Nutrition Support
I see food as a celebration.
As a way to nourish and support your body, treat yourself with compassion, and heal your connection to culture. To me, it’s not about restricting the foods you love, counting every calorie you consume, or obsessing over how many pounds you need to lose. It’s about savoring the moments with the people and places you love.
I know firsthand how it feels to tense-up while perusing a menu or overexercising to the point of exhaustion, just to feel like I’d earned my food. Finding freedom from food rules and accepting my humanity is what ultimately led me to this line of work. Now, I help people of all identities build confidence in their personalized nutritional, break through past patterns, and celebrate food in the process.
I have trainings and certifications in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Be Body Positive Facilitator, Holistic Resistance Facilitator, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI). Learn more about me
Let’s begin.
I look forward to working with you!
New Clients, please book a Free Consultation.
Returning Clients, please log in to the Client Portal.
Before booking, please note I am out of network with all insurance providers. I do offer Superbills for reimbursement if your health plan provides that benefit. You can reference the FAQ’s below for more information about this. If there are no benefits, I have a waitlist for my sliding scale and equity pricing options. Equity prices are reserved for individuals who hold LGBTIA+ and BIPOC identities.
What’s food got to do with it?
In a culture obsessed with not eating too much, we've over-corrected and now, it's easy to eat too little and only get enough through spouts of compulsive eating. Research shows that when we don't get the nutrients we need, we can experience:
increased mood swings / decreased energy / sleeping difficulties / indigestion and constipation / obsessive thoughts about food / lower concentration levels / depressed overall motivation
These are all symptoms of not getting our fundamental needs met.
When we are able to meet our needs, it supports our rest-and-digest nervous system and unlocks our body cues to support our nourishment from a place of deep-knowing.
Together we can sift through the food messages within and around you that get in the way of adequate nourishment, look at the latest science, and consider what old information may benefit from an update.
What’s weight got to do with it?
For many people, weight has everything to do with — well, everything! And everything has to do with weight; the way people treat us, our success with work or dating, even our overall self-respect.
While our medical system often recommends changes that are meant to impact our weight, the evidence shows that weight-loss interventions most likely lead to weight cycling, which results in:
higher mortality risk / higher risk of osteoporotic fractures / higher risk for gallstone attacks / loss of muscle tissue / hypertension / chronic inflammation
Interventions that focus on weight-change can also increase our vulnerability to eating disorders and emotional distress around food.
Luckily, there is another way of navigating food, our bodies, and our approach to health. Research of the highest calibre shows significant improvement in depression and body image, laboratory values that indicate chronic disease, and cessation of weight cycling among individuals whose interventions did not target weight loss.
FAQs
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The quick answer is no, often times people I work with are not ready to let go of their weight goals but there is a part of them that wants to. There is often an awareness that holding onto weight loss or a particular body standard keeps them stuck in the very same cycle they're trying to break. That said, a willingness to put weight-goals on-pause during a certain period of our work together can help free us to make new decisions around food and break what often feels like a downward spiral.
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The level of structure and direction I offer depends on where a person is on their journey and what would feel most supportive for them. Some people I work with need specific direction to combat the voice that's telling them to stick with the old approach to food, or perhaps they simply prefer a clear, outlined approach. For people in this situation, I can create a meal plan and explore dishes that will fulfill those recommendations. On the other hand, specific recommendations can activate negative experiences from the past. In this case, I can offer general recommendations. Regardless of the structure we start out with, we always assess how it's going and adjust accordingly.
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Many times weight is the change people are most used to tracking. Many people I work with are used to checking their weight to signal if our food-changes are "working" and lets us know if we're on track. When weight change isn't the goal, we work together to identify other measures of success. Often times the data we notice is qualitative as opposed to quantitative; meaning we notice how we felt as opposed to how many x, y, or z, thing we did. That said, sometimes the number of binges occurred in a week or the frequency of negative thoughts can be a helpful way to gauge the impact of our work.
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Seeing a therapist in-tandem with a dietitian is not required but often recommended. Depending on where you are in your journey, having a therapeutic relationship with a licensed mental health professional will often enhance our work together. There is a reason we develop these patterns around food. When those patterns get interrupted, the original struggle we were soothing with that behavior resurfaces. Having a therapist to support your capacity to heal these old wounds can be a supportive presence.
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The short answer is, absolutely. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to disrupted relationship with food. During this time of life, our protein synthesis is greater than protein breakdown, which requires more nutrients. That synthesis results in 20% of adult height gained during this period of time, as well as 40%-50% of adult body weight. So not only are nutrient needs often higher than in adulthood, their body's are often changing at a faster rate. In addition to body-changes, adolescents are also forming their pre-frontal cortex, which supports rational thinking and perspective-taking. For this reason it can be exceptionally challenging to calm any fears these rapid body changes may instill. All of these factors combined make nutritions support in our adolescent years exceptionally potent.
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This is a fair question to ask and the answer is complex. In summary, working outside of insurance companies is one way Rejoyn Wholeness aligns with our core values. Insurance companies dictate who gets care, for how long, and what outcomes determine progress. Their policies are created not necessarily to support wellness but to support the greatest profit as a company. Working outside of insurance with a sliding scale and flexible session frequency allows us the freedom to define health on your terms, at your pace, without having to justify your need or process to an entity that is ultimately concerned with profit. Offering Superbills for reimbursement is another way we work around this. Click here for a script you can use to confirm what is available through your insurance.
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In his book, How To Be An Anti-Racist, Ibram Kendi suggests that discrimination that results in inequality can only be righted with discrimination that results in more equity. (Equity, meaning a more equal playing field considering prior injustices.) Members of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities have faced countless barriers when it comes to accessing adequate healthcare compared to their white, cis-gendered, straight counterparts. From factors such as health equipment and screening tools being designed for lighter skin tones, to higher rates of suicide and lower access to LGBTQIA+ community members; not to mention unconscious provider bias that remains unchecked in clinics and hospitals across the country.