Nutrition Services
Healthy body. Healthy mind.
At River Oaks Psychology, we understand the relationship between our mental health and our eating patterns. It’s complex, commonly misunderstood, and unfortunately not always addressed in one’s treatment journey. Ignoring how our mental health and nutrition are influencing one another can be a barrier to long-term wellness.
We are committed to our person-centered approach and seek to provide the highest quality mental health treatment possible, which in most cases, means that we are also exploring the connection between your mind and body wellness.
Why see a Dietitian?
Avoid Malnutrition When Struggling with Mental Health
When we struggle with our mental health, our nutritional intake is often compromised. Struggling with depression, anxiety, chronic stress, trauma, relationship concerns, grief, low self-esteem, or any other number of mental health concerns can lead to eating concerns. We may struggle to follow a healthy eating routine, not be able to recognize hunger cues, lack the motivation to keep up with grocery shopping, or we may engage in “stress-eating” with an overabundance of comfort foods – foods that while nourishing in different ways, may not be addressing our body’s needs in these times. A dietitian can help you create a personalized plan with realistic and sustainable goals to restore your body’s nutritional wellness while also managing your mental health symptoms.
Maintain Brain Health to Feel Your Best
Our brain heavily relies on nutrients in order to function at its best. It’s important to understand how malnutrition may be contributing to some mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression. In addition, nutrient deficiencies can make it difficult to concentrate and can impair our ability to think clearly, make sound judgments, and rationalize. Poor nutrition can also affect our memory and learning abilities. If you are experiencing mental health symptoms, feeling behind in school, struggling to keep up with work, feeling extra irritable toward others, or struggling with insomnia, it’s important to explore whether your nutritional patterns are a part of the equation. Working with a dietitian can help you understand how to fuel your brain better, no matter where you are on your journey.
Manage a Chronic Illness and Live More Empowered
If you live with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney or liver disease, celiac disease, cancer, diverticulosis, or any other number of chronic illnesses, understanding how nutrition will affect your body is essential. Dietitians are trained to understand the medical background of many chronic illnesses and provide nutritional assessments and complete treatment plans according to your individual needs. Many of our patients living with chronic illnesses are able to achieve both mind and body wellness when properly addressing their nutritional needs with a dietitian.
Understand Food Allergies to Enjoy Eating Again
Food allergy reactions are serious and can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, many people who experience food allergies report challenges and frustrations until they are able to meet with a dietitian to truly understand how their body works. You shouldn’t have to struggle with eating just because you live with a food allergy. A dietitian can help you navigate your dietary restrictions to avoid allergic reactions, feel energized, obtain the nutrients your body needs, and also find delicious options you’ll enjoy.
Take care of GI / Digestive Problems to Reclaim Control
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to treatment of digestive problems. The gut is so complex and sensitive that it is sometimes even referred to as the second brain. Working with a dietitian can help you understand your symptoms better to minimize pain and discomfort during and after eating. Experiencing gastrointestinal problems is more common than you think, so there’s no need to be shy with us! We totally understand how stressful GI issues can be and we want to help you reclaim control. Whether you struggle with constipation and diarrhea due to chronic stress and anxiety or a medical condition like Crohn’s Disease, a dietitian can provide education and support to manage proper gut health.
Boost Your Athletic Performance by Powering Up
It’s important for athletes, dancers, and highly-active individuals to eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods on a daily basis to replenish their body’s limited stores of nutrients. A dietitian will help you create goals for optimal performance and personally tailor nutrition and supplementation strategies to correct for any nutrient deficiencies you may be experiencing. If you want to feel your best to perform your best, working with a dietitian to keep your body healthy must be a priority in your life.
Learn Nutrition Facts from an Actual Professional
There are numerous myths and misconceptions about nutrition in the world today. With the rise in social media and overabundance of information online, anybody can call themselves a nutrition advisor and you can easily find yourself feeling overwhelmed with information. It’s hard to keep up with what we are “supposed” to be eating when it seems like the advice changes constantly. You will hear different information in the media depending on the source. With all the fad diets available today, it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and follow the latest trends. But the truth is, most social media influencers, commercialized eating plans, packages, or food-subscription services exist to make money. How do you know you’re really getting factual, evidence-based information? Working with a Registered Dietitian with years of formal education and training can help you dispel the myths and learn the facts about nutrition today.
Address Unhealthy Eating Patterns from Childhood
If you have grown up with poor eating patterns, we know how hard it can be to change those! It might feel impossible to break old habits or say no to guilty pleasures. We want you to know that you will NEVER be judged at River Oaks Psychology. No matter what your eating patterns are, we accept you, we care about you, and we completely empathize with how difficult change can be, especially without support. Working closely with a completely non-judgmental dietitian means that you don’t have to go through it alone. Concerning eating patterns include but are not limited to: a reliance on foods for coping, lack of variety in your diet, disordered eating patterns such as restricting, purging, or bingeing, a lack of regularity when it comes to mealtimes, mindless eating, emotional eating, or eating too quickly.
Eating Disorder Treatment
Eating disorder treatment is a complex journey that requires the dedicated services of a multidisciplinary team of professionals. Dietitians are among the many experts who play a vital role in helping patients establish a solid foundation for long-term eating disorder recovery. With this population, a dietitian will provide nutritional education, address a patient’s fears, anxieties, and frustrations relating to food, help a patient create a personalized meal plan that provides necessary structure while also offering appropriate amounts of choice, variety, and flexibility, evaluate lab work, monitor for weight changes, and most importantly, help patients develop the skills, knowledge, and capabilities to build a long-lasting, healthier relationship with food.
