What is Nutrition Counseling?
I use several different therapeutic counseling approaches to create the space to explore thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs surrounding food and body image. Together we work to help you understand the WHY behind your behaviors and your relationship with food. At the same time, as a registered dietitian, I am trained in medical nutrition therapy and knowledgeable in many different disease states to provide evidence-based nutrition recommendations tailored to your physical & mental health needs.
What to expect during your initial session?
The first time we meet, we will typically spend 60-90 minutes together doing a medical nutrition therapy assessment to help me get to know YOU. This consists of gathering information to understand your relationship with food & body, health & mental history, behaviors around food, barriers, lifestyle, priorities, and more. This is utilized to create an individualized plan to help support your goals. This will serve as the foundation for our future work together as we create small actionable steps to honor your whole health – physical, mental, and emotional.
During follow-ups, this is where we get to dig in! Having training in several different therapeutic modalities in nutrition counseling like cognitive & dialectical behavioral therapy, we will explore what beliefs, thoughts or behaviors feel unhelpful and work on diversifying your tool box of different skills that feel practical.
What can you expect as far as session frequency & duration of treatment?
Typically, I work with clients for 3 months to a year (or more!). Behavior change can be a bit of a j-curve; meaning it takes time and is often full of collecting data along the way that helps us better understand how to shift your relationship with food, body and health. You can choose if weekly, biweekly or monthly support feels most helpful and turn the volume up or down on our sessions however you would like.
What ages do you treat?
I have experience treating pediatric patients to 65+. If a patient is under 18 years old and has an eating disorder, I utilize family-based therapy and require at least one support to attend every session during phase 1.
What states can you see patients from?
Since I previously worked for a national telehealth eating disorder center, I acquired many state licenses. I will likely be pairing them down as time goes on, but as of now these are my active licenses. I can see patients located in any of the following states.
AR, AL, FL, IA, IL, KS, LA, MA, MN, MO, MS, ND, NE, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN
How much do appointments cost?
Many insurance plans will cover our sessions with $0 copay, but I encourage everyone to call their insurance directly to check. Sometimes they will cover unlimited visits and other times there is a # of sessions cap. Check out this link for support on what information to ask.
Will I lose weight or do you specialize in weight loss nutrition?
I choose to focus on health-promoting behaviors like eating and drinking patterns, macronutrient distribution, physical activity, gaining more insight into hunger and fullness cues and many more aspects of health. As we focus on these patterns and cessation of disordered eating, weight loss could occur, it could also stay the same or fluctuate up.
Fad diets and rigid meal plans typically don’t work, at least not long-term. They’re often unsustainable and research shows 95% of people end up regaining the weight (& sometimes, plus some) after 3-5 years. Many clients come in with years or decades of dieting and weight cycling (losing weight, gaining weight, repeat). You can still come into our sessions with these goals and we’ll always allow space for you to unpack them. However, I will never recommend weight loss as a treatment outcome.
Can’t find your answer to a question?
Fill out this contact form and I will get back to you shortly.