8/12/26 | By: Eleanor “Ellie” Young

I often hear clients ask some variation of the same question, “...but why do I need to see a dietitian?” While it’s true that eating disorders are considered Mental Health Disorders, their treatment is uniquely positioned at the intersection between mental and physical healthcare.

Therapeutic topics such as body image, emotional avoidance, grief, trauma, and relationship challenges play a big role in eating disorder recovery AND it is equally important to recognize that engaging in eating disorder behaviors such as restricting, binging, or purging can wreak havoc on your body’s systems. Learning to engage with food in a different way is the key to unlocking freedom in recovery and requires an integrative, collaborative approach between mental health therapy and dietetics.

Eating Disorder Therapy versus Nutrition Counseling

Eating Disorder Therapy

Mental health counselors who specialize in working with eating disorders provide eating disorder therapy. While many eating disorder therapists will be familiar with nutrition and the physiological impacts of eating disorders on the human body, this understanding usually develops over time as they develop their skills in working with clients who have eating disorders. Mental health counselors are trained in graduate school to attend to the emotional needs of their clients. They are taught skills to help clients process their emotional experiences and support them in developing skills to better support their emotional well-being.

Eating disorders are emotional disorders. This is because the behaviors that characterize these disorders are rooted in emotional avoidance. When viewing eating disorder behaviors as emotion-driven, it can clarify our understanding of the role that therapy plays in challenging the eating disorder. For this reason, a major focus of eating disorder therapy is helping clients to learn how to sit with distressing emotions.

There are many other topics that come up when challenging your eating disorder. As previously mentioned, these topics can include body image, grief, trauma, and more. An eating disorder therapist can help you process the emotional impacts of these experiences, explore the experiences in your life which led to the development of your eating disorder, and help you challenge the beliefs that you hold about yourself, others, and the world which have helped to maintain your eating disorder over time.

Nutrition Counseling

In comparison, registered dietitians typically provide nutrition counseling in the field of eating disorders. Dietitians are trained in nutrition science and the ways that nutrition can impact the human body physiologically. Their classes are more geared towards biology, physiology, and biochemistry which means they have a thorough understanding of the way that human bodies function and the role that nutrition plays in physical health and wellbeing. While many dietitians are required to take a counseling skills course as part of their training, these skills focus more on effective communication and ways to engage clients in nutrition education.

When working with a dietitian, the main focus will be ensuring clients are informed on how much nutritional intake they need specific to their body and their stage of recovery. In the same vein, dietitians determine target weight ranges for clients in eating disorder recovery. As part of nutrition counseling, dietitians support clients with a variety of things including, meal planning, creating grocery lists, creating a nutrition plan and adjusting, if necessary, exposure to fear foods, and trying new foods. Dietitians can also discuss body image with clients; however, this conversation is more geared towards how our bodies work and what our bodies are doing to keep us alive.

Why Do You Need Both?

In order to produce meaningful change, it is best for clients to engage in eating disorder therapy and nutrition counseling simultaneously. While dietitians are extremely effective in helping clients come up with a plan to meet their body’s nutritional needs, I have often heard clients express disappointment that they aren’t processing the emotions that come up related to food and recovery to the extent that they hoped.

On the other hand, clients who only engage in eating disorder therapy might be putting a great deal of emotional energy into challenging their eating disorders by sitting with their emotions and learning effective coping skills. However, It is impossible to fully engage in therapy if your body is not properly fueled. Mental health counselors do not have the education to help clients create meal plans to meet their bodies unique nutritional needs as they move through recovery.

For these reasons, it is imperative that mental health counselors and dietitians work in tandem to ensure that clients receive the best, most effective care possible. As part of this interdisciplinary care, clients will also typically work with a psychiatrist and/or primary care provider. It is common for dietitians and mental health therapists to coordinate care across disciplines as clients are in recovery from an eating disorder.

How Do I Get Connected?

If you are currently working with an eating disorder therapist, you can ask them for referrals! Many eating disorder therapists work closely with dietitians and will have professional relationships with providers in the area. They may also be able to identify specific dietitians who would be a good fit for your unique needs.

If you are not currently working with an eating disorder therapist, I highly recommend that you do! Here at Monarch Wellness all of our providers specialize in working with eating disorders and can help you as you begin your recovery journey. You can schedule a free, no-commitment 20 minute video consultation on our website!

If you are interested in working with a dietitian and are not yet ready to begin eating disorder therapy, that is okay too! You can start by looking for a dietitian that is offering nutrition counseling in your area.

What to Look For in a Dietitian

When talking with clients who are looking to get connected to a dietitian, these are some of the things I recommend. I will always recommend looking into dietitians that are aligned with the Health at Every Size framework (described below).

Some other important characteristics to look for in an eating disorder dietitian which can be found on their website include:

Anti-diet culture
Weight inclusive
Clinicians who do not advertise “weight loss” or “weight management” as part of their treatment
Clinicians who do not feature client testimonials about weight loss success stories on their website

Health At Every Size (HAES)

When looking for a dietitian, I always recommend my clients find a provider who is HAES aligned. HAES emphasizes the importance of weight inclusivity, personal well-being, and respect. Dietitians who are HAES aligned are less likely to make assumptions about clients based on their body, encourage body neutrality and acceptance, and reject diet culture.

Next Steps

If you are interested in learning more about eating disorder therapy and/or discussing dietitian referrals, please feel free to reach out to us! You can call or text us at 202-656-3681 or email us at reachout@monarchwellness.com.

I’m Seeing an Eating Disorder Therapist, Why Should I See a Dietitian Too?