Straight up: I'm an FDN practitioner and an FDN affiliate. If you enrol in the certification through my link, I'm paid a commission. It costs you nothing extra, and it doesn't change what I think of the training — I qualified through it in 2009 and I still use the method with every client. I'd rather tell you than have you find out.
What the Intensive actually is
The facts, unedited
Most course providers run a webinar and then a sales call. FDN has done something I've not seen before: they're handing over the first module of the certification itself, in full, to anyone who registers.
What you get, free
- 13 lessons — all seven Module 1 lessons, plus six bonus clinical lessons
- Three quizzes — the real ones, not a marketing questionnaire
- Real client cases solved with real lab data, start to finish
- Your own health scorecard by the end of the three weeks
- A resource hub with a built-in assistant, AIMEE, answering questions around the clock
- Two short sessions a day, entirely on demand — it fits around a job
It runs from Monday 10 August to Thursday 27 August. Registration is open now and stays open during the event, so joining late costs you nothing — every lesson sits waiting in your hub.
What three weeks looks like
In sequence — each week builds on the last
You read a lab report
Not a diagram of a lab report. An actual one. This is the week that separates people who are curious about functional health from people who are going to enjoy practising it.
The framework underneath it
How the systems connect, why a marker moves, and why the same result means different things in two different people. This is the part most nutrition training never gets to.
Real cases, worked through
Client presentations resolved with lab data from beginning to end. You watch the reasoning, not just the conclusion — which is the only way anyone learns to do this.
Three weeks from now you'll either know this is your work, or know it isn't. Both answers are worth more than another year of wondering.
The part nobody else will tell you: what this looks like in the UK
Doing it here since 2009
FDN is an American organisation, so most of what you’ll read about this event is written for an American audience. Here are the questions a British reader usually has.
Can you get the tests here?
Yes. FDN has confirmed Nordic Labs as its UK and European distributor for DUTCH, GI-MAP, OAT and Mosaic panels. For blood chemistry I use Regenerus, with UK home phlebotomy. Lab access was the genuine barrier for British practitioners a decade ago. It isn't any more.
Where does it sit legally?
FDN-P is a certification, not a protected title or a licence to diagnose. In the UK you practise as a health coach or nutrition professional working within scope — you interpret functional lab data and build lifestyle and nutrition programmes, you don't diagnose disease or treat it. That boundary is a strength, not a limitation, and the training is explicit about it. Insurance is straightforward to arrange.
What does a practice actually look like?
Mine is a five-test programme with a structured three-to-four-month engagement around it. Yours might be one test and a coaching relationship. The certification gives you the interpretive skill; the business model is yours to build. What it doesn't give you is clients — that part is still work.
If you want the longer version, I've written it up: FDN in the UK and my honest review of the certification, from someone qualified since 2009.
Who this suits — and who it doesn't
Worth being honest about
Go and register if
- You've been circling a health coaching career for months and can't decide
- You're a PT, nurse, nutritionist or therapist who keeps meeting clients you can't fully help
- You've resolved your own health problem the hard way and want to do it properly for others
- You want to see functional lab work before you spend money on learning it
Probably give it a miss if
- You're a client looking for answers about your own health — this is practitioner training, not a health programme
- You want a qualification quickly rather than a skill slowly
- You're hoping to diagnose and treat disease — that's not what this is
- You won't have three hours a week spare this month
Dates and deadlines
Two different things — don't confuse them
Registration for the Intensive
Free. Open now, and stays open throughout. Everything is on demand, so registering on day fourteen means you've missed nothing — you just start at Lesson 1 whenever you sit down.
Enrolment special for the full certification
Closes Monday 31 August, 11:59pm Pacific Time. For UK readers that's 7:59am on Tuesday 1 September, British Summer Time — so in practice, Monday night here is your last evening to decide.
This is entirely separate from the free event. You never have to enrol in anything to do the Intensive.
Questions people have asked me
Frequently asked
Is it genuinely free, or is there a card at the end?
Genuinely free. No card at registration. There's an enrolment offer at the end for people who want to continue, and it closes on 31 August — but the thirteen lessons are yours either way.
I've no science background. Will I be lost?
Module 1 assumes nothing. It's the foundation module — it exists to build the vocabulary. If you find week one hard going, that's genuinely useful information about whether the full certification is right for you, which is rather the point of a free trial.
How much time does it really take?
Two short sessions a day across three weeks, all on demand. Realistically, two to three hours a week if you're doing the quizzes properly. Nothing is live, so nothing is missed.
Does this qualify me to practise?
No. The Intensive is the first module of the certification, given away free. Qualifying means completing the full programme. What the Intensive gives you is an accurate answer to "do I want to?"
I already work in health. Is there anything new here?
The six bonus clinical lessons and the week-three case work are the parts experienced practitioners tend to find most useful. If you already read labs confidently, you'll move quickly. If you flag markers as high or low without a framework for what they mean together, this will be the useful bit.
What's your involvement?
I'm an FDN-P and an affiliate. I qualified through this training and I've built a UK clinical practice on it. If you enrol through my link I'm paid a commission, at no cost to you. If you'd rather not use it, go direct — the free event is the same either way.