Hello, I’m Jamie!
Early on, I bought into the lie that thin equals happy. I left high school determined to remedy sadness and body dissatisfaction through weight loss. After my undergraduate work in Community Health Education, I became a director of multiple corporate weight loss programs and soon experienced two harsh realities: diets don’t work and weight loss does not magically fix relationships, self-esteem, mood issues or life dissatisfaction. In fact, it keeps people stuck and feeling a false sense of failure or “lack of willpower.”
I began to see that the issue wasn’t weight, rather our treatment of larger bodies in this culture, and our fixation on size as the solution (scapegoating the body rather than looking deeper). These aha-has coupled with my dietetic coursework, which illuminated the brilliance of our body and what happens when we restrict food, solidified the harm of restriction, deprivation and dieting.
Around this time, I discovered Intuitive Eating and Health At Every Size®, two of the approaches I introduce below. Those connected the dots for me, and they were backed up by solid science and aligned with people’s lived experience. I created my nutrition therapy practice to help others heal from years of yo-yo dieting, disordered behaviors and body hatred. Plus, have a caring, weight inclusive space to navigate medical diagnosis without threatening food and body liberation.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
B.S. in Community Health Education, Portland State University
Post-graduate work in Dietetics, University of Northern Colorado
Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
Member of The Association for Size Diversity & Health (ASDAH) & The Columbia River Eating Disorder Association (CREDN)
Trained in Motivational Interviewing & Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
MEMBERSHIPS
Association for Size Diversity and Health
Columbia River Eating Disorder Network
Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
Approach & Philosophy
My approach is to foster self-compassion and curiosity. This method, as shown by research, promotes positive body image and better eating habits. It highlights internal body wisdom and one’s personal values, which are often overshadowed by dieting, self-doubt and/or an undernourished body.
I find sharing how the body works, the physiology, in a fun and understandable way allows clients to grasp the reason behind symptoms and how the body is responding. This minimizes the belief that the body is the enemy.
my core models
Intuitive
Eating
Intuitive Eating is all about allowing you to become the expert of your own body, rather than rely on diet rules. Food in this model is viewed as a tool (not a weapon) to fuel and satisfy your taste buds, body, and mind. Through Intuitive Eating you learn to rely on and trust your body’s internal cues for a peaceful and balanced approach to eating. Over time, you’ll notice that you no longer swing from restricting to overeating, and instead are establishing normal eating habits.
Health at
Every Size®
Health at Every Size® (HAES) is a beautiful and scientifically sound framework that is weight inclusive, body respecting and social justice aligned. HAES recognizes that all bodies are good bodies. It shifts the lens away from dieting and a fixation on healthy behaviors as a moral imperative (judging others based on their health status). Health is greatly impacted by genetics, social and financial privileges, stress from stigma and oppression, access to nutrient-rich foods and more.
Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy
ACT is about accepting, rather than fighting, what is out of your personal control, and committing to actions that move you toward a meaningful life. ACT clarifies your values, what matters to you. It brings awareness to challenges and automatic behaviors that lead you away from what you want and deserve. This approach is extremely helpful for folx with weight concerns and eating disorders, as we can locate where people are getting stuck with unhelpful thoughts, in order to step back and realign with values.
The FODMAP
Protocol
The FODMAP protocol is an evidence-based approach to management IBS symptoms. As a “learning diet” it helps people identify carbohydrates that exacerbate digestive symptoms. However, there are a variety of interventions to minimize symptoms without limiting the diet. We will explore your options, so you can determine what works best for you. Note, digestive distress and disordered eating often coexist, retraining the gut and normalizing eating patterns, is often primary.
my core ideologies
I believe all bodies are worthy and deserving of being heard, seen, respected and trusted
I believe in joyful eating and flexibility
I believe deprivation, restriction and shame hurt our ability to heal
I believe your lived-experienced and your body is full of brilliance
