David I will answer you, because you have asked me nicely. The reason I became a Nutritional Therapist is because of my own medical condition. Allopathic medicine would treat my condition by suppressing my Symptoms. I felt that I needed to look after myself in order to have a more normal life. So I turned to Nutritional Therapy. The subject matter gave me the opportunity to research my condition and understand it. Part of Nutritional therapy is clinical Nutrition. In the first Year you observe clients in clinic with a Qualified Nutritional Therapist. In the second year, you are in clinic with the clients and a qualified therapist, observing, but also taking part in the consultation. In the third year, you are in clinic with the client heading the consultation under supervision of the qualified therapist, whilst being observed by other students. You need to aquire 500 hours of clinic to help give you a better understanding of what is happening to the client. Presenting symptoms on Irritable bowel syndrome for instance can be constipation, Diahorrea, Constant abdominal cramping. But not all cases of IBS are the same, so clinical experience helps you differentiate what is Irritable bowel. If there is a medic on the EDF please give us some input. So the reason why I chose Nutritional therapy is because I never considered Dietician/Public Nutrition, I did it for self, myself.