Fitness for Mental Health

If you’re a fitness professional who is passionate about mental health and you’re interested in growing your skillset, client base, and industry expertise to make a meaningful difference in your community, then the Fitness Support Specialist course is the perfect continuing education opportunity for you!

The course is designed to train fitness professionals — including personal trainers, group exercise instructors, health and wellness coaches, etc — with the knowledge and strategies needed to deliver fitness coaching as an accessible, safe, and enjoyable treatment to support people living with mental illnesses. 

Beyond earning Continuing Education Credits, as a graduate of the FSS course your fitness expertise will be elevated with a research-backed, industry-leading perspective about mental health systems and coaching frameworks. You will be equipped with a comprehensive skillset to expand your practice into new settings with a wider market of clients. Additionally, access to the FSS private online community will be a valuable source of advice, resources, and community to help guide your career and learning. 

Moreover, as a certified Fitness Support Specialist, you will join the forefront of a rapidly growing field bridging the gap in the healthcare system for fitness as an important element of mental health treatment. Through creating transformative fitness experiences for people’s individualized needs, you will be able to make a meaningful difference in your community.

The FSS will not certify you as a personal trainer or group fitness instructor. Though it is not legally required, we STRONGLY recommend that you first attain your certification through a respectable governing body.

These certifying bodies provide the foundational information needed to work as a fitness professional and attain contractor insurance.

We recommend looking at the canfitpro PTS or FIS for your certification needs. You can take a full look at our recommended certifying bodies here in our Partner list at the bottom of this page.

No, you do not need to submit any documentation to enroll as an FSS. However, as mentioned above in "Will the Fitness Support Specialist certification accreditate me to work as a personal trainer?", it is strongly recommended that you first hold an official fitness certification before taking our course.

No, it does not. Please see above "Will the Fitness Support Specialist certification accreditate me to work as a personal trainer?".

The FSS course is designed to be completed in 6-8 hours of "class time". Some students may take shorter or longer, depending on their level of prior knowledge, learning strategies, and familiarity with online learning.

Currently, the FSS certification provides 4.0 CECs towards your annual canfitpro PTS or FIS renewal. We are working with other organizations to provide CECs and will update this page accordingly.

You do not need to recertify with us annually to maintain your certification status as a Fitness Support Specialist. With that, we believe staying actively involved in the latest research and practices is of utmost importance when working with our target population.

We are looking at introducing several measures for our FSS graduates to maintain membership, which will include being listed on our Preferred FSS Locator Map on our website. We will have more details on this soon.

Graduating as a Fitness Support Specialist will provide you with valuable knowledge to work with the general population experiencing mental health challenges. It's important to note that work in the clinical and health settings is regulated by a myriad of overlapping regulatory bodies, policies, and safety training programs. FMH is currently involved in advocating at all levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) along with influencing the public to formally include fitness professionals in all clinical health settings.

We are working tirelessly to bridge partnerships across our industry and all sectors so that one day Canadians can receive fitness support recommendations through their family doctor or health practitioner.

As mentioned above, we are looking at introducing several measures for FSS graduates to maintain their membership, which will include being listed on the Preferred FSS Locator Map on our website.

We will have more details on other measures shortly. For now, we are offering all FSS graduates two years of listing on our website from the date of their graduation!

We offer our program participants and graduates a range of resources! This includes exclusive access to a private moderated online community in which you can enrich your learning and grow your network through discussions with other FSS students and graduates.

Our team is also available to provide individual support for any questions, comments, or concerns you may encounter while taking the course.

Currently, the course is available for purchase at a pre-sale discount of 20%, which is $60 off of the full price of $299. If you would like to become certified as a Fitness Support Specialist, we encourage you to purchase access to the course now as it will return to full price once the pre-sale period is discontinued!

Currently, we are only offering the general Fitness Support Specialist course but you can follow our socials at @fitnessformental on Instagram, Facebook, and X to receive updates on any new developments.

If you have an idea for content that would enhance the FSS course, you can send us a message at [email protected]. We are always interested in hearing feedback from the community!

If you have more questions about the course, please contact our FSS program office at [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as possible.