Are you looking for support for your diabetes practice?

Working on your own in a rural or remote diabetes program or in a private practice can feel isolated and overwhelming at times. If you have ever felt that you wanted the support of an experienced private practice diabetes educator to help guide you, fill out our mentorship application and let’s talk about how we can support you in your practice.

Our mentorship is perfect for

New diabetes educators

If you are tasked with starting a new diabetes education program or updating a current diabetes program, we can help!

Experienced health care professionals

Considering starting a private practice?  Want to get meanningful actions to get your practice going?  We can help!

Creating an online course

We have worked on several platforms for online courses and email marketing and can help you get started online.

The support you need, when you need it!

Mentorship Options

Start with what you need now and add the rest when the time is right. 

Every option begins with a free discovery session, so we can both be sure working together is the right fit. I work with a small number of mentorship clients at a time, so that everyone gets the help they need and the right level of attention. If my mentorship capacity is full when you apply, I will inform you of that and let you know when a place opens.

Option A — Mentorship — $1,200 plus applicable taxes

Six sessions, up to 1.5 hours each, used over 12 months. The agenda is yours. Most people bring a mix of:

  • Setting up a diabetes service inside an existing practice or pharmacy
  • Business questions specific to Canadian private practice
  • Real cases from your own caseload
  • Growing your confidence in conversations with people living with diabetes


How it runs:
sessions are usually monthly and you book them at a time that suits us both. Please give 24 hours’ notice to reschedule. Unused sessions expire 12 months after purchase.

$100 less than buying the two separately.

Everything in Option A, plus the Diabetes Manager University (DMU) self-study course, normally $697:

  • 10 modules, precourse work and a final evaluation — about 25 hours
  • Built on the Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines
  • The science of diabetes and prevention, medications including the newer treatments, blood
    glucose monitoring and sensor technology, the emotional side of diabetes, nutrition and insulin
  • Online and self-paced: start today, a year to finish, and lifetime access to the current version
    afterwards
  • A certificate of completion stating the hours, for your continuing education record


Why most people pick this one.
The mentorship covers the business side. The DMU covers the practice side. Together they are the foundation for the service you want to build — and you can start both today.

$5,895 curriculum + $1,200 mentorship. The DMU self-study course, worth $697, is included at no charge.

Everything in Option B, plus the complete Discovering Diabetes™ curriculum — the patient education program you deliver in your own practice.

The Discovering Diabetes™ Program has been shown to be:

  • Clinically effective — mean exit A1c of 6.1% for the model program, down from a mean referral A1c of 9.3%
  • Client-centered — it moves the educator out of an acute-care habit of leading the care, into a chronic disease model where the person living with diabetes leads every part of it
  • Personally rewarding — a standard set of tools, resources and ongoing support to work from


The package includes:

  • The Program Manual — 100+ pages taking a diabetes education program from vision through
    implementation to evaluation, with chapters on vision and mission, facility and staffing, business planning, discovery learning tools and techniques, and teaching notes. Aligned with the Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines.
  • The AV package — 100 PowerPoint slides for delivering the program to people living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, with talking points for every slide, plus Word and PDF files for every program form, including our copyrighted referral, patient assessment, class progress notes and goal setting forms.
  • 50 patient books of your choice: Diabetes Myths, Misconceptions and Big Fat Lies! or Diabetes: Myth or Truth (Indigenous peoples version).
  • A year of implementation mentorship on the curriculum and tools.
  • The DMU self-study course, free.


Delivery
: 4–6 weeks for the curriculum package. Your DMU access and your mentorship sessions start as soon as the invoice is paid, so you can get going while the materials are on their way.

Meet your Mentor

Michelle Archer, RD, CDE has worked as a diabetes educator for over 20 years where she has witnessed how a person centered approach improves the quality of life and health outcomes for people living with diabetes.

Michelle delivers diabetes training programs to further Make a Difference in Diabetes by training all of us in the diabetes community. She is a highly skilled facilitator and sought-after public speaker leading diabetes education workshops for healthcare professionals and also delivering workshops to community groups looking for updates and training in current diabetes management for people living with diabetes. 

Michelle leads the Diabetes Manager University (DMU) training program and mentors health care professionals to more effective interactions with people living with diabetes. Recently Michelle jumped into the online training world and launched the Diabetes Manager University (DMU) program online. Now she is helping even more healthcare professionals from across Canada to Make a Difference in Diabetes with their patients.

Mentorship from Michelle Archer, RD, CDE — Diabetes Canada’s Diabetes Educator of the Year for 2025.

What other's have to say about
Michelle Archer, RD, CDE

“Michelle provided a wonderful presentation on treating hypoglycemia in enterally fed individuals… Her teaching materials were clear, professional, and visually engaging. She successfully simplified complex information using case-based examples, analogies and practical language that supports learning for both healthcare professionals and caregivers.” 

Samantha Wark — Gerontology Network, Dietitians of Canada

“Thank you Michelle, for a practical, evidence-based synopsis of the current state of semaglutide use. I found this session incredibly helpful… I will be using [the slides] to look into the research you used to support your presentation.”

Karol Sekulic — Semaglutide: Risks and Rewards, January 2025

semaglutide

“Michelle did a fabulous presentation for our dietitians network on diabetes. I really enjoyed her semaglutide webinars too, great way to get an updated research summary and practice insights!”

Find BC Dietitians Team

“Very informative and Michelle is very knowledgeable about the long lasting impacts of nutrition experiments conducted on children in Canada’s residential schools… I appreciated that she gave concrete examples of how we as individuals and dietitians can take actions towards reconciliation.”

Linda | Diabetes Sweet Life — Residential School Legacy of Hunger course

Make a Difference in diabetes today