NUTRITION COACHING FOR EATING DISORDER RECOVERY
Our nutrition coaching specialties:
Karen Louise is a registered dietitian nutritionist with over 16 years of experience.
Binge eating disorder
Bulimia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa, including weight restoration
Compulsive exercise and exercise resistance
Depression, anxiety, and support for other mood-related disorders
Bariatric surgery support- pre and post-operation
Chemical dependency support
Transition from OA/FA to intuitive and mindful eating
Prenatal nutrition and postpartum support
Child/Parent feeding dynamics; “picky eating”; kids who are “under/overweight”
Can You Relate to these eating disorder recovery feelings?
Do you want to know WHY you are doing what you are doing with food?
Are you tired of hating your body and struggling with your weight?
Do you wish you could get off the diet-binge-guilt cycle of eating?
Do you wish you could just eat ‘normally’ but don’t trust yourself.
Are tired of thinking about what you should eat instead of what you really want to eat.
You spend much of your day obsessing about what you ate (or didn’t eat) or what your body looks like/should look like.
You’ve spent years trying to “fix” your body with various diets/plans/pills/procedures.
You are “all-or-nothing”- you are either “on” or “off” the diet; there’s no middle way.
You’ve hit “diet bottom” – you know deep down that diets don’t work anymore.
Hi! I’m Karen Louise
I’m a California based weight-inclusive, anti-diet dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Coach with over 16 years of experience under my belt!
I’m passionate about freeing folks from the oppressive force of diet culture so they can reclaim their birthright to live and eat with pleasure, peace and freedom.
Since 2005, I’ve helped hundreds of folks break free from the dieting cycle and create a healthy and peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.
My philosophy is rooted in anti-diet and Health at Every Size frameworks, as well as Intuitive and Mindful Eating. I will soon be a Certified Body Trust Provider. I believe that everyone is the authority of their own bodies; I’m just here to help you to “get out of your head and back into your body.”
When did you first learn that your body was the problem?
Here’s the truth… what if I told you that, YOUR BODY IS NOT THE PROBLEM.
The problem is not you – the problem is with our oppressive culture. A culture that lies to us, keeps us trapped in a cage that brainwashes us to believe we must shrink our bodies and our lives to fit a standard of beauty. The lies we’ve been fed are that when we get the “perfect” body then we will be accepted, loved, healthy, etc.I know it really feels like the body is the problem. I understand this as a recovered chronic dieter myself, I was convinced if my body were smaller, my life would be better, I would have more love, acceptance, all the things!I’m here to tell you that it is possible to get to a place where you can eat what you want, feel free around food, and feel good in your body. (Read my story here)
You can get to a place where you feel free around food. It’s possible.
You can eat anything while feeling good and at peace in your body. Just like you did when you were a toddler. Your life’s purpose isn’t about shrinking yourself. You are here to expand into your power and to find and live from your authentic truth. Freedom is your birthright and its yours to reclaim.
Your eating disorder has stole enough of your precious time and energy. You deserve to live a fully empowered and liberated life.
Eating disorder recovery is 100% possible!
There is a roadmap on how to get there…
The roadmap is a trauma informed combination of: Intuitive Eating, Mindful Eating, Body Trust, The Behavior Decoding Method, and the Health at Every Size (HAES) framework.
We practice through a weight-inclusive lens with the goal of body liberation for all people.
Our approach is rooted in anti-oppression, equity, intersectional feminism, and inclusion of all bodies, races, gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations.
As anti-diet dietitians, we are here to provide a safe, non-judgmental, supportive space for you to get curious about your relationship to food and your body.
Nutrition coaching for eating disorder recovery involves a team approach.
As your eating disorder dietitian or nutrition coach, I work as part of a team. I work closely with your therapist (if you give me consent) as well as your doctor or psychiatrist.
The nutrition therapist on the team helps free up your psychotherapist so they can focus on other therapeutic issues (trauma, relationships, etc.) instead of talking about food, what to eat, how much, etc.
Both the nutrition therapist and your psychotherapist will often explore body image as it relates to the underlying issues. There are sometimes overlapping roles between the nutrition therapist and the psychotherapist.
If you currently do not have a psychotherapist, that’s okay, we can start our work together and I have many referrals for when that time is appropriate.
And I said to my body, softly, “I want to be your friend.” It took a long breath and replied, “I have been waiting my whole life for this.”
—Nayyirah Waheed
What eating disorder recovery nutrition coaching addresses:
Stabilization of behaviors (restrict/binge/purge/exercise/etc.) and or weight as appropriate.
Mechanical eating and meal plans as needed.
Decoding disordered eating behaviors to uncover the “why” of what you are doing with food and your body.
Discover and challenge distorted beliefs/fears about food, weight, and exercise and how they may enable eating disorder behaviors.
Uncover barriers that cause self-sabotage and keep one feeling stuck.
Transition from structured meal plan to internal intuitive eating plan when ready.
Use desensitization and exposure therapy to increase flexibility with:
- Fear food challenges
- Food rituals
- Social eating
- Dining out
- Grocery shopping
- Cooking
Begin to discover the fundamentals of intuitive eating such as, hunger, fullness and satisfaction.
Food logs/journals: keep track of what you eat to increase self-awareness and gain insight into triggers etc.
Distinguish between physical and emotional hungers.
Nutrition 101:
what and how much does the body need to thrive optimally for health and mental stability. We also discuss set-point weight theory, medical complications of eating disorders, and how to restore metabolism back to “normal.”
Learn techniques to regulate your nervous system and create safety with food and your body.
Live more embodied as you learn to let go of your disordered eating behaviors and habits.
Our 4 Month Coaching Program
for eating disorder recovery is created for you to find peace and freedom from food and weight worries.
Our Body Trust & Intuitive Eating Transformation Program has 4 stages
Why 4 months? It typically takes on average between 3 and 6 months for folks to finally gain traction to break out of the restrict/binge/purge/guilt cycle of eating. It takes time to unlearn these belief systems and behaviors. At the 3 or 4 month mark is when things begin to “click” and integration happens. Most of my clients report feeling less obsessed around food (yay!), less guilt and shame with their eating, less fixation on their bodies, more peace and acceptance. They are moving away from deprivation and self-loathing to a more flexible and compassionate way to relating to themselves, their food and their bodies (big yay!)
Stage 1
DIVEST FROM DIET CULTURE
- Explore your body story/ unpack the internalization of body shame.
- Learn how to let go of dieting and deprivation and replace it with a sustainable and pleasurable approach/plan (mechanical meal plan to start for most folks!)
- Find relief from the diet-binge-guilt cycle of eating.
- Stabilization of behaviors and weight.
Stage 2
RESTORE TRUST WITH YOUR BODY
- Learn tools and practices to reconnect you to physical hungers (if weight is restored)
- Identify emotional and symbolic cravings and how to decode and feed these hungers.
- Gain a deep appreciation to how all our coping with food/body is rooted in wisdom.
- Feel confident around how much, what and when to eat.
- Feel connected and in control of your body’s hungers and desires.
- Experience eating without guilt, anxiety and self doubt.
Stage 3
RECONNECT WITH YOUR NEEDS & FEELINGS
- Learn how to loosen the grip of the internal critic aka Food Police and gain access to your compassionate wise Self.
- End the hustle: let go of healthism, nutritionism and perfectionism.
- Decode body image struggles: discover how the body shame spiral distracts us from getting our deeper needs and longings met.
- Unhook and heal from the weight loss fantasy; feel more comfortable and confident in your body – no matter what your size.
Stage 4
RECLAIM YOUR LIFE BACK WITH RADICAL SELF-LOVE
-
- Integrate the principals of Intuitive Eating, and deepen the practices of body trust.
- Rediscover joyful movement: find practices to help you ‘get out of your head, and into your body.’
- Reclaim your birthright to enjoy all foods with pleasure and satisfaction.
- Relate to your body more compassionately as you reclaim your sovereignty back from diet culture.
Reclaim Your Life Back.
Come Home To Your Body.
The Body Trust & Intuitive Eating Transformation Program includes:
One 90 Minute Initial Kick Off Session to Map Out Your Unique plan + 7 Follow-up Sessions
These 50-60 minute video sessions generally take place every other week. The healing begins here as we guide you through the 4 stages of the Body Trust Eating Disorder Recovery program.
Unlimited Email, Text and Chat Support
ou’ll have support and guidance from your dietitian between sessions with unlimited email access for any questions or concerns that come up (or if you just need a place to vent).
Weekly Journal Review And Personalized Feedback
Your dietitian will review your online food and mood app weekly (if applicable) and provide feedback and support in between sessions, even if it’s a week that you don’t have a video call. The food and mood app is a function of the Practice better software system.
Tools, Practices, Worksheets And Reflection Prompts
After each session, you’ll get an email summary of session highlights as well as any tools that might be helpful in implementing the practices of Body Trust and Intuitive eating. This work is highly individualized and based upon your needs and your specific goals/plan.
Our FREE 30 minute Discovery call will give us the opportunity to explore your relationship to food and the areas you need support around.
You can answer any questions and get a sense of what working together will be like.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
—Audre Lorde, “A burst of light”
My practice is 100% virtual. I am in Napa California. I am available for virtual sessions around the world.
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Phone: (510) 409-9615