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Tag: healingisnotlinear

Reclaiming Your Body After Abuse and Assault

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Body Image, Eating Disorder Recovery, Education.

Trigger Warning: Impact of abuse and assault on physical, mental, and emotional health. Reader discretion advised.

au·ton·o·my
/ôˈtänəmē/
noun

You may ask: Where does the voice of a registered dietitian treating eating disorders/disordered eating belong in a conversation about the impacts of abuse and assault?

Our answer: Front and center.

Experiencing a loss of body autonomy through traumatic events such as abuse and assault is a topic that is becoming more openly discussed in media and research. Finally! – a realm of experiences that many (most) of us can relate to on some level is no longer “hush-hush”. With the growing amount and variety of community support for survivors, where does the non-diet, body neutral dietitian fit in?

Trauma affects everything. Survivors often experience changes in their physical, mental, and emotional health (sometimes gradually, sometimes suddenly).* Many of these changes are intricately weaved with digestive health and eating behaviors. Cue the non-diet, body neutral dietitian!

It is our hope to help survivors of trauma move forward in their healing journeys by encouraging a reclamation of body autonomy and educating on the specific ways traumatic events can alter the how we feed ourselves. This. Takes. Time. All the time one may need. Some ways in which a dietitian at Nutritious Thoughts** may support you in reclaiming your body autonomy include the following:

  • Restoration of balanced and adequate nourishment
  • Rehabilitation from eating disorder/disordered eating behaviors
  • Attunement to bodily cues (hunger, fullness, other digestive and emotional cues related to eating)
  • Creating a self-care plan
  • Cultivating a space where your voice and experience is heard and respected

If you or someone you know needs support around the topics of abuse and/or assault, please consider reaching out to or providing them with the following resources:

  • National Domestic Violence Hotline – 1-800-799-7233
  • National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN) – 1-800-656-4673
  • Our Voice (local Western NC support!) – 828-255-7576
  • For crises, medical emergencies, etc. – Dial 911

*Details on these changes can be found via Dialogues of Clinical Neuroscience here: Traumatic stress: effects on the brain

**A registered dietitian is an important part of a treatment team for survivors with dis-regulated eating behaviors but they cannot be the entire team. Survivors deserve a team that involves multiple clinicians and at minimum, the addition of a therapist and physician.

The grittiness of growth.

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Self Care.

 

It’s summertime, and the living is…well, a mixed bag of emotions.

Growth is hard. Healing is raw. This month, we chose to feature the blog of a local Asheville clinician – Elizabeth Gillette, LCSW of Heirloom Counseling – to celebrate the “realness” of getting in touch with our true selves. See her recent blog post below about being gentle with yourself as you walk your own path of growth and healing.

Being Gentle with Yourself as You Grow

Hi!
There is something many of my clients realize once we start really digging into relationship and self-work: it doesn’t feel very good.
On one hand, I don’t enjoy seeing people experiencing discomfort or big emotions (I have had to learn to hold space for this and allow it instead of rescuing or fixing). But on the other hand, I have realized that the place where emotions are flowing and discomfort is welcomed and old hurts are received instead of pushed away is where the healing happens. Healing is feeling it all and changing your relationship with your feelings. When the emotions are unearthed, I take that as a good sign. You are a living, breathing, deeply feeling person and I want you to know I respect that—so I let you feel it. We feel it together.
Whether you’re actively shifting your attachment style toward security or it seems like your life as you know it is crumbling all around you or you are growing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with yourself, please know you are still loved and worthy and whole. None of this work is easy. I’ve come to believe that if you are awake and aware and showing up in any conscious way in this world then you are exposed to the pain of all of it. So many of us are hurting. I know that.
But here’s what I want you to remember. The work you do reverberates out into the collective. Your healing is my healing, and mine is yours. We all deserve to heal. Every one of us. We can help each other do that—by offering support, by being in relationship in a conscious way, and by being accountable for our own stuff. Healing is unlearning just as much as it is acquiring new skills and practicing new responses. We must take inventory of our values and beliefs, gain an understanding of how we came to those beliefs (and whether they still make sense), and move into alignment with who we are now.
Your personal work is incredibly powerful because we are all part of something much bigger than ourselves.
Healing doesn’t happen overnight. And attachment and relationship work? We are in it for the long-game. This work takes practice, time, energy, dedication, and awareness. We must be gentle with ourselves to maintain our commitment. Humans don’t learn well when they are shamed or afraid or experience harshness. How can you create compassion for the parts of you that are learning right now? The fact that you are engaged with the work on a daily basis and healing at your own pace is good enough. Let it be good enough for this moment. Rushing this type of healing doesn’t allow us to dive deep, to fully embrace our experiences, to feel everything we need to feel to move forward.
We all have our own stories and experiences of healing and I believe it’s very important for us to hold space to hear those experiences and learn from one another. I am so thrilled to launch the here to heal podcast on June 11! It’s coming up soon and I’ve done some amazing interviews with incredible folks in my community as well as solo shows where I share more about my own experiences with healing. I’m looking for folks who would be willing to be part of my Podcast Launch Team—people who will listen to a few episodes and then rate and review them on iTunes and get the word out to others who might be interested. If that’s you, will you hit reply to this email and let me know? I will send you instructions and a reminder when the podcast launches! THANK YOU!
I also want to share an opportunity for an in-person healing experience that I am offering on June 22, 2019, with Liz Gunn and Monica Leblanc in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We are hosting an afternoon gathering to support your relationship to yourself utilizing attachment theory, astrology, and the Enneagram (a combination that I have found to be extremely powerful in my own healing work). This experience will provide grounded and practical tools for increasing consciousness and self-awareness with a healthy dose of fun, pleasure, and play. This gathering will be nourishing on many levels and is the perfect way to celebrate the summer solstice! Space is limited so the gathering feels intimate—please register as soon as you can to secure your spot!
Thank you so much, always.
Warmly,
Elizabeth

 

FYI! Elizabeth is launching a podcast THIS MONTH that we are seriously stoked for. Check out the details here: here to heal Podcast

Happy [and sad and frustrated and whatever else you may feel] Growing!