81 I Myofunctional Therapy Certification: What You Actually Need to Know Before You Commit

Are you still collecting credentials, hoping the next one will finally make you feel ready?

Hi friend,

You have done the training. You have the skills. And you are still waiting for something to click into place before you start. I hear this every single week, and I want to talk about it directly, because the thing most people won't say out loud is that being trained and being credentialed are not the same thing, and neither one of them is what actually gets you clients.

This episode is the honest conversation about myofunctional therapy training, what it means, what it does not mean, and why so many trained therapists are stuck in the same place after spending thousands of dollars. I hired an attorney years ago to research this question because I was being told dental hygienists had no business doing myofunctional therapy without a specific credential. What she found changed how I think about this field entirely. There is no governing board. There is no regulatory agency. And in her professional opinion, calling yourself trained with advanced skills in myofunctional therapy was actually more accurate than the alternative.

What I am seeing in the real world is therapists who have done the coursework, maybe even have letters behind their name, and still do not know where to start. They cannot put together a therapy template. They do not have a niche. They do not know how to talk about what they do without it coming out desperate. That is not a credential problem. That is a business problem, and no training program has solved it for them yet.

Letters do not make you a good therapist. The reps do. Working with clients, building your template, learning how to talk about what you do with confidence — that is what gets you good. That is what builds a practice. And that is the gap this episode is about.

This episode is for you if you are trained, maybe even credentialed, and you are still asking yourself what to do next.

Grab your ☕coffee and your courage — and let's dive in!

Xo,

💙 Carmen

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Transcript

Certification And Credibility Myths

SPEAKER_00 1:11

I know that you think certification sounds like the answer. You think that those letters are going to make people take you seriously. But I'm going to tell you a little story about back in the day when I hired an attorney because I was being told that dental hygienists couldn't practice myofunctional therapy without a specific credential. You're going to be shocked to hear what I found out. So before you spend another dollar chasing letters, let's talk about what's actually going on here. If you're a burned out, bored dental hygienist who knows that you can't do this forever, or you've already taken myofunctional therapy training but feel stuck on how to actually start, grow, or simplify your business, welcome, my friend. You're in the right place. I'm Carmen, a dental hygienist who once sat exactly where you are: overworked, physically tired, mentally done, knowing that there had to be more, and wanting the fastest, simplest, most organized path forward with someone holding my hand along the way. This podcast is for women who don't want more information. They want transformation. They want clarity, consistent clients, predictable income. Without building a business that takes over their life, they also want support while they do it. So if you're ready to stop spinning, start moving, and finally make sense of what comes next, grab your coffee and your courage, my friend. Let's build a business that works for your life, not one that runs it, so that you can build a life that you're genuinely bonkers about, because that's my superpower. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the podcast. So, not gonna lie, I feel like today's episode is going to be a little bit controversial. Um, and really only because there tends to be like polarizing thoughts about certification. So the first thing that I want to tell you is I am not here to talk smack about um any certification program. Okay. So my goal here is to just talk about whether you need to be certified, whether that helps, um, all of that stuff. And the reason that I decided on this topic for this episode is because I am meeting so many, so many of you guys that are certified and you don't know what to do. You're frustrated. And I just want to talk about that today. Okay, so let's first talk about my story. So a lot of you guys, um, before I say that, let me preface this by saying a lot of you guys, and and this might be you who's listening to me today, um, you thought that getting certified was going to um make people think that they're gonna take you serious. They're gonna make you think that it means something. Kind of like if you're a dental hygienist, like you have something to back it up, okay? So I am meeting so many of you guys who are stuck, and you're always surprised when I tell you that I'm not certified, nor will I ever be certified. Okay. So here's my story. Why do I feel that strongly about it? Like I said, I am not saying that any organization that offers you a certification, you'll know in a minute why I use air quotes. Um, any organization that offers you certification, I'm not talking, I'm not throwing

The Attorney Research Story

SPEAKER_00 4:56

shade at them. I'm not saying that they're that they're not valuable. I'm not saying that they don't teach you bum diggity clinical stuff. That is not what I'm saying. So when I was starting out um in the field of myofunctional therapy, I tell you what, there I used to be involved in Facebook groups, and it was always like argue, argue, argue, argue. Certified people thought that anybody who wasn't certified couldn't be doing Mayo, shouldn't be doing Mayo, you know, all of that stuff. So me being me, I went straight to hiring an attorney to research it. Now, at the time um where I lived, I was in Colorado. So I'm talking about my experience. Okay, this is not legal advice. Um, but I hired an attorney in uh dental regulation, okay. And interestingly enough, she had been a dental hygienist and then she became an attorney, and she was very well versed in dental regulation. And I went to her with the question of hey, this is what I'm doing. This is the business I've started. And I keep getting these speech language pathologists that talk all this garbage in the Facebook groups about um we shouldn't be doing it and we're doing things wrong and all of that stuff. So I was a little bit concerned that I had started this business. I was seeing clients, and now is this the case? So I spent a good chunk of money for her to go research the laws, okay? And what she came back to me and said was um, there is no governing board for the field of myofunctional therapy. Technically, somebody could work at McDonald's by day, and they could, if they could get trained, they could do myofunctional therapy at night. So that right there is why I am so protective of the field. And you should be too, because there are organizations that allow personal trainers and massage therapists and whatever the heck a movement specialist is. Um, and I don't think they have a position in myofunctional therapy. I'm sorry, a massage therapist should not be doing myofunctional therapy. Just my opinion, okay? So, anyhow, that attorney found out that, you know, there is no governing board. Yes, it's in our scope of practice, but even outside of that, there is nobody who says who can and can't do it. Now, I'm not getting into, you know, if somebody

Why Myo Has No Board

SPEAKER_00 7:39

was flipping burgers at McDonald's, I'm not getting into the fact that if they could get educated, they're gonna have trouble getting insured. So that's besides the point, okay? Um, so my attorney came back to me and she said, Carmen, here's the thing. Most of the time when somebody has a certification, or like in our case, you know, deno hygienists, we're registered, there is a board that backs that. And she said, there is not a board. So there is no governing agency. It is like the wild, wild west. And she felt, in her opinion, that that getting certified was um more misleading than just saying, hey, I'm a dental hygienist with advanced training in myofunctional therapy. So that's my personal choice. And so when I say why I won't ever get certified, unless it becomes a mandatory thing and I have to, have to, have to, have to do it, um, then potentially I'll cross that bridge when I get there. But in the meantime, it's something that I'm trained to do, it's in my scope of practice. And beyond that, it doesn't matter because it is the wild, wild west. So that was her suggestion to me. I had that attorney on staff for a long while who advised me, like I said, this is not legal advice. I'm just telling you my story. So that was the first thing. The other thing is a lot of you guys think that being certified um makes you credible. And I just want you to know that I had exactly one person ask me about my background, about my training, how long I had been doing it. And the answer, my honest answer was, well, ma'am, I am just starting out. That is why you're getting therapy for $750 instead of $3,000, you know? Uh, and and I told her, I completely understand that if you want to look for somebody more experienced, then by all means go for it. But that is my background. Um, and she did therapy with me, she had amazing results, and she went on to refer a lot of people to me. So um, so that just kind of snuffs out the whole people are going to take me serious. So let's talk about really what the certification is. So there, so truthfully, and and honestly, I can't even tell you which organization,

What Clients Actually Ask About

SPEAKER_00 10:11

because I I don't know and I don't care, um offers the COM, okay, the the trademarked. And the reason that I say in quotes is because again, there's no um there's no teeth in that, there's no governing board. Again, I'm not throwing shade at them. I'm not saying anything about the clinical training, I'm just saying that it's brilliant from a business standpoint because once you trademark something, it's protected, nobody else can use it. Okay. So that's why if you have not taken that particular course and done all the things that you need to do to become certified, you can't use it. So I have to correct some people who come through my coaching that are using it. And I'm like, nah, you can't use that. So it's trademarked. You're paying, it's kind of like you're buying into a Burger King, okay? You're using somebody else's trademarked phrase. You have to follow their set of rules. So that's what that is. Now, if you go do your research, you're going to see that only one organization can use certified. So now you're starting to see qualified and um, gosh, I can't even tell you, but they're starting to pop up over and over again. Somebody else's certification, somebody else's certification, I'm qualified, I'm I I can't even tell you all of the descriptors. I could create the profitable myofunctional therapist certification. Again, it does not matter because it doesn't make you a successful business owner. The thing is, is that what makes you actually successful has nothing to do with being certified. It has everything to do with you actually implementing the knowledge that you have gotten out of said program. Okay. So that is the important thing. You have to work with humans and get results for them. Letters do not make you a good therapist, the reps do. Okay. Just because I say, hey, I did some push-ups today doesn't mean that I've got nice tight biceps that you can bounce a quarter off of. What makes me a good, uh, a good bicep is actually doing the work. So that is the most important thing. I don't care what program, qualified, certified, knows what you're doing, whatever. I don't care about that. What is going to make you a good practitioner is doing the work, working with those humans and getting results. So here is what I am seeing. And I'm not just pulling this out of thin

Letters Don’t Create Results

SPEAKER_00 14:08

air, you guys. I have trained in the past. Lots of certified students who come to my program. Uh, they would come to the Ditch Hygiene Academy, uh, they come into the Done For You program, which is my $13,000 program, after they have already been trained and certified because they don't know where to start. That is the biggest thing. So again, if you don't know where to start, you can't get the car out of park. Now, again, I'm not saying this out of thin air because I do my research, I get information. We in the business world call it the VOC, the voice of the customer. Uh, every time somebody signs up to join the Profitable Myofunctional Therapist Facebook group, in their words, I hear their struggles, what programs they've taken, um, how long, good Lord, how long they have been trying to do this. So I'm not just making this up. This is the case. So, so I've got many of you guys that I have trained before, they're certified, they come to me. And then I also have those of you in my profitable myofunctional therapy training pro uh profitable myofunctional therapist training program. That is a mouthful. So that's my business coaching. And and several of you guys, um, you're certified, and again, you didn't know what to do. So that's what I'm saying. The other thing that I'm seeing is you guys um, you did that certification and your clinical knowledge is really good, but you don't have any business acumen. And so that's really what's missing from those programs is because you're you're stuck because you're not marked, you don't know what to do. You're marketing, or you think you're marketing because you're posting something on Instagram. And those programs don't provide you with anything. I hope that makes sense. Um, let me see what else is on my notes here. So the thing I think going back to does certification make me a good practitioner, or do I not need it? No, you have to just be doing the work to do it. And that's where I always tell people is like, I have become known for, I'm the gap. I fill the gap between knowing and going, meaning knowing your clinical stuff and going to build that life first business or a life your bonkers about. So that's really important. You have to have that information to get there. So, first, you have to do a business diagnostic. And so that is gonna tell you exactly where you are and what you need to do ASAP. When I start working with any of you guys, that is first base. Okay. We have to know exactly where you are. And if you don't have a proper business structure, if you don't have your EIN, if you don't have your banking, your Stripe, a way to get paid, a way for people to schedule, if you don't have some sort of software figured out, that is going to be the first thing that you do. It's important that you do that before you worry about marketing because just posting on Instagram is not marketing. You have to first have a very specific who. You guys, I'm gonna die on this hill. I know so many of you guys are pushing back. My own students, my own coaching clients are pushing back on the who because they want to talk to everybody and it's going to hurt their business in the long run. So you need a very specific who, you need a pricing package that um is built specifically for them. And then and only then can you

Business Setup Before Marketing

SPEAKER_00 17:57

worry about the marketing. Then and only then can you build that banger website that you want to build or fix. Okay. Many of you guys are taking my advice and you're getting your websites updated and fixed, but you still don't, you're you just don't want to dial in that who. And I think you're making a big mistake. Once you know your who, once you have your pricing set in, then you can develop a marketing plan. That's when you go post on Instagram, okay? And actually, I would want you to do something long form like podcast, write a blog, do a video show for YouTube long before I would ever tell you to post on Instagram, too. And then last, you need to know how to set up your departments. And in this 2026, I also think you need to know how to train an AI employee to do tasks for you in each of those departments. Trust me, my friend, I was on my own for a number of years before I hired any help. I grew a multiple six-figure business before I had any help. And I can tell you now, when I have lots of AI employees that do lots of tasks for me, I feel like this needs to be part of your business training. So the departments that you need to have set up are a sales department, marketing, uh, delivery, customer service, operations, administration, finance, and CEO. So that kind of gives you a list uh so you can have a head start. But my friend, the biggest thing that I wanted to uh to just clear up with this episode is the whole, do I have to get certified? Do I not have to get certified? Am I gonna be better? Are people gonna respect me? It doesn't

Departments And Training AI Help

SPEAKER_00 19:54

matter. What matters is that you get good training, you have the clinical information, you use it, you have to feel confident with it, and you have to get the car moving. So important, okay? It's the reps. That's what's gonna make you a good therapist is doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it. All right, my friend. Um here very soon. So it's July now. Here very soon, in August, the end of August, to be exact. We are going to enroll our first live cohort of the profitable myofunctional therapists. Up till now, it's been one-on-one. Um, and this is gonna be so super exciting because in this program, you are going to work with me to set up those departments, train your AI, and we're gonna set up your marketing. Here's the thing why it matters in your AI. I know I know most of you guys are using AI, but you're using it generic. Generically, it's not trained, it doesn't know anything about you, your business, um, your mission, your values. It doesn't know your voice, it doesn't know any of that stuff. And it's just putting out AI, generic garbage. Okay. So that's one thing that we do in the program as well. So you're gonna set up all those departments, we're gonna train them, you're gonna learn how to market your business because that's most of you guys, that is your stumbling block. I'm trained, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to start, okay? Um, so

Live Cohort Invite And Unstuck Call

SPEAKER_00 21:31

wherever you are listening, reading, watching this, book your unstuck call because you're gonna want that done before we do boot camp and then start the course. Uh, course is gonna start in September, middle, I think it's like September 16th, uh, which should be a Wednesday. So live classes are gonna be on Wednesday evening. Uh, you do not want to miss this. But um, in the meantime, look at your departments, look at how you've got things set up, think about whether you have your AI trained, all of that stuff. I know that this uh episode is about certification. So if you're listening and you're not certified and you're wondering about it, well, I hope this clears it up for you. And if you are certified and you're still stuck, my friend, just know it it is not a sunk or a waste, uh sunk cost or a waste. You just have to get the training that's gonna help you put it to use. So that is it, my friend. I hope that made sense to you. I'm so happy that you are here. Wherever you are listening, find the link, um, book your unstuck call. And that is all I have for you this week. I'm gonna land this plane. I have given you a lot to think about before you uh think about pursuing certification or um if it's very necessary. Most importantly, I have told you what it takes to run a profitable myofunctional therapy practice. And that's the most important. And that is having the knowledge and putting it to use, being able to talk about it, being able to sell it, being able to collect it, collect for it, I guess is the proper term. So that is all for today, my friend. I'm gonna be back soon and we will talk about more things starting, simplifying, and growing your myofunctional therapy practice. I'll see you then. I hope you love today's episode, friend. I pray that it lifted you up, motivated you, and taught you something. If so, would you stop right now and go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review? And lastly, make sure you've joined the profitable myofunctional therapist Facebook community. Links to all the goodies can be found wherever you're listening to this podcast. That's it for now. Cheering you on, my friend, and we'll chat soon.