Bulimia Nervosa

Nutrition Therapy

We’re on your team.

First we want to say that we understand how difficult it is to trust a dietitian when you have Bulimia Nervosa (BN).

BN can truly interrupt your life by infiltrating your relationships, destroying your self-esteem and self-confidence, making what used to be fun social occasions more difficult, etc. As your dietitian, we are not here to take the control away from you and move you around like a chess piece on our chess board, we are here to become the team mate of your true self. The part of you who wants to recover.

If you are someone with BN, you may feel completely in control at times, and completely out of control other times. Food is confusing, frustrating, overwhelming, and maybe you feel like things just never go right no matter what you do or try. Taking a step to meet with a dietitian is HUGE! We recognize that and we just want to take a second to say "WOOHOO!" YOU ROCK!”

We want you to have an idea of what to expect in working with one of us, so here’s a glimpse.

what does an eating disorder dietitian do?

To become specialized in eating disorders takes passion, experience, and constant learning. The field of eating disorders is always changing; New research studies come out every year that teaches eating disorder experts how to attempt treatment differently. For example, it wasn’t long ago that eating disorder experts removed parents from the treatment approach. Now, there is a new method to the treatment of eating disorders that involves family members, the Maudsley Approach (AKA Family Based Therapy).

Being on your treatment team, as an eating disorder specialist, means that we believe in giving you the best care possible.

Here are some of our main concerns:

Do you have a treatment team?
If the answer to this question is no, then we work very hard to help build this treatment team for you. The treatment team consists of a dietitian, therapist and physician. Ideally, all of these individuals will be specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, because you deserve nothing but the best.
Are you eating a meal plan that supports your daily needs, goals, and endeavors?
As your dietitian, we put on our clinical lens and make sure that you are eating in a way that supports all the dreams and aspirations you have so that you remain healthy and able. We also want to eliminate the opportunity for you to feel out of control by helping set goals and give you enough guidance and structure to your meal plan so you know what to expect and can avoid the curve balls that the eating disorder throws your way as much as possible.
Are your eating disorder behaviors preventing you from making true friendships and being social?
This is a big one. You know why? Because first and foremost, relationships are so important! You are an amazing person and we want your friends and family to share experiences and memories with you. Your quality of life is important to us. We will help you learn skills, trust in your food choices, and feel comfortable going out and doing all the things you may be too afraid to do now. We also want to help you transform some of those relationships into great supporters of your recovery. An eating disorder thrives in isolation.
What else is your eating disorder holding you back from?
Tied with #3, we want to make sure you are living your best life. Our goal for you is eating disorder recovery. We hope that this is your goal as well if you have chosen to work with us. Nothing is more important to us than you living a full and happy life, and guess what, food and body image is a big part of that life. The eating disorder doesn’t deserve to hold you back and you don’t deserve a life where food and body image are always on your mind.

Some of the things we do are:

Nutrition Therapy
Each session is a time and space for you to discuss all things related to food (and sometimes body image/weight) with the person who knows food best (a dietitian!). Think of this as Food Therapy. When else do you have the opportunity to really challenge some of your thoughts around food for an entire hour? We know food is one of the highest thought about things for you, so here is a space to let it all out.
Meal Therapy
We are not a treatment center, but we do like to eat with you! This of course is not something we do with all of our clients, but we sometimes might recommend it! Meal therapy is a great time to challenge foods with support right beside you, work on getting consistent with certain meals, or work towards normalizing food behaviors. Usually meal therapy is about 30-60min long. If it is 60min then we usually process afterwards together.
Food Challenges
If you have BN, you may also have a lot of rules and rigidity around food. Your eating disorder may tell you certain foods are ok, and certain foods are not. We like to challenge those thoughts with you because the “not ok foods” most of the time are the foods that make you fearful to eat out, to eat around others, to be social! This goes back to your quality of life and we want to make more foods fit in that “ok” category than not.

WHAT TO EXPECT | INITIAL SESSION

90 MINUTES

During your initial visit, we will discuss initial paper-work and go through your treatment history, nutrition and health journey, current state, and where you’d like to be. We will review your goals, level of motivation and support system. It is okay if you do not know where you’d like to begin, we will help you get started. Together we will set goals and lay the blueprints for what you’d like your relationship with food to look like. From this point forward we are partners and our only goal is to help you feel confident and happy! You can expect meal plan guidance and assignments to keep you on track.

Work With Us