Introduction: Rachel Hickman, a registered dietitian based near Nashville, is currently pursuing the CEDS credential through IAEDP. In this article, she shares her journey working toward certification.
What is the CEDS certification?
CEDS stands for Certified Eating Disorder Specialist awarded by the International
Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP). Essentially, this is a credential
that shows that you have acquired further experience, knowledge, and training in eating
disorders.
Why should a student seek certification?
Most dietetic programs don’t cover much about eating disorders. Seeking this certification
provides a lot of information about the complexities of eating disorders, medical complications,
different approaches to assessment of a client, and goes into depth about the different eating
disorder diagnoses including less commonly talked about disorders such as PICA or ARFID. It
also gives the individual knowledge about trauma informed care in order to improve patient
autonomy.
Although I’m still in the process of getting certified, it’s already helped my confidence in my
knowledge of working with eating disorders, collaborating with other care team members, and
trusting my own judgement.
I just graduated from my program and passed the RD exam. How do I get certified?
You must have 2500 hours in eating disorder care and you can start accruing hours immediately
after becoming an RD. The caveat is that these hours must be accrued over a minimum of two
years. So if you got all these hours in 1.5 years, you couldn’t become certified. You also need to
have an IAEDP membership to be certified.
The application for CEDS requires 2000 hours of direct patient care, 150 hours of indirect
patient care, and the rest of the hours is up to you. You also need to have 24 hours of
supervision by an approved IAEDP supervisor; 12 of those have to be 1:1 and the rest could be
in a group supervision. There are also 20 hours of continuing education credits and four core
courses with quizzes. Finally, you need three letters of recommendations, one of which cannot
be from your CEDS supervisor.
Describe what it’s like to be supervised.
I meet with my supervisor usually bimonthly depending on my caseload. It’s a time for us to
check in and discuss any challenges I am experiencing, such as a patient who hasn’t made
progress. We brainstorm ideas together and determine how to move forward or if the patient
should be referred out.
One big advice I have is to determine supervision session frequency depending on your budget.
Unless your supervisor works in the same practice as you, which in most cases would be
covered, supervision costs money and it can get expensive. So remember to plan things out
accordingly.
What is the difference between CEDRD, CEDRD-S, CEDS, CEDS-S, and CEDS-C?
The lettering has changed a little bit over time. In the past there were a number of
different credentials including the CEDS and CEDS-S and CEDRD and CEDRD-S
specifically for dietitians. Over the last couple of years, IAEDP has streamlined it in a
way to make it less confusing. So now anyone who is an eating disorder specialist
certified by IAEDP is just going to be CEDS, whether they’re a therapist, dietitian, or
another other health professional, this is the case across the board. For the supervisors,
they will have the credentials of CEDS-S, with the S standing for supervisor.
Can I be an eating disorder dietitian if I don’t have a CEDS?
Yes, I consider myself an eating disorder dietitian right now even though I still haven’t gotten
certified yet. The reason why I personally decided to pursue the CEDS credential is because it’s
widely recognized and respected in the field and allows me to demonstrate competency.