How Can Nutrition Therapy Help Me?

By Katherine Metzelaar, MSN, RDN, CD

Considering that the diet industry generates multi-billion dollars each year, it makes sense that it feels hard to imagine that there is a different way of living your life outside of dieting and restricting your food intake.

The diet industry (as part of diet culture) leads you to believe that there is something wrong with your body and therefore your food intake too. It leads you to believe that you are meant to spend your life chasing after an unattainable standard of beauty and that you should be paying lots of money to achieve it. 

Not only does this lead to poor self-esteem, but it also can mean spending lots of time and headspace and sometimes a lifetime consumed by what you eat and how you exercise only to feel like it’s never good enough no matter what you do. The diet industry is also responsible for the promotion of disordered eating that for many will lead to the development of an eating disorder. 

So then, what happens when you decide you want to change and heal your relationship to food and your body but you’re not sure where to begin?

You may benefit from nutrition therapy. 

What is nutrition therapy?

Nutrition therapy is a talk therapy session that is run by a nutrition therapist (a dietitian specializing in eating disorders/disordered eating) that provides the space to allow and support you in connecting to your own capacity for healing. It involves collaboration, open communication, and trauma-informed care. In nutrition therapy, thoughts and beliefs about food are unpacked and sometimes challenged, but most importantly sought to be understood. It’s a space where you can have your experiences with your body and with food centered and validated, and where you gain a better understanding of your food behaviors and body fears. It’s also a space where long standing beliefs and behaviors are uncovered.

In a nutrition therapy session, sometimes a meal plan will be created. But, it’s important to note that no amount of nutrition information about macronutrients and their roles and functions helps to even come close to the depth of the disordered behaviors’ roots.  In sessions you can expect to learn about somatic and cognitive tools that will help you to challenge the disordered behaviors or beliefs about food and the body.

What kinds of things are explored and done in nutrition therapy sessions? 

• Explore your family of origin’s relationship to food and their bodies and how this impacted you and your relationship to food and body

• How trauma and the eating disorder intersect (*note: not all nutritionists are trained in working in this way so it’s important to shop around to see what someone’s training has been)

• Your relationship to food and the history of fear foods and diets

• Learning how to reconnect to hunger and fullness and all the nuances of this

• Challenging fear foods both cognitively and also in action by eating together

• Exploring how the eating disorder has helped you to survive really heard things despite the harm that it has also caused

• Understand your internalized beliefs about bodies and fears that you have about your own body gaining weight

• Making connections to food choices that connect to your ethnic, religious, philosophical, and personal beliefs

• Dispelling food myths often fueled by diet culture

• Connecting how stress, anxiety, depression and mental health overall impacts the relationship to food and body/eating behaviors

• Create a meal plan together (when appropriate)

• Understand how cultural messaging has impacted your relationship to food and bodies

• Identify your top values in life to assess the misalignment to the disordered eating/eating disorder (ACT)

• Get to know your body’s story (all the things your body has experienced and been through)

• Challenge cognitive distortions around food

• A space for you to connect the dots between other mental health challenges and the food behaviors

• Develop a positive sense of self

What Nutrition Therapy Is NOT:

• Replacement for mental health therapy, i.e. dietitians/nutritionists are not mental health therapists and there are some distinct differences

• Time where you dive into the depths and history of your anxiety, depression, trauma history, etc.

• A place where you will receive a diagnosis of mental illness

• Exploration/challenging/unpacking phobias, addiction, grief/loss, anger management, and/or other mental health diagnosis

• Support around relationship problems, bereavement, insomnia, suicidal idiations, nightmares or flashbacks

While there are crossovers between what a mental health therapist does and what a nutrition therapist does, and there are some distinct and important differences. Because the work is most effective when there is a relationship of safety and connection created, a nutritionist will want to understand the connection between other things in your life and your food and eating behaviors and fears.

A nutritionist in a nutrition therapy session and overtime will want to know about the whole of you, not just about how you eat. For example, if you are experiencing anxiety your nutritionist will want to know what happens to food, eating disorder, exercise, and body checking behaviors. Same goes for if you are experiencing a stressful relationship or work situation. Understanding you from a holistic perspective will help them to support you in healing your relationship to food and creating a more peaceful relationship with your body.

If you are struggling with your relationship to food or body, nutrition therapy can be a wonderful way to escape cycles and patterns that you have long been stuck in. It allows you to live in accordance with your values and free up time and headspace to pursue the kind of life that you desire to be living!

You’ll also love…

• Do I Need An Eating Disorder Diagnosis To Get Support With My Relationship To Food and Body?

• What's The Difference Between Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder? The Answer Might Surprise You!

• What Does An Anti-Diet Dietitian Do?

• ​​Which is Better For Me? In-Person or Online Nutrition Counseling

On the fence about seeking nutrition therapy?

You don’t have to wait until your thoughts or behaviors worsen before seeking help. Our caring Dietitians work with clients virtually helping people who are struggling with food and body image. It’s possible to change your relationship with food and your body, free up headspace, and live your life with more presence, abundance and peace. Learn more about Bravespace Nutrition, our philosophy, and the services we offer.