Weight Concern

We treat your concerns about weight seriously. We recognise the often difficult and long journey that has led you to reach out for professional support.  We are invested in supporting you to create a happier, healthier, sustainable approach to food and eating.

The evidence shows that weight loss dieting does not work. We choose to exclusively teach an approach called 'Intuitive Eating'. Intuitive Eating is underpinned by principles of Health at Every Size® (HAES®), body respect and weight neutral care. Regardless of your weight or size the goal is to help you to be the healthiest version of yourself. 

Intuitive Eating is not weight-loss dieting in disguise. It promotes your health, wellbeing, and relationship with food without rules, restriction or pressure to shrink your body. Because of this, our work with you will not include:

• Prescriptive or calorie-controlled meal plans

• Fixed 7-day, 14-day or set meal plans

• Calorie counting, points systems or other tracking-based approaches

• Weighing or measuring you

We take a collaborative, flexible approach that honours your lived experience, your needs and what feels sustainable for you.

Learning Intuitive Eating may or may not result in weight loss and your dietitian will not use your weight or size as a measure of progress. Instead they will help you identify other ways to assess your progress and overall health.

Scroll down to see how Intuitive Eating can help you or

Intuitive Eating helps you create a positive relationship with food, movement and your body and improve your health and wellbeing. It is based on evidence.

You will feel supported to walk away from restrictive diets, and learn to trust and find joy in food and eating while promoting your long term health.

Is Intuitive Eating right for you?

Do you:

• Find yourself constantly on and off diets or identify as an “all or nothing” eater?

• Wish you could stop counting calories, macros or points?

• Feel confused, stressed or overwhelmed about food decisions?

• Experience anxiety, guilt and shame after eating certain foods?

• Regularly feel worried about your weight?

• Experience difficulty in connecting with your signals of hunger and fullness?

• Find yourself feeling out of control around food?

• Identify as an emotional or mindless eater?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may benefit from this more sustainable way of eating and taking care of your health. 

Find the principles of Intuitive Eating here: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating

Once you have learned Intuitive Eating and are able to consistently apply it, you will:

• Be able to recognise and reject 'diet culture'

• Understand how feelings and emotions impact your eating

• Feel less overwhelmed about food

• Enjoy food without guilt or shame

• Understand and connect to your appetite signals 

• Be able to nourish your body with a wide range of different foods

• Understand nutrition principles and gently apply them 

• Be able to eat to help specific health conditions 

• Be able to to plan nourishing meals and snacks 

• Be more kind and compassionate to yourself and your body

• Be able to move your body in a way that feels good

• Live a more fulfilling life not dictated by food rules and scales

Nourish & Thrive dietitians are very sensitive to the impact of weight and body-related conversations on children, especially when they are connected with food.  Our perspectives and practices are informed by:

• Non-Diet Approaches

• Neurodiversity affirming and responsive feeding frameworks

• Trauma-informed practices

• Strengths-based practices

• Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility (sDOR)

We will therefore ask you not to bring your child to a dietitian appointment where there is a weight concern, in particular the first appointment.

It is vital that parents can speak freely about their concerns.

Our dietitians’ role is to guide and support parents to understand their child’s individual growth pattern, their nutrition needs and create a safe, enjoyable food and eating environment. This includes helping parents and carers to have child-friendly, appropriate and non-stigmatising conversations about weight, bodies, appetite, food and eating.

We will help you to navigate weight concern for your child and support them to:

• Feel good about and take care of the body they have, regardless of size or shape

• Have positive mealtime experiences

• Explore new foods with curiosity and without judgement

• Build awareness of body cues

• Discover and use their own internal motivation to develop food and eating skills

• Improve their relationship with food and mealtimes

• Feel competent with eating

• Explore and experience enjoyable ways of moving their body

• Optimise their physical, emotional and psychological health

Our psychologist Amanda is passionate about supporting children, teens and adults who face challenges with body image or are developing an unhealthy relationship with food because of a concern about weight.

She can also support parents who are navigating this difficult journey with their child or teen.

Amanda is strongly aligned with weight-neutral, neurodiversity affirming and trauma informed care that is the hallmark of Nourish & Thrive. 

Find the link to Amanda's practice Accentuate Psychology here.