Weight Inclusive Health Care for All
THE FAT NATUROPATH
Eating Disorder & Disordered Eating Support in Portland, Oregon
Eating disorders can happen to anyone, regardless of gender, race, body size, or socioeconomic background.
Each person dealing with an eating disorder will have their own path to walk, but there are often commonalities that will be addressed in treatment.
It is always my goal to treat everyone as the individual they are.
Recovery involves a team of support, including a therapist and dietician who are well versed in eating disorder recovery. I am fortunate to have a strong community of HAES focused eating disorder therapists and dieticians to help my patients in their recover journey.
People with eating disorders are an important part of my practice, as well as people who have disordered eating or want to get off of the diet roller coaster. It is absolutely difficult being in this society in a larger body, so all of our attempt to be thinner make logical sense.
The issue is: People come in different sizes! We always have and always will.
With the recent boom of GLP-1 medications for weight loss, we seem to be entering another period of time where “thinner is better” even if it is not healthier for every body. While these medications have been very helpful to the type 2 diabetic community for a long time, there is still some questions about long term issues when used for weight loss.
My focus is to find what works best for each person to improve their health and relationship with food and their bodies.
Ready to get started? Schedule a new client appointment.
My approach to care around eating disorders
I look at behaviors and changes in the body as symptoms of something deeper, and not as the problem to be fixed by getting to a certain weight.
Rather than using weight as a marker of recovery, I look at how your body is functioning, what your labs are showing, and how your relationship with food is changing over time.
Recovery isn't linear and it takes a team to support you. When I work with patients navigating eating disorders, I collaborate with their therapist and dietitian so that the physical, mental, and nutritional pieces of care are all working together.
What Eating Disorders Can Look Like
Our culture's fear of fatness, and the belief that health looks one specific way, creates the conditions for eating disorders to take root. At their core, most eating disorders involve some combination of fear around food, weight gain, or a drive toward perfection. That can show up differently for different people:
Restriction: this can look like eating very little, not eating most of the day until evening, or restricting the types or amounts of specific foods. Often this is due to a fear of gaining weight.
Binge eating: this can look like eating large amounts of food, often more than is physically comfortable, or eating a lot of calorie dense food after restricting.
Purging: this is using different methods to reduce calorie absorption of food that is eaten.
Orthorexia: While not an official diagnosis, orthorexia often looks like restriction, not necessarily because of a fear of gaining weight, but to fit into a perfectionism of eating the “right” things to be as healthy as possible. NOTE: This is not just eating generally healthy food, this is when eating healthily is taken to a very unhealthy place.
Chronic dieting / disordered eating: Also not an official eating disorder diagnosis, chronic dieting can also be termed “disordered eating”. When attempting to lose weight, many people will start to have a disordered relationship with food. This usually does include restriction and binge cycles, but not to the level of an eating disorder. However, most people don’t realize that chronic dieting, or diet cycling, can also hurt our health.
Oftentimes, eating disorders may start small and seem innocuous. Someone wants to lose a few pounds, but over time it snowballs into harmful behaviors. If someone is also spending time with other people who have eating disorders, or severe disordered eating behaviors, they may not even realize how bad it is getting.
Over time, someone might realize that they have an eating disorder, but what they are getting out of it is more important to them than recovering, so they will do what they can to hide their behaviors.
What I Won’t Do
One of the challenges in treating eating disorders is that insurance companies and often treatment centers judge recovery by weight.
If someone who comes in underweight, and their body gains weight easily, they may be labeled as “recovered” long before they have had time to actually recover.
If someone is in a larger body, they may be assumed to be binge eating, regardless of their actual eating behaviors.
Similarly, someone in a smaller body who binge eats may not be diagnosed because they do not gain the expected weight.
A dangerous aspect of this way of looking at eating disorder treatment is that if someone is restricting heavily, but starts in a larger body, they may have negative physical repercussions before their eating disorder is even noticed, much less diagnosed.
In a practice that looks at eating disorders and health in general through a weight neutral lens, I look at behaviors or significant changes in weight as symptoms of something deeper. I also don’t focus on patients being a certain weight to determine if they are recovering or not. Everyone’s body responds to restriction or excessive calories in different ways.
Medical Support During Recovery
During recovery, it is important to medically monitor labs and even weight fluctuations to see how the body is responding to treatment. While certain weight are not the goal, it is important to make sure that weight evens out.
Sometimes, someone might think that they are not sick enough to need treatment, or to need higher levels of care. They may think that their weight is not too low, or that just because their labs look normal that their eating disorder is not negatively impacting their health. Unfortunately, the body can survive a lot of abuse until it can’t anymore, and that can happen quickly. You are always deserving of care!
The team of therapist, dietician, and doctor work together to help heal the various aspects of an eating disorder. A therapist helps with the mental challenges that lead to eating disorders and dieticians create meal plans tailored to each person to make sure that they are getting enough calories each day.
Sometimes, during out patient treatment, the team might realize that the person they are working with would be better served by going into a higher level of care, which might mean a treatment center. This recommendation is rarely given lightly.
Is This the Right Fit?
People who are actively in eating disorder recovery and want a weight-neutral medical provider on their team.
People who have been dieting most of their life and are ready to get off the roller coaster.
People who've been harmed by weight-focused medical care and need a provider who won't repeat that.
People questioning diet culture and looking for support in building a different relationship with food and their body.
People who are curious about GLP-1 medications and want a provider who will give them an honest, non-coercive conversation about whether it's right for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you prescribe weight loss medications or plans?
No. My goal is never to get you to a specific weight. If you're coming in for eating disorder support, weight loss is not part of the treatment plan.
What if I'm not sure I have an eating disorder?
You don't need a formal diagnosis to come in. If your relationship with food is causing you distress, affecting your health, or taking up more mental space than you'd like, that's worth talking about.
Do you work with people in larger bodies?
Yes. People in larger bodies are consistently underdiagnosed and undertreated for eating disorders. That's a serious problem, and it's one I'm specifically working to address in my practice.
How does the care team model work?
I work collaboratively with eating disorder therapists and dietitians in Portland who share a weight-neutral, HAES-aligned framework. If you don't already have a therapist or dietitian, I can help connect you with providers I trust.
What do you monitor during recovery?
Lab work, weight trends (as data, not as a goal), and physical symptoms that indicate how your body is responding. Monitoring is about making sure you're safe — not about hitting a target.
Do you offer telehealth?
Yes, telehealth is available for Oregon residents. In-person appointments are also available at my Portland practice.
Do you accept insurance?
I accept insurance, but please check your insurance prior to your appointment for confirmation of coverage as this list may change:
Aetna
American Specialty Health (AshNetwork)
BCBS/Regence
Oregon Health Plan:
Care Oregon - look under Physical Health Plan on your insurance card
Pacific Source
United