ELMO Certificate

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The European Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine: Health and Fitness Lifestyle Advisor

The European Lifestyle Medicine Organization (ELMO), together with the Belgian Lifestyle Medicine Organization (BELMO), offer an evidence-based eight weeks online program with the support of the European lifestyle medicine representatives. 

Why you should enroll in this course:

  • Ιt is the only lifestyle medicine online program which offers clinical and practical skills to understand and practice lifestyle medicine.
  • Υou will learn how to communicate with your patients based on Motivational Interviewing principles.
  • Ηealthier professional mean healthier patients, so you will be mentored during the course to improve your own healthier lifestyle.
  • Υou will be part of the biggest European lifestyle medicine practitioners network who followed the course.

The online course has already had eleven successful sessions and is developed and coordinated by the Scientific Director of the European Lifestyle Medicine Certificate and the Education Coordinator of the “European Lifestyle Medicine Organization”, Dr. Ioan Hanes, Belgium

Dr. Ioan Hanes is a medical doctor who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He is a clinical practitioner in lifestyle medicine, working as a certified medical nutritionist in the Military Hospital, Brussels. He is also a clinical sexologist and medical expertise physician. He completed different lifestyle medicine related courses in the USA and Belgium. He has a strong interest in the field of sexual health and lifestyle medicine, a chapter which is developed only for the European Lifestyle Medicine Certificate but he is also teaching it in English in the online MSc in Lifestyle Medicine of the University of Thessaly, Greece. Dr Hanes is one of the co-coordinators of the first European Lifestyle Medicine Book. His multicultural background is reflected by the five languages he speaks fluently: English, French, Romanian, Hungarian and Dutch. He is the founder and president of the “Belgian Lifestyle Medicine Organization” (BELMO).


The teaching team is recently completed with four graduates of the ELMO Certificate:
Dr. Shubhi Tamrakar, MBBS, MD in Physiology (India), holds a diploma in Clinical nutrition, specializing in childhood nutrition. With a focus on preventing childhood obesity and malnutrition, she combines medical expertise, nutritional knowledge also on gut and hormonal health, and the benefits of yoga to empower individuals on their journey to optimal well-being.

Dr. Pelagia Petraki Kavvadia (Greece) is coming from the islands of Crete and is living in Athens. Although she specialized in Medical Pathology, she is reconsidering today chronic diseases through the eyes of her passion for lifestyle medicine.
She is a mother of three and wife to a man who also embraces a healthy lifestyle. Physical activity and exercise were always essential to her, in her younger years flirting with professional sports.

Dr. Eleni Prifti, PhD, Environmental Chemist, Health Coach (The Netherlands) holds a PhD in Bioavailability and Dynamics of Heavy Metals and has a special interest in lifestyle interventions aiming to reduce toxic exposures, interest sustained by her participation in numerous European environmental research programs. She is a mother of two children, embracing the intergenerational responsibility towards them.

Dr. Kristal Lau Ying Qing LaFrance (Malaysia/Germany/France) is a physician-turned-postpartum wellness consultant, with an extensive experience in coaching. She is the author of “Postpartum 30” where she wrote about bridging traditional and cultural practices with modern postpartum care. Her personal experiences as a Malaysian expat in the West, a mother of two, and a foreign-born U.S. military spouse completes her multicultural journey.


The ELMO certificate is addressed to medical professionals and eventually to those interested in a healthy lifestyle, who would like to develop and monitor a healthy lifestyle trajectory for their patients and for themselves. Upon registration we ask that all registrants include a copy of their main professional diploma. The exam will certify that graduated students master the lifestyle medicine principles and apply them in their practice.


Course Details

         The Winter 2024 Certificate has already started. Stay tuned for the announcement of the next session!       

The weekly online course is take place from 29th January to 22th March, 2024. The course has 30 hours of online sessions split between eight weeks of weekly courses, a motivational interviewing practical session and a self-development workshop. The online course, with a choice for the weekly day (Monday or Friday) of the course established with the coordinator, from 18:00 to 21:00 (CET- Brussels Time) requires a mandatory presence of all participants for 75% of the total time. Until now, the average presence has always been more than 90%.

Course Registration Fees (course and exam fees):

Medical doctors: 590 EUR
Non Medical doctors: 540 EUR
Students: 400 EUR


ELMO members have a 10% discount on the course fee.

Objectives of the course:
  1. Define lifestyle medicine and describe its essential components
  2. Personal commitment to improve health choices in your own life through personalized guidance
  3. Lifestyle medicine consultation in the health advisor practice
  4. Identifying how lifestyle behaviors, including physical activity, nutrition, sleep, sexual health, chemical addictions, stress and technology could contribute to overall health
  5. Describe the difference between the coach approach and the expert approach when counseling for therapeutic lifestyle changes
  6. Motivational interviewing basics and practical exercises for behavior change
  7. European lifestyle medicine initiatives in the prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related chronic diseases
  8. How to communicate in a multidisciplinary and multiculturally environment
  9. Developing critical reading of lifestyle medicine literature and material
  10. To build up a network of European Lifestyle Medicine Certificate graduates in Europe and around the world

Participants will receive an invitation to join an online platform before each online meeting. To participate in the sessions, they are requested to have a laptop or desktop computer, internet connection, basic software (office tools, webs browser, media player, adobe reader) speakers or headphones.

The final exam will take place online and consist of two parts: MCQ and a personalized lifestyle medicine practical case. Those interested to obtain the certificate will have to participate in minimum 75% of the online training  (including the two workshops) and to fulfill all the practical assessments.

Interested parties are asked to note that there is no possibility to only audit the course. The European Lifestyle Medicine Certificate has an important practical part which is mandatory together with the 75% of the presence required in the theoretical part of the course. Refusing to submit, in time, the practical assignments during the course could lead to the exclusion from the course, without a financial reimbursement. The registration in the course means you accept these conditions.

Participants will not need further documentation other than their presence during the online sessions.

The interactive course is a practical lifestyle medicine skills developing program so places are limited.The success of the eleven previous sessions with 400 students from more than thirty countries are proof of the effectiveness of our teaching methods. All teaching materials in the course are under copyright laws and multiplication or registering them are prohibited.

Take the chance to be a graduate of the first and unique scientific European certificate in lifestyle medicine!

BE ELMO!

Guest Speakers invited in the course until now:
Dr. Stefania Ubaldi
Dr. Stefania Ubaldi

Switzerland

Dr. Ioannis Arkadianos
Dr. Ioannis Arkadianos

Greece

Prof. Beth Frates

USA


Prof. Anne-Claude Juillerat Van Der Linden

Switzerland

Prof. Hanno Pijl

The Netherlands


Prof. Robert Kelly

Ireland


Prof. Labros Sidossis

Greece

Prof. Giorgos Sakkas

Greece

Dr. Mitchell Silva

Belgium


Rob D’Hondt

The Netherlands


Christel Grieten

Belgium


Dr. Rabbanie Tariq Wani

India

Mohamad Awada

The Netherlands


Prof. Alexia Papageorgiou

Cyprus

Dr. Reka Vernes

Hungary


Ana Jorge

Portugal


Prof. Anna Lengyel

Hungary


Dr. Pascal Douek

France


Prof. Edit Paulik

Hungary


Eleni Prifti

Greece/The Nederlands

Prof. Ourania Kolokotroni

Cyprus

Dr. Elena Gopchuk

Cyprus


Prof. Jhony Alberto De La Cruz-Vargas

Peru

Cristine Dessenne

France


Dr. Bianca Comsa

Belgium


Charalampos Petras

Greece

Dr. Inês Mendes Correia

Portugal

Dr. Florin Ioan Balanica

Romania

Prof. Georgeta Vaidean

USA