruise Leader.
"Counselor” is a problem with counseling and psychology licensing boards.