An immersive 190-hour, five month foundational experience for healing professionals looking to expand their services and make deep, impactful changes.
Developed by long-time multi-modality health practitioner Tahil Gesyuk, this fully guided and in-depth twenty-week training program explores topics on health, wellness, movement, and energy, paired with fundamentals of health counseling techniques and business principles. Participants have the option to meet either virtually or in person in Ukiah, CA for weekly lessons, aiming for each student to leave healthier than when they arrived, and confident to extend that health to their clients.
Program Highlights
Holistic Curriculum
Extensive cutting-edge information on nutrition, exercise, and life coaching through varied modalities and perspectives
Counseling Fundamentals
Foundations for building a health counseling practice from the ground up, while making a sustainable income and having a fulfilling, long-lasting impact
Real World Applications
Hands-on lessons in leading health food store tours, teaching cooking classes, and navigating real world health counseling scenarios
Relationships & Marketing
Understanding how to build trust and foster ongoing relationships with your clients, cultivate networks of practitioner support, and market your services
Bioindividual Health Plans
A model to create a personalized, six-month health counseling program for clients based on their own distinct biology and individual needs
Your Personalized Blueprint
Each student receives their own personal health consultation program as part of their curriculum to see the model and support techniques in action
Personal Transformation
A focus as much on your own personal transformation as advancing your career trajectory, regardless if you know health counseling is your work future
Built-In Community
Growing mutually beneficial and lasting peer relationships to create a structure of ongoing support around your personal health and taking action on career goals
Ongoing Alumni Support
Monthly lectures and gatherings for alumni centered on topics related to nutrition and coaching, based on continued support and connection.
Set aside doubts and reclaim your intuition around your health. Widespread contradictory information around health topics can sometimes cause feelings of disorientation, paralysis, and even distrust of our own natural instincts and intuition around health — but your lived experience matters just as much as the information out there.
Take the opportunity to slow way down. There may not be enough time to discuss detailed health needs with clients during or after your yoga class, massage, or other holistic service, but extended health counseling programs offer the time to systematically break down, apply, and adjust learnings.
Centralize the principles of nature. Moving beyond the mainstream optimization and profit-focused health culture allows us to be present with our own bodies as a part of nature. The lens of the natural world simplifies these over-complicated and inconsistent narratives and shows us how simple, intuitive changes can truly make an enormous difference.
Give yourself permission to not know and learn as you go. Even if you technically “know” about a health modality or perspective, showing up where you are and being curious and open, is both a welcome and necessary part of the learning process. This is an incubation lab to experiment, and we’re free to not know in order to learn more.
Let yourself be heard and lead with your uniqueness. Healing modalities are usually seen as “alternative” and generally attract pretty alternative people. In the past, you might have been shunned or shut down for expressing interest in something that lights you up because it was counter-cultural or outside the norm in some way. This community is where you can reclaim that light.
Allow yourself to be well-compensated for what you know. Healing professionals often fear not making enough money. They also fear if they do make money, it will capitalize on the vulnerabilities of someone else. Adding health counseling to your services allows there to be a reciprocal relationship and the potential of a consistent, well-earned income without being exploitative..
Health counseling through a holistic lens.
A The HeartSource Health Counseling Training Program offers a transformative learning experience that centers cooperation over competition and cross-functional learning across disciplines, expanding on your existing experience and building from there.
In our five months together, our eyes are open and our curiosity is at the forefront as we engage with the material. Bioindividuality and systemic inequities mean not all of us start on equal footing with our health, so we will keep real world realities in mind while examining the larger context on an array of health topics. This curriculum honors that each person is the arbiter of their own health, and you’ll have the privilege to hold space for that same empowered choice with your clients. You will see clients during the program, integrate what you discover about your own distinct health patterns, and consider how to support different health needs and lived experiences.
Month One: Foundations
Fundamentals and Theory
Energy: Yin Yang and Five Element Theory
Food Blocks: Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats
The Language Of Food: Vitamins, Minerals, and Phytochemicals (The Secret Code Of Food)
Trinity: Description, Analysis, and Primary Food
Health Counseling
Conscious Communication: Verbal Kung Fu, the Power of Silence, and the Lost Art of Listening
Speaking Effectively: Talking About Diet and Listening to What Is Not Being Said
First Steps: The Initial Consultation, Food History, and Demonstration
The Art of Signing Up Your Client
Month Two: Therapy
Fundamentals and Theory
Modern Dietary Issues: Multicultural, Political, and Ecological Dimensions of Diet
Pharmaceutical Companies and Agenda-Driven Science, Processed Foods
Bovine Growth Hormone, Mad Cow Disease, Ascertained MSG, Splenda, Olestra
Cloning, and Genetic Engineering
Diagnosis: Oriental Diagnosis, The Blood Types and Ayurveda
Health Counseling
Points of Connection: Client Perspective, Ethics of Caring, Establishing Rapport and Counselor Patient Relationship
Developing a Client Blueprint: Establishing Direction and Developing a Step-by-Step Plan, Identifying Potential Roadblocks
Effective Questioning: The Art of Asking Questions “Barbara Walters Style”
Client Assignments: Establishing Appropriate Homework and Leading Through Processing Learnings
Month Three: Current Dietary Theories
Fundamentals and Theory
Exploration of Modern Food Theories:
High Protein Diets, High Carbohydrate Diets, and Weight Loss
Food Combining (30/30/40), Vegetarian, Vegan, and Raw Foods
Macrobiotics and Ayurveda
Health Counseling
Routine Health Habits: Primary Food, Tongue Scraping, Hot Water Bottles, Massages, etc.
Inside the Client: Personality Tests, Wheel Of Life, and the “Highly Sensitive Person”
Diagnostics in Practice: Oriental Diagnosis with Clients
Building Self-Reliance and Community Support: Intuition, Confidence, and Co-Counseling
External Impacts: Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Capitalism, and Consumerism
Month Four: Building A Community, Support & Marketing
Fundamentals and Theory
Connection as the Foundation: The Power Of Relationship
Navigating Needs in Conversation: Group Dynamics
Reciprocal Marketing: The Art of Marketing Yourself and Others to Create Win-Win Situations, Knowing Your Uniqueness
Your Unique Value Proposition: Establishing Your Niche Market
Health Counseling
Continued Support: Reevaluating Your Client Relationships
Give and Take: Sharing Ideas and Problems, Fun, Balance, Enjoyment, and Freedom
Counseling around Food Choice: How to Lead a Health Food Store Tour
Counseling from the Kitchen: How to Lead a Cooking Class that Clients Can Retain
Month Five: Movement & How To Re-Sign Your Client
Fundamentals and Theory
Pros And Cons Of Various Movements: Aerobics, Tai Chi Yoga, Martial Arts, Pilates, Running, Skiing, and Walking
Compound Results: The Secrets of Combining Food and Movement
The Extra Step: Deepening Health Counseling Programs with Clients
Health Counseling
Movement Plans: How to Set Up Exercise Programs with Clients
Mental Movement Roadblocks: Processing the Excuses of Movement, Processing the Excuses to Resign
Next Steps: Final Opportunity for Questions, Exploring Where to Go Next
Graduation: Certification and Completion of the Program
ONLINE AND IN-PERSON LEARNING
March 3rd, 2024 - August 18th, 2024 (excluding holidays)Sundays and Wednesdays
We meet twice weekly for lessons either through a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning in Ukiah, CA, or entirely virtually via Zoom from November to the beginning of April (excluding holidays). All dates and curriculum are the same for both the in-person and virtual learning options.
Sundays at 10:00am to 6:00pm PT
Online or in person in Ukiah, CA
March 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th
April 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
May 5th, 19th
June 2nd, 9th, 23rd, 30th
July 14th, 21st, 28th
August 4th, 11th, 13th
Wednesdays at 7:00pm to 8:30pm PT
Online for all students
March 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
April 10th, 17th, 24th
May 1st, 8th, 22nd
June 5th, 12th, 26th
July 3rd, 17th, 24th, 31st
August 7th, 14th, 21st
Instructor
Tahil Gesyuk
Tahil has been a health practitioner for over 35 years with clients in several modalities, including massage, yoga, and oriental medicine. When clients began asking for dedicated nutritional support, his hybrid approach made it natural to expand his focus to health counseling. Tahil trained with Joshua Rosenthal, the founder of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and since then he has been a certified health counselor for 20+ years. He has studied with notable names in health, including educator Michio Kushi, author Paul Pitchford, and macrobiotic teacher Lino Stanchich, as well as experimented firsthand with diets and health treatments to understand wellness beyond theory in his own body.
Health counseling brought Tahil the gratification of seeing his clients make empowered strides in their health, and his own well-being increased dramatically. His income doubled in the first year of health counseling and tripled the next, and with that stability, providing other offerings like yoga and massages became more enjoyable. The HeartSource training draws on Tahil’s knowledge and experience to create structure and opportunities for health practitioners to access their own version of that sense of connection, security, and well-being without sacrifice.
“Tahil is gem. His knowledge of how energy, the seasons, our emotions, and nutrition choreograph our experiences, and the range of how bodies work, makes him a wise teacher.”
“I began working with Tahil 3 years ago when I was seeking support for a body injury that western medicine couldn’t diagnose or remedy. With him, I received that body support, but I also felt comfortable bringing out so much more of myself that needed to be held and healed from a deep level. I’m deeply grateful to have found Tahil and receive his gifts. ”
— CALVIN / RELATIONSHIP COACH
Enrollment
Join the next cohort of the HeartSource Health Counselor Training Program, which includes twenty weeks of dedicated lessons on nutrition, movement, and health counseling theory from a balanced perspective, and step-by-step foundational building blocks to create a health counseling program for yourself and clients — no previous counseling experience necessary.
Please see the frequently asked questions at the bottom of this page for program policies before enrolling.
March 3rd, 2024 - August 18th, 2024
(Excluding holidays)
Sundays and Wednesdays
(see program schedule for exact dates)
In-Person - Ukiah, CA and Zoom Sessions
Sundays 10a - 6p PT
Namasté Cafe, 250 N State St, Ukiah, CA. 95482
Limited to 12 participants
Wednesdays 7 - 8:30p PT
Virtually via Zoom
Virtual Learning - Zoom Sessions
Sundays 10a - 6p PT (virtual on Zoom)
Virtually via Zoom
Limited to 22 participants, including in-person hybrid
Wednesdays 7 - 8:30p PT
Virtually via Zoom
Community Discount
Since not all community members arrive with the same privilege or opportunities, there is a community discount for participants under the age of 25, those who are black, indigenous, or people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, those living with disabilities, or who have been impacted by systemic inequity. Use the code HEARTSOURCE at checkout for 20% off. This discount uses the honor system. You will know whether it applies for you.
If you benefit from financial or systemic privilege and want to pay-it-forward to make it possible for a participant to join using the community rate, please email Tahil at heartsourcecenter@gmail.com.