Our dietitians are registered with the Health Professions Council and have many years experience working to support people with eating disorders.
The Surrey Centre’s Nutrition Philosophy is based on nutrition and a healthy relationship with food thereby promoting a balanced diet as part of a healthy lifestyle. We believe that eating a diet which meets the body’s nutritional needs is an essential part of recovery from an eating disorder. We support our clients to eat regular meals and snacks which include a variety of foods from the four main food groups.
The main four food groups are: 1) carbohydrate foods including bread, cereal, pulses and grains; 2) fruit and vegetables; 3) dairy products and 4) protein rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts and vegetarian proteins. Foods that contain fats and some sugar are also included as these are important nutritionally and help make food enjoyable. Healthy eating is about eating the foods we need to eat and about eating the foods we want to.
All our clients are given an individualised treatment plan to help them learn healthy and balanced eating behaviours. We support our clients as they replace their eating disorder thinking and behaviours with an eating plan which meets their nutritional needs. As their confidence increases they are encouraged to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills in a variety of settings such as eating out in a restaurant.
What to expect?
Your dietitian will work with you to understand how your eating disorder thinking and behaviours affect your life. She will help you to understand the facts about how bodies and minds are affected by eating disorder behaviours and remind you about what good nutrition is and how it might be to eat normally. She will listen to any fears you may have about changing the way you eat and help you develop strategies to overcome these fears
You will be supported to make the appropriate changes in what you eat and encouraged to address other compensatory behaviours, such as over exercising and purging.
Our dietitians assess each client on an individual basis, initially it may be suggested that you meet weekly, this can then become less frequent as you progress. Some clients will be given individualised meal plans whilst for others more generalised guidance is offered. We aim to help you achieve a better relationship with food, to meet your bodies nutritional needs and for you to feel in control of what you eat.
Each dietetic session lasts for 55 minutes.