Program Requirements

Program Requirements

The master’s in Integrative Health at CIIS is a two-year, hybrid program that combines synchronous and asynchronous online learning to complete 36 units of coursework. 

The synchronous online meetings are mandatory, and are held roughly every two to three weeks for each course. Meeting times are set by the instructors and the schedule of synchronous meetings is available at registration. 

At the beginning of the program, students will meet for a six-day academic intensive at a retreat center. The retreat combines rigorous academic study with practices that support mind-body-spirit, such as yoga, meditation, hikes, and shared meals. Evening programs introduce complementary medicine studies in subjects like HeartMath, sound healing, subtle energy medicine, and community health advocacy.

In their final semester, students present a capstone project on an integrative health research subject of their own interest. The scholarly process allows students to design, conduct, and assess applied research in integrative health and to engage professional skills.

Course of Study

This course launches students' study and experience of being an integrative health coach, and is targeted toward experiential practice of basic coaching skills. Students will engage in case studies, learn strategies for behavior change, and become familiar with basic practical guides and theoretical models. Other courses in the Integrative Health Studies curriculum are designed to supplement the students' special knowledge in health and wellness.

This course utilizes creative inquiry to explore intersectionality and the varying phenomenology of self. Our identities are shaped and reinforced by context, relationship, and environment. Now more than ever, it is crucial to understand the ways these perspectives filter an understanding of the world and one’s participation within it. Alongside study of theoretical and empirical research, students will reflect on what defines identities and constitutes a sense of self by exploring their relationship to personal and group identities through art-based inquiry. A series of creative and meaning-making projects encourage students to examine unconscious assumptions and beliefs while integrating new perspectives and understandings. The course will focus on the function of narrative (linear and nonlinear) in self-organization and use this as an approach for discussing place and ecological identities, social and relational identities, online identities, consumer identities, spiritual identities, identities of health and healing, and the multitude of personalities and archetypes at play in the world. We will also explore how identities are embodied and the lived dynamics of sociopolitical power as it relates to the well-being of all beings and the planet. 

IHL 6085 Holistic Medicine and Modalities (3 units)

This course provides an overview of holistic systems of medicine and modalities in use today, including those considered complementary and alternative to allopathic medicine, and of the attempt to blend various forms of healing arts into the field known as integrative medicine or integrative health. Through the exploration of various holistic medical systems and modalities, existing structures for integration, and engagement with holistic practitioners, we will cultivate our own creative visions for the dynamic and potent field of integrative medicine.

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) empowers people to improve their own health and then teach others how to be healthier through nutrition, lifestyle choices, business training, and coaching. The program teaches a variety of dietary theories, and encourages integration of traditional nutritional philosophies with modern health concepts.

The International Nurse Coach Association (INCA) educates nurses to integrate coaching into the mainstream of their nursing practice, in hospitals, home care, and independent practice through the INCA Integrative Nurse Coach Certificate Program (INCCP).