How To Become A Therapeutic Dietitian: What It Is and Career Path

What is a therapeutic dietitian and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

Tara Kelly MS, RDN,

Ellen Shanley

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a therapeutic dietitian. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.86 an hour? That's $60,038 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a therapeutic dietitian?

Tara Kelly MS, RDN

Instructor, University of Alabama at Birmingham

For starters, apply to the job. Even if you're worried that you don't meet every qualification listed it is absolutely worth applying to any job you're interested in, because you'll never know if you're the employers ideal candidate unless you try. There are ample specialty trainings and certifications you can enroll in as a graduate to continue refining your expertise, make yourself more marketable, and increase your earning potential. You can also do this by continuing your education to earn an advanced degree or other specialty education to help you in your profession. These may not be dietetics-specific, but skills like being able to do statistics or speak a foreign language could help in certain job settings. If you're not sure where to start with this, look at those job postings that you currently don't think you qualify for and take note of the qualifications on the listing that you feel you're lacking. Are any of these skills that you can learn to make yourself a more qualified applicant for jobs like this and others like it?

ScoreTherapeutic DietitianUS Average

Salary

4.7

Avg. Salary $60,038

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.81%

Asian 7.03%

Black or African American 8.66%

Hispanic or Latino 7.92%

Unknown 3.48%

White 72.09%

Gender

female 96.88%

male 3.13%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.9

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a therapeutic dietitian

Explore therapeutic dietitian education requirements

Most common therapeutic dietitian degrees

Bachelor's

88.5 %

Master's

7.7 %

Associate

3.8 %

Start to develop specific therapeutic dietitian skills

Skills	Percentages
Nutritional Risk	46.94%
Nutritional Care	29.88%
Medical Nutrition Therapy	23.18%

Complete relevant therapeutic dietitian training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New therapeutic dietitians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a therapeutic dietitian based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real therapeutic dietitian resumes.

Research therapeutic dietitian duties and responsibilities

Manage the anemia status of patients by reviewing necessary lab data and initiating or adjusting medication doses.
Provide individual and group nutrition counseling, including interactive nutrition and culinary sessions to low-income multicultural communities.
Provide individualized nutrition consultations for sports nutrition, weight-loss, diabetes, hypertension and hormonal changes.

Prepare your therapeutic dietitian resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your therapeutic dietitian resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a therapeutic dietitian resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable therapeutic dietitian resume templates

Build a professional therapeutic dietitian resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your therapeutic dietitian resume.