My eating disorder work with children, adolescents and their families is informed by but not limited to the principals of the Maudsley Approach (also known as Family Based Treatment or FBT). With this approach I see parents and families as a crucial asset to recovery from eating disorders. FBT holds great promise as an evidence-based treatment modality for adolescents with eating disorders. This model prioritizes weight restoration as the first goal of intervention.
With Anorexia, my job as the nutrition professional is to help give parents the education, direction and confidence needed to successfully restore weight in their child so that other issues may be resolved and normal adolescent development can move forward. As treatment progresses I will help you return responsibility for food choices back to your child and will work with you and your team to support eating patterns that will be most useful for relapse prevention.
For adolescents who are motivated and willing to work individually and more independently with me on weight restoration, parents become more of a support team. With either model, I communicate openly and often with parents and encourage them to stay involved at varying levels throughout the nutrition restoration process.
Assessment is the first step. As part of your team, I will use my years of expertise and experience to assess your child and to help inform you of the best options available for treatment. I am active in the Santa Barbara eating disorder treatment community and can help parents build a multi-disciplinary team utilizing the many excellent resources in our community.
In addition to specializing in the treatment of childhood Anorexia I also hold specialized training and experience in treating Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in children. This previously was termed “extreme picky eating” but is now classified as an eating disorder and as such often requires specialized treatment. I have been trained by researchers, clinicians and leaders in the treatment of ARFID using the CBT-AR model. If you think your child has ARFID the first step in working with me is to schedule an evaluation and parent education session where I can evaluate your child’s food aversion patterns and discuss treatment options.
EATING DISORDERS TREATMENT FOR ADULTS
Eating disorders are on the rise in many populations including men and middle-aged women. I have extensive experience working with eating disorders as they manifest in both men and women and throughout the life cycle. In adults I have experience in treating Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder and extreme picky eating also known as Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).
I will meet you where you are with your eating disorder and help guide you to a more holistic and internally centered place with food and your body. I can help replace rigid, restrictive or chaotic eating with a structured meal plan that can gradually evolve into a more internally led pattern of eating that is intuitive, healthful, mindful, and ultimately free of the prison of your eating disorder. Additionally I can help in creating balance in the other aspects of your lifestyle, including exercise and stress management, which will support you in your recovery.
Individualized treatment plans range from weekly counseling appointments to a more intensive individualized coaching program including restaurant outings, grocery shopping, phone, text and/or email support, and family support sessions. My goal is to work with your therapist and physician to create a unified approach that is best for you.
I am very active in the Santa Barbara eating disorder treatment community and can help lead you to the many professionals and services available for helping you find your way back to wholeness.
CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH, INFLAMMATION AND INSULIN RESISTANCE (TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS)
Cardiovascular Disease is still a #1 killer in the United States. Often, medications are turned to before even trying a combination of dietary changes, movement and stress management. In addition 80 % of Type 2 Diabetes cases are preventable with a healthy lifestyle. We all know that diet can have a tremendous impact on the prevention and treatment of Diabetes and Heart Disease but did you know that the gut microbiome can have either a very positive or very negative impact on your endocrine and cardiometabolic systems? In functional medicine we go beyond the typical “eat a low fat, reduced simple carbohydrate diet and exercise regularly” prescription and teach you so much more about how diet impacts inflammation and how inflammation impacts the endocrine and cardiometabolic systems. I can help you recognize all of these connections and coach you on strategies to reduce inflammation and improve your lipid profile with a microbiome enhancing, anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle.
PCOS and PMS
Up to 10% of the female population is struggling with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Women who have PCOS often become insulin resistant which results in hyperinsulinemia and abnormalities in testosterone production. The symptoms that are caused by this cycle often include weight gain, acne, hirsutism, hair loss, menstrual irregularity, infertility, and depression. It is quite common for some women with PCOS to develop hypothyroidism as well. Binge eating problems can often result from a PCOS diagnosis that is not followed up by evidence based and supportive dietary advise.
If you are struggling with PCOS I can assist you by creating an eating, movement, stress management and supplementation plan that can support a decrease in symptoms along with a lessening of food cravings. Long term adherence to a specialized eating plan specifically for PCOS can support you metabolically and help decrease PCOS symptoms along with the risk for binge eating. Individualized nutrition counseling, along with consistent medical follow up can make a positive difference in living with PCOS.
There are emotional and physical symptoms that are related to cyclic hormonal fluctuations that appear for many women prior to and during menstruation. We call this collection of symptoms PMS or Premenstrual Syndrome and they include cravings, bloating, mood changes, GI discomfort, headaches and fatigue. The good news is that many symptoms of PMS can be effectively addressed with a change in diet and lifestyle. Luckily there are integrative dietary strategies, supplements, and many wellness practices that can help you reduce symptoms and regain a sense of balance throughout your monthly cycle. I can help you establish wellness practices that honor and work with your monthly hormonal changes to bring you into better balance with your body and effectively reduce or possibly even eliminate your PMS symptoms.
IBS, GERD, CELIAC AND GLUTEN SENSITIVITY
A healthy gut is your inside tract to optimal wellness yet so many struggle with these and other digestive disorders that wreak havock not only on our intestines but in other systems as well. Conventional medicine so often doesn’t offer enough to truly heal these disorders and prevent other systems from becoming involved. Functional nutrition is a systems approach where we often can draw connections from gut disorders to problems in other systems such as immune, neurological, integumentary (skin) and endocrine to name a few. I can help you with a comprehensive plan including dietary changes, lifestyle modification and botanical recommendations that can help you on your journey to healing your intestinal problems and getting back on track to optimal health.
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Unfortunately these are three states that so many of us are familiar with either in ourselves or in our children. In managing or resolving these issues it is so very critical to find your team of professionals whom you can trust for evidence based treatments and compassionate care. Many are successfully treated with conventional medications yet many others are seeking an alternative to psychiatric medicines for these disorders. In my work as a functional dietitian I can educate you about the powerful potential of changes in diet and lifestyle and possibly supplementation can have for you or your child’s condition.
I offer interpretation of MTHFR genomic testing with appropriate food, lifestyle and potential supplement recommendations for those who test positive for these gene variations and can potentially benefit from these modalities to support adequate methylation.
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT
New to my work in weight management is a Functional and Integrative Nutrition approach. Here we recognize that food is information and the emphasis is on reducing inflammation and stopping and/or preventing insulin resistance. These conditions may play a heavy hand in your weight gain and may further complicate successful and sustainable weight loss. Evidence in support of weight management through an Integrative and Functional Nutrition approach is quickly evolving and is thought to be the wave of the future as we learn more about how important the microbiome, attention to the gut-brain axis and cessation of high levels of inflammation are to physical and mental health and vitality.
My approach to weight management is also heavily influenced by my 30 years of experience working with all forms of disordered eating. Instead of restrictive weight loss diets I work to help clients establish a healthy and less conflicted relationship with food and their bodies integrating a model heavily influenced by but not limited to the concepts of Intuitive and Mindful Eating.
With these holistically combined approaches you can look forward to learning to eat mindfully while exploring a diet filled with a variety of delicious, easy to prepare, anti-inflammatory, blood sugar stabilizing and microbiome enhancing foods. Your program will be fully tailored to your unique individual needs. I will also support you in finding a pattern of physical activity that you fully enjoy engaging in along with lifestyle strategies to help you tie all of this together. This highly integrated approach is designed positively impact weight loss and health from the inside out.
NUTRIGENETIC/NUTRIGENOMIC TESTING
Have you heard about the emerging field of gene-based personalized nutrition? Humans are 99% identical but it’s that other 1% that is most interesting and quite powerful not only in the variations in how we look but also in determining health and wellness. These variants can impact our ability to absorb, convert and utilize specific nutrients and this ability impacts many things from metabolic rate to levels of oxidative stress, to ability to detoxify endogenous and exogenous environmental toxins, to risk for heart disease and depression, certain cancers and so much more.
By solving your personal DNA puzzle with nutrigenetic/nutrigenomic testing we can establish how these small but metabolically and biochemically significant changes in DNA sequence (called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNP’s) can influence metabolic processes, gene expression and nutritional requirements. Learn more here.