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Counseling and Psychological Services
IN CRISIS

Have you read Intuitive Eating and felt frustrated, not knowing how to actually put intuitive eating into practice? Do you have a love/hate relationship with food? Do you feel like food is taking control of your life? Do you feel like nothing helps you to manage emotions as well as food? Are you ready to make peace with food but have some fears getting in your way? Are you afraid you don't know how to eat what you love in moderation?

If you want to:

  • Believe that change is not only possible but also worth it
  • Stop basing your worth on what you eat
  • Eliminate the constant rules going on in your head about what you feel you can and can't eat
  • Reduce the shame and guilt about food and exercise
  • Find balance without all-or-nothing behaviors about food
  • Be freed of the burden of constant worry over food

You’re not alone in these struggles. And you don’t have to feel alone! My role is to support you on your journey to a healthy relationship with food and your body.

To Schedule an Initial Appointment

If you’d like to schedule an appointment to meet with me, please contact the CAPS front desk at 801-422-3035 and ask about meeting with the dietitian.

What to Expect on Your First Visit

The first session is spent gathering information through assessment questions during the first 45 minutes, and then the last 10-15 minutes are spent establishing the first goals to work on. Upon an initial visit for an eating disorder, it is common for the dietitian to request that you make an appointment with a physician to determine medical stability.

What to Expect for Follow-up Visits

Follow-up appointments generally last 30 minutes and involve discussing food and body image goals. Education may be provided to help address common myths about how the body uses food. Appointments are also tailored to answer the client’s specific questions and to create structure and goals that will be effective for each individual.

This may include any of the following:

  • Facilitate awareness of emotions and other factors that increase/decrease appetite
  • Replace food rigidity with structure and flexibility—timing, portions, variety
  • Determine strategies to reduce urges and behaviors
  • Combat food/body myths and faulty beliefs
  • Become more attuned to hunger/fullness cues
  • Challenge all-or-nothing thinking about food
  • Trust your body
  • Identify solutions to meet your emotional needs without using or avoiding food
  • Restore physical and mental health

Recovery may take longer than anticipated. It is normal to have fluctuations in motivation level and sometimes eating disorder thoughts get worse before they get better. Here is a breakdown of some levels of recovery. An individual may switch back and forth between these levels.

Awareness

How life is impacted by the eating disorder: physical symptoms, energy level, concentration level, passions, relationships, depression, and mood The way the eating disorder mindset works Understanding the benefit of support from treatment and from loved ones.

Ownership

Seeking help through some level of treatment
Normalizing eating patterns
Challenging food rules
Managing triggers
Restoring weight when needed

Commitment

Preventing relapse or getting back on track when relapse occurs
Increasing honesty
Using coping skills (journaling, spirituality, self-care, relaxation, balance of activity supported by nutrition, distractions, talking with supportive individuals, etc) instead of disordered patterns
Challenging negative body image/urges to lose weight

What does it cost? (Hint: Free)

Nutrition counseling services are free of charge to full-time students (enrolled for 9 or more semester hours). There is no fee for cancellation. However, if you schedule, please be considerate of other students’ desire to meet with the dietitian, and cancel ahead of time. Due to the limited availability of the dietitian, if you miss an appointment, a flag will be placed in your chart requiring you to contact the dietitian directly in order to reschedule.

Scope of Services

If you are scheduling for an eating disorder, disordered eating, or emotional/compulsive eating, it is recommended to meet regularly for support and accountability as you heal your relationship with food. Frequency of nutrition counseling sessions may be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or scheduled as needed, depending on the significance of eating concerns.

Visits for PCOS and celiac disease may be a one-time visit, or rescheduling may occur as desired.

Recovery is most effective when an individual uses therapy in conjunction with nutrition counseling to address the underlying issues that are associated with an unhealthy relationship with food and body image. The dietitian and therapist will assess the severity of eating concerns, and your treatment team may refer you to receive treatment from community resources as they deem appropriate.