Holistic Health & Wellness Careers: Boards and Registration Exams

Mar 12, 2013 1:25:00 PM | achs Holistic Health & Wellness Careers: Boards and Registration Exams

How do you become a Registered Aromatherapist or a Certified Nutrition Professional? Read more here!

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So you've graduated from your ACHS program. What's next?

Before you put those books away and breathe a sigh of relief, get your board and registration exams scheduled and complete your professional membership applications! The sooner you do them, the less time you'll have to study to refresh your memory!

Here are your options:

  • Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA): Join as an Associate Member until you've completed your Certificate in Aromatherapy. Once you've completed your Certificate in Aromatherapy, upgrade to Professional Aromatherapist status. After completing the Diploma in Aromatherapy or the AAS with Aromatherapy major, upgrade to the new Clinical Member status. ACHS is approved as an AIA Level II and III professional clinical aromatherapy training provider. This recognition ensures ACHS aromatherapy programs and ACHS students meet and exceed AIA’s extensive curriculum requirements for aromatherapy training at the clinical level as critically reviewed by independent evaluators of the AIA Education Committee.

  • Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP): If you are still a student, get your student liability insurance: Certificate in Aromatherapy and Diploma in Aromatherapy students are approved for student liability insurance. If you've graduated from the Certificate in Aromatherapy and Diploma in Aromatherapy graduates, you're approved for practitioner liability insurance. Students and Graduates must apply directly with ABMP.
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  • American Herbalists Guild (AHG): If you are an herbal student, hopefully you've already become a student member of AHG. If not, start now and start finding a mentor through AHGs mentoring program to earn your clinical hours required for AHG professional membership. Master Herbalist graduates are eligible for professional membership once they have met the AHG clinical requirement, available through the AHG mentorship program.


  • Aromatherapy Registration CounciARC Registration Examination for Certificate in Aromatherapy and Diploma in Aromatherapy graduates. If you completed the AAS with an aromatherapy major, you may have sufficient credits to have the Diploma awarded as well. Certificate in Aromatherapy graduates are eligible to sit for the National Examination in Aromatherapy sponsored by ARC to become Registered Aromatherapists and to use the trademarked letters RA after their name.

  • National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy: NAHA Professional Membership: Hopefully if you're an aromatherapy graduate you're already a student member. If so, time to upgrade your membership to professional status! If not, get signed up today!  ACHS is approved to offer Level One and Two aromatherapy curricula. Certificate in Aromatherapy and Diploma in Aromatherapy graduates are eligible for Professional Aromatherapist membership with NAHA. 

  • National Association of Nutrition Professionals: Graduates of the ACHS Diploma in Holistic Health Practice program are eligible to apply to sit for the Holistic Nutrition Credentialing Board's (HNCB) Board Examination. The HNCB is a division of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP). NANP Professional Members who meet the board examination qualification criteria and successfully pass the Board Exam will earn the designation, "Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition." and can call themselves a Nutrition Professional. For more information, including a list of Board Exam eligibility criteria please visit www.nanp.org or contact them at Phone: (800) 342-8037.  All courses offered by ACHS, as an NANP school, count as Category I continuing education credits for the ten required hours of continuing education required each year for NANP Nutrition Professionals. 

Any questions about what to apply for? Contact student services today!

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Dorene Petersen, ACHS Founding President

Written By: Dorene Petersen, ACHS Founding President

Dorene is the Founding President of the American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS). She has over 45 years of clinical teaching and lecturing experience in aromatherapy and other holistic health subjects. She has presented papers on essential oils and clinical aromatherapy at the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades Annual Conference (IFEAT) in California, USA; the Aroma Environment Association of Japan (AEAJ) in Tokyo, Japan; the Asian Aroma Ingredients Congress (AAIC) and Expo in Bali, Indonesia; the International Center of Advanced Aromatherapy (ICAA) at the WonGwang Digital University in Seoul, Korea; as well as the AAIC Expo in Kunming, Yunnan, China. Dorene is a founding member of the Aromatherapy Registration Council (ARC) and served as its chair until 2023. Dorene is also involved in the distance education community and has served as a volunteer, committee member, and standards evaluator for the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). Dorene is a travel junkie, and has led ACHS Study Abroad programs to India, Indonesia, Greece, and Hawaii!