WHAT IS NUTRITION THERAPY for disordered eating?

Individual nutrition therapy is for clients who want one-on-one support to reach their nutrition goals. If you’re realizing (or have known for awhile) that your experience with food/body/movement causes you stress, anxiety, discomfort, or guilt, working with a dietitian specializing in disordered eating can help.

Dietitians facilitate the care between providers. Ordinarily, cases of disordered eating include primary care physicians, dietitians, and therapists. Dietitians bridge the gap of physical body and mental health, allowing for coordinated care across disciplines to ensure your care is as seamless as possible.

We have tools to help re-establish your health and repair relationship with food. Sessions range by individual, and though this list is not complete, can include:

• meal guides individualized for the client mind, body, and circumstance

• health behavior change interventions and techniques

• lab work and vitals interpretation and monitoring

• identifying and addressing root cause of digestive issues

• nutrition, diet trend, and eating disorder education

• weight trend management or weight restoration support

• transition into or out of higher levels of care

• family-based therapy and educating family members

• meal support and food exposures

• intuitive eating principles and a non-diet approach to wellness

• hunger/fullness cue individualization; mindfulness and nervous system/vagal nerve soothing

• alleviating anxiety, stress, and depression in relation to nutrition

HOW OFTEN DO WE SCHEDULE SESSIONS?

After an initial session, I typically work with clients every week. That can step down to monthly or bi-monthly once you're feeling your new baseline with food, body, and movement is well maintained.

Nutrition counseling can be short- or long-term. It all depends on what we're working on for you, and many clients choose to continue sessions well into their recovery at a frequency that feels supportive for them.

Check out June’s privacy policy here.

MY THERAPIST/DOCTOR/FAMILY KNOWS MY CASE PRETTY WELL. WILL YOU TALK TO THEM?

Absolutely! We'll cover what your healthcare team and support system looks like in our initial session. I can send along a release of information for any providers (or family members) you want involved, including therapists, specialists, or primary care physicians.

alternatively…..I’ve never really talked about this with anyone.

It’s ok if nobody knows you’re struggling right now, or if this is the first time you’re trying to figure out what’s going on for you with food. It’s cool that you’re researching online for resources that might help.

We can get trapped in downplaying the severity of eating disorders or mental health issues in general. We think that our problems aren't that serious, or that we're overreacting, or being irrational, or that other people have it worse. We don't want to burden others. We feel like we should just be able to handle it - whatever "it" is. We don't want to change, even. Sometimes healing can feel scarier than staying in the mud. If you are having issues with eating, your thoughts and feelings toward your body are tied in with your self-worth, or in a more general sense things just aren't right for you internally - it is not fine. You deserve a better baseline than that. And it can improve. Reaching out for support is one way to a better baseline. Even if it's scary. You can do it, and frankly, things would likely get a lot better if you did.

WILL MY HEALTH INSURANCE COVER YOUR SERVICES AS A DIETITIAN?

Though June Nutrition is not contracted with any insurance providers right now, I can provide a monthly superbill for you to submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement. You can use and download this script to contact your insurance company to see if out-of-network nutrition therapy sessions are covered.

I KNOW MY EATING ISN’T QUITE RIGHT AND I DON’T FEEL THAT GREAT ABOUT MY BODY, BUT IT’S NOT THAT BAD. OTHER PEOPLE HAVE IT WORSE. THAT’S WHO NEEDS TO GO SEE YOU. I’M FINE. RIGHT?

If you've been diagnosed with an eating disorder, I encourage you to find a dietitian and therapist to help you navigate recovery.

Without a diagnosis, you may not be sure if you have an actual eating disorder but you know you have some behaviors around food, body, or movement that aren't quite right. You certainly don’t need a diagnosis to be here. See how these might relate to you:

• You may feel like your head doesn't let you rest - you think about food the whole day long.

• The way you feel about yourself may be really dependent on numbers like your body weight, calorie intake or calories burned, or pant size.

• You may put yourself through consistent high intensity workouts, or have strict rules around movement that started out fun and ended up controlling and punishing. It might only count as “exercise” if you hit a certain number of calories burned, if you spent a certain amount of time doing it, or if you’re sore the next day. Rest days may not feel like an option - your mind says that you have to move, even if you’re tired or sick. Check out my quick 5-minute reflection on how you feel about movement, linked here.

• You may have thrown up, used laxatives, overexercised, or hardly eaten the next day when you felt like you overate.

• You may feel like you should be "on a diet" - otherwise, you'll be out of control. You feel like you can’t trust yourself around certain foods. Some foods are “bad” and must be avoided because of the way they’ll make you look when you eat them. They can’t be in the house.

• You may have realized how many rules you have surrounding food, and it's getting really tiring, and you wish it didn't have to be this way anymore.

If this feels familiar at all, that is more than enough to come and work with me. If you feel like something’s off, it’s not fine.

You are welcome here.