Sööma’s approach is based on providing collaborative, explorative and inclusive care. This means that the registered dietitians at the clinic want to better understand your history and how various coping mechanisms, beliefs around food and past experiences have contributed to your relationship with food. Below, we describe various therapeutic approaches that we incorporate in our nutrition interventions and provide a brief summary of how these could be used.
Our Clinical Approach
How dietitians at Sööma incorporate various therapeutic modalities into their nutrition interventions for Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), unlike most therapies, does not focus on alleviating symptoms, rather it teaches skills for living a meaningful life. Behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are not evaluated based on true or false, good or bad, instead their quality is based on if they help in the pursuit of a meaningful life. This concept is often referred to as ‘workability’. In brief, ACT is about accepting what you cannot control so that you can commit to a meaningful life.
How this is incorporated into nutrition work:
- Acceptance: Helping the client’s emotions around food and their body exist without trying to change them.
- Values: Allowing the client to identify values around food, body image, and physical activity in order to clarify what’s important to them.
- Committed Action and Defusion: When a client is engaging in an exposure or pursuing an action in line with the nutrition behavior they want to change, they may experience uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. Defusion will allow them to detach from these thoughts and emotions, allowing more space to act.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
From a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) perspective, a maintenance factor for most all disorders is emotional dysregulation. Ergo, building skills around emotion regulation and related areas is the proposed treatment in DBT.
How this is incorporated into nutrition work:
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Distress Tolerance
- Clients who suffer from eating disorders or disordered eating often use food to manage uncomfortable emotions.
- Offering distress tolerance skills allows clients to calm their nervous system when experiencing heightened emotions and urges to engage in problematic behaviors with food (e.g. bingeing, purging).
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Emotion Regulation
- Emotion regulation allows clients to develop alternative strategies to manage uncomfortable emotions in order to heal a relationship with food.
- Example: A client who often comes home after a stressful day at work and uses food to numb emotions could benefit from learning alternative ways to cope without turning to food.
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Mindfulness
- The goal of mindfulness is to help clients connect to the present moment.
- Individuals who have experienced chronic dieting or eating disorders may be disconnected from their body’s cues.
- Mindfulness supports clients in turning inward to recognize hunger, fullness, and other needs—rather than relying on external rules or restrictions.
Healing starts with support that goes deeper. At Sööma, we integrate therapeutic approaches to help clients make lasting, meaningful changes—at their own pace
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all interconnected, with thoughts and behaviours being the target for intervention. The goal of CBT is to dismantle unhelpful beliefs and attitudes as well as encourage pleasant and/or helpful acts.
How this is incorporated into nutrition work:
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Exposures
- Food exposures are a core component of nutrition interventions with clients with disordered eating and eating disorders.
- The goal of the food exposure is to identify foods that are currently avoided due to discomfort, and help the client gradually build tolerance to the distress associated with those foods.
- Over time, the anxiety and distress related to these foods often decreases, allowing for greater variety and quantity in food intake.
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Problem Solving
- Clients may want to change their relationship with food but feel significant distress when trying to do so.
- In CBT-based nutrition care, problem solving involves exploring food-related situations and evaluating different ways to respond.
- Example: A client struggles to buy chips due to the belief others are judging them. This thought can be explored by analyzing facts, challenging the belief, and using tools like role play or food exposures to build confidence.
Family Based Treatment
Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is a family therapy for the treatment of adolescent eating disorders. The goal of the treatment is for providers to take a non-authoritarian stance in treatment and empower the parents to bring about the recovery of their child. FBT consists of three phases:
Refeeding and weight restoration
Restoring control of eating back to the adolescent
Returning to normal adolescent development
How this is incorporated into nutrition work:
- When treating young individuals with eating disorders, the registered dietitians at Sööma often prefer to include the family in order to offer appropriate support to the adolescent and empower parents to refeed and nourish their child.
- Dietitians will often provide guidance on weight restoration requirements, engage in the family meal, which is a core component of FBT and support the family during the refeeding and restoration of control phase.
- Dietitians will often work in conjunction with a psychologist who will support the adolescent and the family from a cognitive, emotional and developmental perspective.
See what real people think of Sööma
Annyck is a joy to work with! She has a beautifully natural way of balancing kindness, directfulness, and intellect when working with her peers and her clients. Professionally, Annyck has taught me valuable new skills to use during client sessions, she has guided me through challenging cases, and she has taught me business skills like how to pivot and optimize my time. She does all of this with empathy, so I feel like I can authentically share without judgement. There is no doubt in my mind that I will have Annyck as my supervisor for years to come!
MollyRegistered DietitianWashington, D.C.
As a psychologist in the eating disorder field collaborating with a dietitian is imperative. I consider myself lucky to be able to collaborate with such a professional, knowledgeable and compassionate dietitian. The many patients that I have shared with Annyck speak very highly about her and are fortunate to be working with her!
NehaPsyD, Clinical PsychologistWashington, D.C.
I trust Annyck with even the most complicated of cases. She is a knowledgeable, humble, and skilled provider who prioritizes collaboration with all members of a client’s treatment team. She has a warm, direct, and empowering clinical style that makes my clients feel heard and supported from the very first session. I’ve also had the privilege to co-lead nutrition therapy groups with her to see her unique approach in action. Annyck is my go-to referral and collaborator across a range of eating disorder presentations.
AbbyPsyD, Clinical PsychologistWashington, D.C.
Annyck is a pearl. I consulted with many dietitians before beginning my work with her and I could not be more grateful. Thanks to the work i’ve done with Annyck, I’ve developed a healthy relationship with food. Her listening skills, her support and her adaptability have meant that I still use the tools that I acquired with Annyck today. I recommend working with Annyck to all those who would like to better understand and improve their relationship with food, all in an environment free of judgement and filled with compassion.
AndréanneSherbrooke, Québec
In Annyck, I found a dynamic, positive partner full of smiles to accompany me on my journey. At each meeting, I felt that we were taking a step in the right direction. In the most difficult times, I felt supported. At the best of times, I felt encouraged. Annyck has provided me with sustainable tools, tools that I still use today. The process was long, she showed patience and kindness. Thank you for everything my dear Annyck, it was a real pleasure to walk with you!
CarolineMontréal, Québec
“I can’t do smoothies- the texture rolls in my mouth” Is one of Annyck’s sentences that I will always remember. This was during a time when I was obsessed with eating well and I was in a constant struggle with my body. This simple sentence brought me out of my isolation and put an end to my feeling of shame around my food choices.
In our follow ups, Annyck helped me heal my unhealthy relationship with food and allowed me to no longer perceive my body as my enemy. I am now kind to myself, I have a flexible diet without guilt and I listen to my body.
JacintheMontréal, Québec
Annyck was recommended to me and I understand why! Annyck is professional and attentive, she asks the right questions. For me, this was necessary because I had never worked with a dietitian before. I was almost nervous! In addition, my knowledge of the world of performance nutrition was limited. Annyck made me comfortable from the first minute. She adjusted her recommendations to my needs. The precious advice during my marathon preparation was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks to Annyck, I ran my first marathon healthy and at the top of my game!
In our follow ups, Annyck helped me heal my unhealthy relationship with food and allowed me to no longer perceive my body as my enemy. I am now kind to myself, I have a flexible diet without guilt and I listen to my body.
JacintheTrois-Rivières, Québec
Annyck is a valuable resource for me as a coach of endurance athletes. She is able to help me understand the nutritional concepts I need to know to support the athletes I coach, and is always willing to dig deeper into individual cases to find the right solution.
In our follow ups, Annyck helped me heal my unhealthy relationship with food and allowed me to no longer perceive my body as my enemy. I am now kind to myself, I have a flexible diet without guilt and I listen to my body.
JohnRunning Coach Montréal, Québec
Working with Annyck has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. My initial expectations were that a dietitian would provide me with some very clinical evidence to reshape my way of thinking around food, and by extension set me up with a rigid meal plan which would result in weight loss, my main desired outcome when I first reached out. Instead she started working through my hardened conceptions of what health was. By introducing me to Intuitive Eating, Annyck has helped me find a way to make peace with food, and nourish my body in my own way without feelings of guilt or shame. I can’t recommend Annyck enough and wish I would have pursued her services years ago.In our follow ups, Annyck helped me heal my unhealthy relationship with food and allowed me to no longer perceive my body as my enemy. I am now kind to myself, I have a flexible diet without guilt and I listen to my body.
TessaNorth Bay, Ontario