Dietitians and Nutritionists for Disordered Eating

Disordered Eating
Nutritionist help for disordered eating

Is yours or a loved one’s relationship with food impacting your life? Are you a parent who is concerned about your child or teen developing an eating disorder? Are you looking to spend less time thinking about food and body image?

If you or a loved one is struggling with disordered eating, Courage to Nourish is here to help. Many individuals who experience disordered eating symptoms do not think it’s “bad enough” to get additional support. Plus, because dieting and disordered eating are normalized in our culture, it can be difficult to recognize that your relationship with food needs to be processed with a dietitian who specializes in disordered eating recovery.

What is disordered eating?

Disordered eating is something that is quite difficult to define. Disordered eating looks different from person to person. Some examples of disordered eating include:

  • Compensating to eat certain foods (like eating less during the day if there is a big event later in the day)
  • Trying out different diets
  • Avoiding certain foods because they are “bad”
  • Exercising to “burn off” calories
  • Spending “too much” time and energy thinking about food and body image
  • Feeling like you can’t enjoy meals because you’re worried about the calories/nutrition content
  • Fear over weight gain

Please note that the list above isn’t an exhaustive list of every single sign of disordered eating. At the end of the day, if your relationship with food is negatively impacting your life in ANY way, you deserve to get support. There’s so many more exciting things you can spend your time and energy on other than thinking about food.

How We Help Treat Disordered Eating

The Courage to Nourish dietitians take an extremely individualized approach when treating disordered eating. We spend time with our clients to get an idea of how they would like to improve their eating and what specific concerns they have about food, body and exercise. We start by assuring our clients are eating consistently and getting enough variety from their food intake. We also discuss where they would like to see improvements with their food thoughts and behaviors. For example, perhaps a client would like to have less anxiety when going out to eat with friends. We’ll discuss that throughout our sessions and set specific, small goals to work toward that bigger goal.

At Courage to Nourish, our dietitians work one on one with our clients and their treatment team to improve disordered thoughts, urges and behaviors. We value trusting and compassionate relationships between our dietitians and clients. We value safety and a non-judgmental space so our clients are able to process their relationship with food and body in a way that is met with understanding and empathy. Not only do we work with you or your loved one in individual sessions, but we also collaborate with various members of the treatment team. We also provide text and email support and keep our caseloads small. This can assure you are getting the highest quality of care.

Typical Clients We Work With

Families

Families

FAMILIES

Courage to Nourish specializes in working with families and disordered eating. If your family life has been disrupted by disordered eating, contact us to learn more about how our highly trained dietitians can support your family in healing. We work closely with parents and children to create a supportive home food environment.

College Aged and Young Adults

College Aged and Young Adult

COLLEGE AGED AND YOUNG ADULT

Courage to Nourish specializes in working with college students who struggle with disordered eating. Learn more about our services and how our dietitians can work to support you and your relationship with food. Contact us for more information about how we work with college students who struggle with disordered eating.

Teens and Adolescents

Teens & Adolescents

TEENS & ADOLESCENTS

Courage to Nourish specializes in working with teens who struggle with disordered eating. Learn more about our services and how our dietitians can work to support your teen and their relationship with food. Contact us for more information about how we work with teens who struggle with disordered eating.

Pregnant Individuals

Pregnant Individuals

PREGNANT INDIVIDUALS

Courage to Nourish specializes in supporting pregnant and postpartum individuals who struggle with disordered eating. Learn more about our services and how our dietitians can work to support you and your relationship with food. Contact us for more information about how we work with pregnancy and disordered eating.

Athletes

Athletes

ATHLETES

Courage to Nourish specializes in working with athletes who struggle with disordered eating to assure adequate fueling and completing food exposures as desired. Learn more about our services and how our dietitians can work to support you and your relationship with food. Contact us for more information about how we work with athletes who struggle with disordered eating.

Adults

Adults

ADULTS

Courage to Nourish specializes in working with individuals who struggle with disordered eating of all ages. We work with kids, adolescents, young adults, and adults with disordered eating. Our dietitians are highly specialized in eating disorder treatment – learn more about our services and how we can work to support you and your relationship with food.

FAQs About Disordered Eating

How do I know if I have disordered eating?

If you find that you are struggling with your relationship with food, body or exercise in ANY capacity, please note that you absolutely deserve space and time to heal, regardless of the symptoms you’re experiencing. If you suspect you or a loved one is struggling with disordered eating, please take our quiz.

How long does it take to treat disordered eating?

Building a better relationship with food takes time! Most of the clients we see are “long term” clients who we work with on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It is difficult to set a time frame, but it’s not uncommon for clients to meet with us on a weekly basis for at least 6 months. If you feel like your healing journey is taking “too long,” just remember that recovery is not linear. It’s normal to have ups and downs.

Will I need to follow a meal plan?

That is up to you! While we can support you in creating a meal plan that meets your needs, we also recognize that meal plans aren’t helpful tools for everyone. We would never want you to feel like you are on a diet or enabling your eating disorder.

How can I help a loved one with disordered eating?

Supporting a loved one with disordered eating can be so difficult. As loved ones, we often want to “fix it.” But, recovery takes time and there’s not much we can do other than offering a listening ear and a non-judgemental space. While we don’t have specific resources on supporting a loved one with disordered eating, there is still helpful information on our website about eating disorder support. Read our blog on Supporting a Loved One with an Eating Disorder. Also, visit our resources page and sign up for our newsletter to get more tips on how to support your loved one.

How can I find support for disordered eating?

Courage to Nourish is happy to help. Contact us for more information about working with us. We provide both virtual and in person services. If for some reason we are unable to support you, we would be glad to refer you to other resources. You can also read our blog and resources page for more ideas and support on eating disorder recovery.

Have more questions?

About Courage to Nourish

Courage to Nourish is a group of eating disorder specialized dietitians. We have in person locations in Alexandria, Virginia, Columbia, Maryland, and College Park, Maryland. We offer virtual services across the state of Maryland. Virginia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. We offer individual nutrition therapy. As well as support groups. We would love to guide you in building a better relationship with food.

Courage to Nourish team

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