About the Integrative Health Studies Program
One of the first nonclinical integrative health graduate degree programs in the U.S., the IHL program can be completed in a minimum of two years and 36 units.
IHL attempts to provide students with the utmost flexibility, including evening and weekend courses, to accommodate people trying to balance careers, work schedules, and families.
Classes are designed to accommodate multiple interests and levels of practice. Some students enter the program with limited experience in the health field as yoga instructors, fitness trainers, or other allied wellness practitioners.
Other students are licensed health professionals or have a certification in practices such as homeopathy, guided imagery, or aromatherapy, or work in recreation or a health store.
Still others have no experience in health fields but seek supportive staff positions and opportunities to collaborate in clinical settings.
The IHL program goes beyond a focus on the practical applications of health promotion and client education, building professional knowledge and skills in health communications and new media.
Students learn to create podcasts and health websites. They honor multicultural perspective and the health equity needs of vulnerable populations, and explore the intersection of holistic health and spirituality.
“At CIIS, I learned to not only improve the health and well-being of others but I was also able to deepen my own holistic self-care practice and become an activist for integrative health.” ---Jerrol Kimmel, MA 2008
Graduates of the program (a few enter as licensed or certified health professionals) work successfully in the following roles:
- Integrative health practitioners in private practice
- Integrative wellness coaches in corporations or spas
- Integrative health center staff
- Integrative health practitioners in hospitals
- Wellness program managers and coaches in corporations
- Spa managers and owners
- Practitioners in wellness clinics
- Holistic health educators
- Health promotion managers
- Mind-body healing practitioners in physicians’ offices
- Directors of international nongovernmental organizations
CORE COMPETENCIES GAINED
Graduates are able to do the following:
- Demonstrate skill in scholarship, systematic inquiry, and critical thinking
- Demonstrate sociocultural sensitivity and ability to adapt health communications and programs to people of diverse populations, needs, and environments
- Demonstrate professional skills in caring, service, and leadership.
- Demonstrate professional and interpersonal communication skills.
- Demonstrate capacity and willingness to adopt and model a holistic self-care practice, striving to integrate mind-body-spirit.
