Nutritional Support Service

Nutrition Counselling  

Nutrition counselling bridges the gap between therapy and traditional nutrition services. During nutrition counselling we will look at (re)nourishing the body through structured eating and work towards understanding what foods your body needs and why. We will also explore tools and skills needed to reduce the mental and emotional challenges of eating.  

The nutritional support will be offered through a non-diet approach and steer clear of a weight-focussed approach. We will explore what it looks like to nourish your body with food both at a physical and emotional level; understanding both is important for a healthy relationship with food.  

What will support look like? 

The exact content will depend on what sort of eating issue you are experiencing and what you want to get from the session. The nutritional support could be a one-off session lasting one hour, or up to 6 sessions offered fortnightly. These sessions could be offered as a separate service or in conjunction with another service at SWEDA such as therapy, counselling or support calls.  

You might be offered a nutritional session if we feel that it would be useful to look at what you are eating and what would help you with your recovery. You can also request a session.  

Once it has been identified that nutritional support could help you, our nutritionist will contact you to arrange the session. The session can be online or in person (if this can be arranged). You will be asked about your situation so that the session will be of most use to you. If you are currently working with a SWEDA therapist or support worker, they might also be involved in the process. 

What type of things might the session cover? 

It could include: 

• Psychoeducation - learning about how food is viewed or seen, learning about what happens to the body with different types of disordered eating
• Understanding hunger
• Food rules
• Diet Culture and how it can harm us
• How emotional eating works
• What happens when we restrict our food intake
• Regular eating
• Meal planning
• Balanced meals and snacks
• What nutrients may be missing from your food and how to manage this
• Social media and influencers - how to choose good information about nutrition and avoid bad 

Our nutritional advice is never directed towards weight loss. At SWEDA, we do not believe you can recover from an eating disorder whilst actively trying to lose weight and we will not offer advice about weight loss.  

If you feel you would benefit from a session, please speak to your support worker, counsellor or therapist. If you haven’t yet had an appointment at SWEDA, please contact us for next steps.