Treatment for Eating Disorders

Do you or someone you care about have a current eating disorder or have had one in the past, and are needing support and guidance? You may feel frightened or stressed out for yourself or your loved one with this challenge. Perhaps you want to see if Lighthouse Nutrition & Wellness (LNW) can be a good fit for you.  You might have noticed that LNW mainly helps those who are trying to lose weight in a healthful way, and are confused or you have questions. We're hoping to clarify that for you here.

Registered Dietitian Cathy Hains has been working with all kinds of clients and patients since 2010, including many with eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors and thoughts.  The main types of eating disorders are:

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder
• ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)

Cathy has not yet earned board certification in treating this group of conditions. That said, she has, however, as a dietitian, taken many classes in, had many years of experience with, and done much reading on this topic. 

Cathy Hains's primary approach to all clients is health and wellness first over image and appearance. 

She assists clients and patients by:

• Educating on what taking care of the body means via nutrition and lifestyle
• Educating on what disordered eating can do to the body
• Listening and supporting in a caring, non-judgemental way
• Teaching what is healthy and unhealthy behaviors
• Helping to learn to balance self-love and self-care
• Slowly identifying triggers and working through those
• Applying tools specialized for this population while being sensitive to the pains of this client group
• Using medical nutrition therapy to help treat the mind and body
• Working conjunctively with other therapists and practitioners to help the client on a weekly or monthly basis for a team approach in care as needed
• For those who are overweight and concerned about their health, being very sensitive to the methods used and working with clients in a health-first manner, still applying all the above
• Separating some aspects of care from the weight loss group Cathy also cares for, such as the type and frequency of newsletters sent out, as well as the type of software platforms used in care
• And more

Medical nutrition therapy and support take time and patience. 

Cathy's policy has been mainly to see eating disorder clients only if they have not been exhibiting current, active eating disorder behaviors, or, have done so long in the past and have had some form of treatment or therapy since then that they feel they, or preferably their therapist, doctor, etc. feel they were successful with. Cathy keeps an observant eye out for signs of additional help needed. Those who Cathy has found to be having a current, active eating disorder will be referred to a therapist, other board-certified eating disorder dietitian, or practitioner who could help further. 

We hope this answers any questions you may have pertaining to Lighthouse Nutrition & Wellness and our philosophy and approach to clients with eating disorders or a disordered eating past. 

We understand that this is a highly sensitive topic, and we hope you will approach us for care only if you feel our dietitian Cathy and LNW are a good fit for you. We will respect your decision, and if choose Lighthouse Nutrition & Wellness we hope to greatly help you.