SPECIALITIES:
Wendy evaluates and treats patients with eating disorders and disordered eating including: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, female and male competitive athletes, picky eaters, failure to thrive, menstrual irregularities, PCOS, and children/teens with anxiety, depression, OCD. As a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics who works with high performance athletes, Wendy specializes in the treatment of eating disorders in athletes. She is able to help athletes improve their nutrition to maximize performance including improving endurance, energy, recovery, and strength plus working to prevent injury. She is well versed in Family Based Treatment (FBT), and works together with your treatment team to help in the recovery process. She works with children, adolescents and adults, individually or as a family. Eating disorders are complex and require the help from not only a nutritionist, but also a therapist and physician as well.
Making changes can be overwhelming. My aim would be to start slowly, one step at a time, in a way that would feel comfortable and safe for you. A focus is spent rebuilding one’s relationship with food, with the hope of helping to achieve “food freedom” and lasting, sustainable recovery. Wendy works specifically on helping to alleviate “orthorexic” eating (obsession with eating “clean” or “healthy”) which can become physically and psychologically debilitating. For more about orthorexia, please visit this blog post, “Moving Beyond Brown Rice.”
Wendy is a co-author of “How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder: A Simple, Plate-by-Plate Approach to Reestablishing a Healthy Relationship with Food,” and “How to Nourish Yourself Through an Eating Disorder: Recovery for Adults.” Both books describe the use of the Plate-by-Plate Approach® which is an easy-to-implement visual approach that demonstrates balanced meals —designed to set kids, teens, or adults on a path toward permanent recovery.
Wendy is also the co-author of “Raising Body Positive Teens” for parents and “No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom for teens, by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. “No Weigh” is an easy-to-read guide written for teens by an Adolescent Medicine doctor, therapist, and Wendy as the dietitian. This book helps kids navigate the challenges of adolescence such as stress, changing bodies, sleep, body image, dispelling dieting myths, developing healthy exercise habits, and learning when to “eat to your appetite” and when to stop at “just enough” using your own hunger meter. “Raising Body Positive Teens” shares many of the same concepts, but for parents including how to navigate meal prep, diet-free parenting, and social media.
EXPERIENCE:
Wendy is a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Approved Supervisor through the International Eating Association of Eating Disorder Professionals. Wendy was the Head Adolescent Eating Disorder Dietitian for NS-LIJ’s Cohen’s Children’s Hospital of New York from 2001-2011. Wendy administered and analyzed over 1000 indirect calorimetry studies to determine adolescents’ metabolic needs. She has published research in the areas of metabolism, osteoporosis, and menstruation in adolescents. Wendy worked at the Healthy Teen Project from 2014-2016, where she worked as part of multi-disciplinary team to provide treatment for teenagers struggling with eating disorders.
DURING A SESSION:
During a session, we will discuss your symptoms, current concerns, and goals. I will review your medical and weight history (including growth curve is a child/adolescent), exercise routine, medications and supplements, and of course will review your overall nutritional foundation. We will explore whether your energy consumption matches your energy expenditure, whether your diet is balanced, how frequently you are eating throughout the day, your dietary quality as well as your consistency. We will also explore other concerns that may come up, such as whether there are “good” foods and “bad” foods, rituals around eating, and/or the avoidance of certain food groups. Using a collaborative approach, we will then come up with a game plan. This may include nutritional guidelines, recommendations, and/or a detailed meal plan.
I also like connecting with clients on the app Recovery Record for those who are up for it! This app allows you take a photo of your food or just log what you are eating, and allows me to provide out of session nutrition counseling in-between sessions.
Extra Support:
To support treatment, Wendy also offers:
- Meal outings
- In-office Meal Exposures
- Grocery tours
- Family based treatment