Weight Inclusive Nutrition Counseling
Person-centered nutrition care for folks healing from an eating disorder, disordered eating, or chronic dieting.
Hi, I’m Dana!
I’m a weight loss turned non-diet registered dietitian helping folks heal their relationship to food and body through weight-inclusive, Intuitive Eating aligned approaches to care.
In addition to being a registered dietitian, I’m also a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Consultant and a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor with many years of experience supporting others and healing my own relationship to food.
Who I work with
I believe that when it comes to care providers, finding the right fit for who we are as humans and what we need support with is so essential. Which is why I try to be crystal clear and upfront about who I’m potentially a great match for and who I am not.
I work with folks who:
Have gone on every diet, seen their weight go down and up and down and back up again, feel exhausted by it all, and crave more peace and ease in their relationship to food.
Have been diagnosed with a clinical eating disorder such as binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, or other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) OR who are concerned they might have an eating disorder.
Experience stress or anxiety about their eating patterns and habits.
Feel preoccupied by constant thoughts of, cravings for, or worry about food.
Feel out of control around or addicted to food.
Experience fear, guilt, or shame about food or eating.
While I do support folks who also experience chronic illness (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol) in the context of the above, I do not offer nutrition counseling for the treatment of medical diagnoses as the primary concern.
Also, I do not provide weight loss counseling. While many people I work with have a desire for weight loss, have spent years pursuing weight loss, and struggle with body image and being in their body, I do not work with folks who are seek to explicitly pursue weight loss.
“Having struggled with disordered eating my entire adult life, I, of course, have spent a lot of time with dieticians and nutritionists. I can honestly say that Dana was the first and only one who really listened to me and provided help right where I was. She didn’t push me to be in a place I wasn’t ready for yet—she was patient and kind and compassionate in the most healing way. I never felt judged by Dana; in fact, I felt completely accepted and safe to be totally honest with her. I will never go to another nutrition counselor…”
Abbe G.
Services & Rates
I see clients in VT, NY, and FL. I may also be able to see clients virtually in other states, depending on the licensure laws of the state in question. If you reside in a state outside of VT, NY, or FL, contact me to learn if ThrivInspired Nutrition counseling services are available in your area.
Discovery Call | 20-minutes
Free
I offer a free, 20-minute phone call to anyone interested in working together so that we can chat about what kind of support you are looking for, your goals from nutrition counseling, and any questions you have about me and my approach to dietitianing before making any time or financial commitment.
If it turns out we aren’t the right match, I always try to provide folks with additional resources that might be a better fit for their needs.
Initial Session | 75-minutes
Full rate: $250
Private pay, paid at time-of-service rate: $200
This session is all about getting to know each other. I want to hear your story, your history, your past experiences with food and body and how those experiences impact your current relationship to food and body, what you want to be different about your relationship to food and body, and what long-term goals you’d like to work toward together.
Follow-up Session | 45- or 60-minutes
Full rate: $135/$180
Private pay, paid at time-of-service rate: $105/$140
Follow-up sessions progressively build on one another. This is where we create our action plan to achieve the long-term goals set together in our initial session. We spend this time reviewing how things have gone since the last time we connected, problem-solve challenges that come up, and continuing paving your path toward healing. Because this path is never straightforward or linear, follow-up sessions offer a space for consistent and reliable support and guidance.
Insurance
I am in-network with:
BCBS
CBA Blue
Cigna
Green Mountain Care/VT Medicaid (referral required)
MVP Healthcare (referral required)
Wellfleet
I am not in-network with any Medicare or Medicare Advantage plans.
IF YOU HAVE MEDICARE AS PRIMARY INSURANCE & MEDICAID AS SECONDARY INSURANCE I am not able to bill insurance at all (Medicare or Medicaid) for any services.
If you are using insurance benefits for services, the amount you owe out-of-pocket (for co-pays, coinsurance, and deductibles) will be based on the reimbursement rate determined by your insurance provider and may be different from the rates listed above.
Out-of-Network Benefits
If I am not in-network with your insurance provider, you may still be eligible for reimbursement if you have out-of-network benefits through your health insurance plan.
This means you will be responsible for payment at the time of service. Once your balance is paid you will be provided with a superbill to submit to your insurance provider to request reimbursement. If accepted, your insurance provider will reimburse you directly.
Note that a superbill does not guarantee reimbursement.
If you plan to submit for out-of-network benefits via a superbill, the private pay, time-of-service discounted rate does not apply and the full fee will be due at the time of service.
Location
I see clients in person at my office in South Burlington at 20 Kimball Ave, Suite 302.
I also see clients virtually via a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform.
FAQs
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I do not offer weight loss counseling.
To be sure, many people I work with have a desire for weight loss, have spent years pursuing weight loss, and struggle with body image and being in their body. But, the work that I do focuses on building more supportive eating behaviors and healing unhelpful thought patterns and belief systems about food, body, and weight.
I’m not anti-weight change. Weight may go up, down, or remain unchanged as a result of our work. But I do not set weight loss goals with clients or position weight change as a measure of progress.
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Yes! I work with folks who struggle with their relationship to food and body regardless of whether or not they meet criteria for an eating disorder.
If you find yourself feeling preoccupied by thoughts and worries about food, feel guilt or shame for eating, feel like you can’t trust yourself to make food decisions, are exhausted from food rules, restrictive eating plans, and weight cycling, or find that your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with food are consuming too much of your time and energy, then I might be a great match for you!
Please reach out so we can chat more!
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Intuitive Eating is a self-care framework for nourishment developed by two non-diet dietitians, Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch.
It consists of 10 principles and is designed to help individuals reconnect with their appetite cues, rebuild trust in themselves and in their body to make autonomous and health-supportive food decisions, and challenge the thoughts and beliefs that keep them stuck in feelings of guilt or shame, or cycles of restrictive and rebound eating.
Check out this post on What is Intuitive Eating, Really? for more info.
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A weight-inclusive approach to care is grounded in the belief that we can pursue behaviors to improve or enhance health and well-being independent of body size, or the pursuit of intentional weight loss, when we can access non-biased and non-stigmatizing healthcare.
It rejects the belief that body size is a helpful or accurate indicator of health, that “health” can be uniformly defined, and that having health is a moral virtue.
Those who provide weight inclusive care believe that everyone deserves access to high quality, respectful, and unbiased healthcare, as a human right. Regardless of weight or health status, or the reasons why their weight or health status are what they are.
Check out this post for more info.
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Sessions are conversational and tailored to your needs in that very moment.
In general, our initial session is mostly spent getting to know one another. I want to know all about your story, your history, and what you are wanting to get from working together.
Follow-up sessions build on one another. We often review the goals and action items that we ended with in our last session, discuss what’s gone well and problem-solve what hasn’t, discuss anything new that’s come up, and identify what makes sense as an item or area to focus on until we meet again.
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Yes! I work with folks who choose to pay privately for services.
For those who wish to seek out-of-network benefits from their insurance company I’m happy to provide you with a superbill to submit for reimbursement.
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Once we decide to move forward with working together, I will send you an invitation to join my telehealth platform, links to the forms that need to be completed in advance of our session, and schedule I’ll our initial session plus the next several follow-up sessions.
When discussing scheduling we’ll determine if it makes sense to start with weekly or bi-weekly appointments and then find a recurring day/time for those appointments that works for both our schedules.
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The full rate that is listed is the full rate for the service. This is the rate that is billed to insurance companies, to anyone seeking a superbill to submit to insurance on their own, or anyone who’s claim is submitted to insurance but denied.
The private pay, time-of-service discounted rate is available to folks who pay for their session at the time of service and are not using any insurance benefits. This is offered as a courtesy to folks who are not using insurance benefits for paying promptly and to make services more financially accessible.
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Yes. I offer a couple of sliding scale spots for folks in need of care and experiencing financial hardship.
Contact me to see if I have any sliding scale availability.
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Great question! And one that’s really hard to answer because this is so individual. This depends on a lot of factors like what we are working on together, where you are at in your healing process, how long you’ve been experiencing challenges with your relationship to food, your support system, and more.
I generally work with people for at least several months, but work many people for much longer than that.