Nutritional therapy is an evidence-based complementary therapy – which simply means that the it applies the latest research in nutrition and health sciences to you and your symptoms, to help you to reach your personal health goals or optimise your health and wellbeing both now and in the future.
What does a Nutritional Therapist do?
Nutritional Therapists take a personalised, holistic approach to health and wellness that aims to understand the root cause of your symptoms by evaluating and identifying potential nutritional imbalances, and then focuses on improving the way that you feel with a simple and effective nutrition and lifestyle plan.
We are all so different with different problems, different goals, different needs and our bodies work in different ways and respond to different things. That means there is no single way of eating that is right for everyone. That’s why your plan is personalised just for you.
That takes time and skill.
I‘ll take the time to listen to you and discover not only what you want to achieve, your previous medical history and your current symptoms but also your likes and dislikes and your personal circumstances because these are all important when I am creating a plan for you, so that it all fits with they way that you live your life. I also work with supplements targeted to a specific condition or your own health goal. This can be a minefield – potentially dangerous and inevitably costly – if you don’t know what you’re doing.
I may also use some coaching to help you to overcome any barriers or challenges that have held you back in the past, and to support you in building healthy habits.
Who can benefit from nutritional therapist?
A Nutritional Therapist, can help to support you whether you are experiencing niggly health symptoms, looking for support with chronic health conditions or you want to future-proof your health.
It’s important to note that nutritional therapy does not claim to treat, diagnose or cure medical condition, but good nutrition plays a huge role in supporting your health alongside your doctor or the other health professionals involved in your care.
I specialise in working with midlife women who are experiencing a range of concerns including:
· Hormone imbalance associated with perimenopause or menopause
· Feeling tired all the time
· Difficulty losing weight and weight loss
· IBS and digestive issues
· Stress and anxiety
· Poor sleep
· Headaches and migraines
· Food Intolerances
· Pre-diabetes, high blood pressure
· Aches and pains
· Mood swings
· Brain fog and poor concentration
· General well being
How do I know if nutritional therapy is right for me?
To help you to make the right decision I offer a free 30 minute health and energy review call which is an opportunity for you to tell me a little more about what you would like help with to me about my approach and find out if it’s right for you. CLICK HERE TO BOOK A CALL
What happens in a nutrition consultation?
Your first consultation will last up to 90 minutes. You will complete and send back a nutritional therapy questionnaire before your visit. During the session, we’ll go into your medical history, your health goals and any other challenges you’re facing, what you generally eat, what you like to eat, what you hate to eat and how you have to eat (on the bus, in a rush at your desk, and so on). There’s no judgement and anything you share with me is kept in confidence.
How many nutrition consultations will I need?
My nutritional therapy and coaching packages run over 10 weeks. This is because it is rarely helpful for anyone to leave without the knowledge that they have at least three sessions in place to help them implement the programme, make changes at a pace that suits them, and to deal with any challenges or questions that come up along the way.
Where do the nutrition consultations take place?
All of my consultations take place online via zoom.
Will I need to have any tests done?
In some cases, during your consultations, I may suggest specific functional nutrition tests. Functional testing can help to identify the underlying causes and contributors to any symptoms that you are experiencing. Some tests can help to detect or confirm nutrient status or deficiency whilst others can help identify clinical issues and hormone imbalances.
Test are recommended where they add useful information when making recommendations as part of your personalised nutritional therapy plan.
The cost of functional testing is not included in the price of your nutritional therapy consultation.
Nutritional therapy is about enhancing health, not diagnosing conditions, so you will always be referred back to your GP should any important symptoms arise.
Are Nutritional Therapists, Nutritionists and Dietitians the same?
When you are choosing a health professional to help you with your food and nutrition it can be very confusing as the names are often used interchangeably. Whilst Nutritional Therapists, Dietitians and Nutritionists all provide expertise about food and nutrition with the aim of promoting health or managing a health condition, they all have different qualifications and whilst their roles may overlap has, they each have their own unique skills.
Dietitians
Educated to a minimum of degree level in dietetics (or similar), dieticians typically work within the NHS (although some work in privately). They often form part of a medical team working with patients and they are trained to evaluate, diagnose and treat nutritional conditions, and they are permitted to prescribe some medications. Dietitians tend to specialise in specific disease such as kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity and gastrointestinal conditions.
You can see a dietitian on the NHS. This needs to be arranged by your GP or health professional. Registered Dietitians are the only nutrition professionals who are required to be registered and regulated by law in the UK.
Nutritional therapists
Nutritional therapy is an evidence-based complementary therapy – which means that the it applies the latest research in nutrition and health sciences to you and your symptoms, to help you to reach your personal health goals or optimise your health and wellbeing both now and in the future.
Sometimes you’ll find Nutritional Therapists describing themselves as Nutritionists. This is just because nutritionist is a more familiar term than nutritional therapist, so it helps you to find what you are looking for.
It’s important to know that anyone can call themselves a ‘Nutritional Therapist’ because the title is not protected by law. So if you’d like to work with a nutritional therapist, you need to be careful who you choose. It’s important to ensure they are a Registered Nutritional Therapist.
Checkout whether they are registered with BANT (The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine) CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council). Registration is voluntary, but all therapists who are members have to be trained on an accredited course, annually prove that they are continuing their training (with CPD) and abiding by specific codes of contact to remain certified. This will usually be clearly visible on their websites but you can also confirm their registration by going to the websites for BANT and the CNHC.
Nutritionists
Nutritionists can work in a whole range of different industry from private practice in health clinics to food or supplement companies. They don’t always work with individual clients on a one-to-one basis and may well work in areas such as education & research.
Like nutritional therapists the title of ‘Nutritionist’ is not protected by law anyone can call themselves a Nutritionist – so if you are looking to work with a nutritionist in private practice it’s important to look for a Registered Nutritionist so that you can understand whether they are appropriately trained, whether the qualification is accredited and whether they are registered with an appropriate body that requires them to adhere to a strict code of conduct, and has requirements for continuing professional development. Nutritionists can also register with BANT and CNHC so again you can check out their registration here (see above).
If you’re wondering whether this approach might be right for you, I warmly invite you to book a free mini-consultation. Click HERE.