the coach's test kitchen
the coach's test kitchen
The Test Kitchen is designed for certified health and fitness coaches who want to understand body image and eating psychology and learn how to coach it.
The mentorship where health coaches master body image and eating psychology.
What you'll learn inside the mentorship
We sharpen the professional fundamentals that make body image and eating psychology work possible: ethics, scope, the alliance, self of the coach, and the knowledge-behavior gap.
coachology
PHASE 1
Learn what body image actually is, how it shows up in your client work, and how to coach it within your scope of practice. You'll learn to spot what's driving your client's struggle and exactly what to do about it.
bodyology
PHASE 2
The psychology of eating—what normal eating actually is, and how to help your clients move towards a healthy relationship with food that lasts long after coaching is over.
eatology
PHASE 3
Learn to identify whether your client is facing a behavior problem, a body image issue, or a relationship with food issue so your strategies match the problem.
the locus diagnostic
CORE TOOLS
A framework for coaching normal eating so you're not just improving eating habits, but diet culture-proofing your client's relationship with food.
EASE Framework
CORE FRAMEWORKS
The Coaching Test Kitchen is for you if
Behavior Change PhD
Karin Nordin
Behavior Change PhD
Kasey Orvidas
Body Image PhD(c)
Michelle Carroll
From my Colleagues
How the Test Kitchen Works
What you can expect when you join
Hands-on Curriculum
Body image and normal eating research is dense. The Test Kitchen translates the research into clear, usable frameworks that you can implement right away. You'll have structured opportunities to practice: case studies, live client work, score-free assessments, Sarah's red pen reviews, video walkthroughs, and more. Every learning style is accounted for, so you don't have to worry about getting lost in the sauce.
Learn by practice, not by spending hours watching video at your computer.
Peer Review Pod
There are two ways to get better at coaching: getting feedback on your work and providing feedback to others. Inside Four Eyes, you'll bring real client cases to the pod and work through them together. Your peers will ask questions, offer angles, and challenge your thinking. Sarah has the final word, the clinical read your pod can't give you yet.
The "Four Eyes" forum is about getting second pair of eyes on your work.
Watch Sarah Coach
Most coaches have never watched another coach work. You get your certification, take on clients, and figure it out alone. Shadow Me gives you something almost no one in this field has access to: a front-row seat to real sessions, with the clinical thinking behind every move spelled out. You'll see which questions Sarah asks, what she leaves alone, and why. The goal over time is to help you develop your own clinical eye, not turn you into a copy of Sarah.
"Shadow Me" features Sarah's real client sessions, annotated with notes and voice memos.
Live Group Calls
We'll meet together six times throughout the program, shaped by the needs of the group. Some calls will be hot seats, others will be deep dives into a framework the group is wrestling with. Scheduled meeting times will be announced at least a week in advance. The calls adapt to the work and the group, not the other way around.
Six live calls across the program, scheduled around the cohort needs
✅ Read a client's check-in and tell whether you're looking at a behavioral issue, body image issue, or relationship with food issues and respond accordingly.
✅ Walk into a body image conversation without tiptoeing and have the language to articulate clearly and confidently your observations and reflective questions.
✅ Build a body image improvement plan and track progress over-time.
✅ Identify what eating skills your client lacks and build your plan around helping them become normal eaters.
✅ Know where your scope of practice ends and how to sensitively navigate those conversations with your client.
By the end of this mentorship, you'll be able to:
Submit your portfolio and post-program case study, and receive a personalized letter speaking to your progress, coaching strengths, and what the next steps are on your professional development.
Graduation Review
You'll walk away with an accumulation of your work across 5+ months, including case study reviews, assessments, reflects, and other coaching artifacts.
Graduation Portfolio
1-2 checkpoints to submit assessments for Sarah to review and provide feedback on your work so you're confident you're making progress.
Submittable assessments
Most programs try to test your recall, but the Test Kitchen is designed to build your coaching reasoning.
Solo Quizzes and Decision Matrix
You'll work through the same client case study at the start and end of the program—a built-in way to measure your growth and surface your own insights along the way.
Pre- and post-program case study
How we're assessing your progress
Once you're in, we'll get you oriented. You'll take a pre-program survey to baseline your current coaching skills — so you (and we) can see your growth by the end. You'll meet the rest of your cohort and settle into the Test Kitchen. If you're VIP, you'll get access to your 1:1 channel right away and learn the ropes of supervision.
Onboarding
Investment
1:1 Supervision + Private coaching channel
Live Calls
Shadow Me
Four Eyes Peer Review pod
Core Curriculum
You want real expertise in body image and normal eating. You're unmistakenly different from other health and behavior change coaches
You want hands-on oversight of your client work so that you develop the confidence and ability to tackle any complex case that walks through your door.
Sound like you?
Test Kitchen's core experience — curriculum, peer review pod, Shadow Me, and live support
The full Test Kitchen experience with direct supervision of your client work and 1:1 access.
What it is
Apply Now
Apply Now
Get Started!
VIP Tier
Table 01
Base Tier
$4997 or 6 payments of $833
$2997 or 6 payments of $500
Two ways to join for the cost of ONE client working with you for 12 months
Longer payment plans are available through
Save $1,000 joining the first cohort
Join the Hard House team roundtable calls (1x/month)
Private 1:1 coaching channel (Mon-Thurs support)
$4997 pay-in-full
or 6 payments of $833
VIP Tier
Save $500 joining the first cohort
Live calls to support the group with their needs
Shadow Me: observe Sarah coaching real clients
$2997 pay-in-full
or 6 payments of $500
Base Tier
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1:1 supervision (4x/month client material reviews)
Everything in the Base tier
Four Eyes peer review pod for group support
Full curriculum on coachology, bodyology, and eatology
test kitchen
Join us inside the
The cost of one client working with you at $249 for 12 months
Longer payment plans are available through
The Test Kitchen
☑️ Business courses ($1k-$5k): Ideal client work, social media, email lists, content systems. Yes, get clients through the door... but what happens once they're sitting across from you?
☑️ Business coach /mastermind ($5k-$25k): Marketing, sales, offers, systems that likely have you relying on transformation photos and weight loss as your lead marketing tool. No coaching skill development and you're still hitting a ceiling with your clients.
Business coaching
☑️ Original certification ($1k-$6k): Nutrition science, programming, learning about the biopsychosocial approach. No body image. No normal eating.
☑️ Continuing Ed ($1k-$5k): Usually narrow—one modality, one population (perimenopause, pregnancy and postpartum). Normal eating and improving body image is almost never central to the frameworks you're learning to use.
Certifications
You've probably spent $10,000+ on training. Your original certification (or college degree). A business coach. Maybe even specializations above and beyond nutrition. They probably didn't prepare you for what diet culture has done to your clients.
Thinking about investing in something else? Let's look at the cost (and I don't just mean money)
✅ Supervised mentorship ($2500-$4k): Learn the evidence base behind body image and normal eating and receive supervision and oversight over your client work.
✅ Shadow Me: Watch real coaching sessions and learn the reasoning behind different approaches and communication styles in real time.
Rachel
Admin Wizard
Shelly
Co-mentor
Shelly—who carries a rich background in body image, ACT and mindful eating—joins in to support the coaching pod inside our peer review group. Rachel keeps the operational side running smoothy—billing, logistics—so coaches can focus on coaching.
THE TEAM
Body image isn't a philosophical take and it's not a soft skill. It's an evidence base most coaches ignore because nobody's figured out how to turn it into $100k months (yet) — even though it's one of the strongest predictors of whether a client can actually change their lifestyle habits. The coaching industry offers two scripts: diet culture and intuitive eating. Neither of them help a coach working with the client in the middle. The Test Kitchen does.
Sarah co-developed the Level 2 Health Mindset Coaching Certification (HMCC) with Kasey Orvidas, PhD and has spent the last five years building change tools and frameworks alongside body image and behavior science researchers. She writes Coaching Normal Eaters, a Substack read by practitioners across nutrition, fitness, and allied health.
Your go-to body image and normal eating teacher.
Sarah Tierney
Meet Your Mentor
Bio 14
While body image programs are drawing from the same evidence base, the Test Kitchen is Sarah's IP. This means it's not available on Google, ChatGPT, or inside workbooks. The Test Kitchen also has a very hands-on component, so you're not just sitting at your laptop consuming content; you're playing with quizzes, assessments, and working with a group. Those in the VIP tier receive direct supervision over their client work. Lastly, we have normal eating frameworks. Eating psychology isn't typically included as its own section inside body image programs. Lastly, the Test Kitchen was created to specifically help coaches working inside the health and fitness industry, which is often a different set of clientele from purely body image/intuitive eating spaces.
How is this different from other body image programs?
They're completely different programs. HMCC certifies coaches in behavior change theory and application. It's a high-caliber certification taught by a PhD, and it remains one of the most rigorous behavior change trainings available. Test Kitchen centers on body image and eating psychology. It's not an advanced ladder of behavior change. It's an entirely different ladder.
Is this different from the Health Mindset Coaching Certifcation?
Test Kitchen is designed around real client work: peer case review, supervised practice, and applying frameworks in session. If you're not actively coaching, the program won't give you what it's designed to. My recommendation: wait until you have active clients before applying, or reach out and we can talk about it!
What if I'm not working with any clients right now?
Plan on about 3 hours per week between curriculum, pod participation, and live calls. As for falling behind, this has been built into the program. Sarah will keep an eye on each member of the cohort and personally reach out if anyone starts to fall behind, and she'll work with you on an implementation plan to help catch you up.
How much time will it take me per week? What happens if I fall behind?
Test Kitchen does not currently offer CEUs. If CEUs are a requirement for your practice, let us know when you apply and we'll be transparent about where approval stands.
Is this approved for CEUs?
The inaugural cohort gets 2 years of access. Future cohorts will have 6–12 months. You'll be able to revisit curriculum, receive updates, call recordings, and pod archives throughout your access window.
How long do I have access to the materials?
The Test Kitchen is hosted on Mighty Networks, a user-friendly online platform that houses our curriculum, community forum, calendar, live call replays, assessments, and more.
The lessons are taught via video and have an accompanying written format, plus supporting materials (assessments, documents, etc). We work hard to accommodate different kind of learners and neurodivergent populations!
What is the program format? What platform is it on?
Six live calls are scheduled across five months and are shaped by the needs of the cohort. Meeting times will be announced at least one week in advanced. You can expect them to take place during the day time Mon-Thurs.
When are the live calls?
The inaugural cohort runs May 11 through October 11, 2026. Enroll by May 10 and you'll have 2 years of access to the program materials.
When does the program start and end?
No. Test Kitchen does not train coaches to diagnose, treat, or work clinically with eating disorders. What Test Kitchen does teach is how to recognize the signs that a client's presentation is outside your scope, how to have that conversation with them, and when and how to refer appropriately. Scope of practice is a core thread throughout the curriculum.
Will this teach me how to work with clients who have eating disorders?
Yes, but the price will be increasing after the first cohort. Future dates are TBD.
Will you run this again in the future?