Nutrition counseling doesn’t have to center on weight loss, calorie counting, or rigid food rules. For people dealing with disordered eating or an eating disorder, those approaches may even make it harder to develop a healthier relationship with food.
HAES-aligned nutrition counseling offers a different framework. Health at Every Size (HAES) is an approach that emphasizes respectful, personalized care. This is while recognizing that health and well-being are influenced by many factors beyond body weight. For someone struggling with food, eating, or body image, this can create space. People can better focus on sustainable behaviors, nutritional needs, and a more flexible relationship with food.
If you’re looking for nutrition support that takes your whole experience into account, contact Well Behavioral Health today. You’ll learn more about personalized nutrition counseling and eating disorder treatment options.
What is HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling?
HAES-aligned nutrition counseling is a form of nutrition support informed by the Health at Every Size approach.
HAES-aligned care focuses on helping people develop sustainable eating patterns. They can improve their relationship with food and address nutritional needs without relying on weight stigma or rigid dietary rules. Weight loss isn’t always the primary measure of nutritional success.
This doesn’t mean that nutrition or physical health is ignored.
A person’s nutritional needs, medical concerns, eating patterns, and personal goals remain important parts of care. The difference is that those concerns are considered within a broader context. It factors in the person’s health and circumstances rather than assuming that changing body weight is always the main goal.
At Well Behavioral Health, registered dietitians use a HAES approach as part of nutrition counseling. It’s for people managing eating disorders, disordered eating, and other nutritional concerns. Services may include personalized meal planning, food exposure exercises, and support for developing a healthier relationship with food.
What Does HAES Stand For?
HAES stands for Health at Every Size.
The approach developed in response to concerns about weight stigma and the assumption that health can be determined primarily by body size. HAES-informed care emphasizes:
- Respect for body diversity
- Reduced weight stigma
- Sustainable health behaviors
- Flexible and individualized nutrition
- Respect for hunger, preferences, and lived experience
- Access to compassionate healthcare
- A broader understanding of health and well-being
The practices used by a provider can vary, so “HAES-aligned” doesn’t necessarily mean that every provider uses an identical treatment model.
How is HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling Different From Traditional Dieting?
Traditional dieting often focuses on changing body weight through specific restrictions or rules.
That might involve calorie targets, eliminating food groups, weighing foods, tracking meals, or categorizing foods as “good” and “bad.”
HAES-aligned nutrition counseling takes a different approach.
Instead of beginning with the assumption that weight loss should be the goal, a provider can explore what’s happening with your eating patterns and what kind of support would be useful.
For someone with an eating disorder, that distinction can be important.
Treatment may focus on eating more consistently, expanding food variety, reducing fear around certain foods, challenging rigid rules, or developing greater flexibility around meals.
Who Can Benefit From HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling?
HAES-aligned nutrition counseling can be relevant to people with a variety of nutrition and eating-related concerns.
At Well Behavioral Health, registered dietitians provide nutrition support for people managing:
- Eating disorders
- Disordered eating
- Difficult relationships with food
- Food-related anxiety
- Body image concerns
- Nutritional concerns requiring individualized support
Nutrition counseling may be used as a standalone outpatient service. It can also be combined with other forms of behavioral healthcare, depending on a person’s needs.
People don’t necessarily need to have a formal eating disorder diagnosis to ask about treatment options at Well Behavioral Health. Its admissions team can help people understand their needs and determine an appropriate starting point.
HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling for Eating Disorders
Eating disorders can create complicated relationships with food, nutrition, weight, and body image.
Someone may know that they need adequate nutrition. However, they may still feel anxiety about eating. Another person may have developed rigid food rules or become afraid of particular foods.
Nutrition counseling can address the practical side of these challenges while working alongside mental health treatment.
A registered dietitian may help someone develop more consistent eating patterns, increase nutritional variety, or work toward individualized nutritional goals.
The approach depends on the person’s symptoms and treatment plan.
For eating disorders, nutrition counseling is generally most effective when it is integrated with appropriate mental health care rather than treated as a simple diet plan.
What Happens During HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling?
The first step is generally understanding the person.
A dietitian may discuss your eating patterns, nutritional concerns, relationship with food, treatment history, goals, and challenges around meals.
From there, nutrition support can be personalized.
Depending on your needs, sessions may involve:
Personalized meal planning
A dietitian can help develop meal and snack structures that take your nutritional needs, schedule, preferences, and treatment goals into account.
The goal isn’t necessarily to create a rigid schedule that must be followed perfectly. Instead, planning can provide structure while leaving room for flexibility.
Food exposure exercises
Some people experience anxiety or avoidance around particular foods.
Food exposure work can provide a structured opportunity to gradually approach foods that feel difficult, when appropriate as part of the person’s treatment plan.
The pace and specific approach should be personalized.
Developing a more flexible relationship with food
Rigid food rules can make everyday eating difficult.
Nutrition counseling may help you identify patterns such as labeling foods as forbidden, feeling guilty after eating, or believing that meals must be prepared in a specific way.
Over time, treatment can focus on developing greater flexibility and reducing the influence of rigid rules.
Does HAES Mean You Don’t Talk About Health?
No. A common misconception is that HAES-aligned care means ignoring health or nutrition.
Instead, the approach seeks to separate health support from assumptions about what someone’s body should look like.
Nutrition remains important. A registered dietitian may still discuss nutritional adequacy, meal patterns, nutrient needs, medical considerations, and other health-related factors.
The difference is that care is personalized rather than assuming that weight change is the appropriate solution to every health concern.
For someone recovering from an eating disorder, this can help keep the focus on behaviors and nutritional needs without unnecessarily reinforcing restrictive or weight-focused thinking.
Does HAES Mean Weight Never Changes?
No. Bodies naturally change over time, and weight can change for many reasons.
HAES-aligned nutrition counseling does not require predicting or controlling a person’s body weight.
For eating disorder treatment, the clinical focus may be on restoring adequate nutrition. It can help with establishing regular eating patterns, reducing harmful behaviors, and supporting recovery.
The best nutritional goals depend on the person and should be determined with healthcare professionals.
How Can HAES-Aligned Care Help With Body Image?
Body image concerns often overlap with eating difficulties.
Someone may avoid certain foods because of concerns about how eating them could affect their body. Others may spend lots of time thinking about weight, appearance, or perceived physical flaws.
A dietitian may help address the nutrition-related aspects of these concerns, while a therapist can work more directly with thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and underlying psychological patterns.
This is one reason a multidisciplinary approach can be useful.
At Well Behavioral Health, nutrition counseling is available alongside therapy and coaching. This allows addressing different aspects of eating and mental health concerns within a coordinated care model.
How Does Meal Support Coaching Fit In?
Some people need more than nutrition education or a weekly dietitian appointment.
Meal support coaching is designed to provide additional practical support for individuals in eating disorder recovery.
At Well Behavioral Health, meal support coaching provides accountability and guidance around nutritional goals and food-related fears. Sessions can also provide space to process difficult thoughts and emotions that arise during meals.
This can complement nutrition counseling and therapy when someone needs more support applying treatment goals in everyday situations.
HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling vs. Meal Support Coaching
These services can overlap, but they serve different purposes.
Nutrition counseling is provided by registered dietitians. It focuses on nutritional needs, eating patterns, meal planning, food exposure, and the broader relationship with food.
Meal support coaching focuses more on accountability and support around eating and mealtime challenges. Some people may benefit from one service, while others may benefit from both.
Well Behavioral Health’s broader outpatient model allows individual or a combination of services. These are based on a person’s needs.
Can HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling Be Part of an Eating Disorder IOP?
Yes. When someone needs more structure than weekly outpatient treatment provides, nutrition counseling can be incorporated into a more intensive level of care.
Well Behavioral Health’s Eating Disorder IOP includes weekly nutrition counseling led by a registered dietitian. This is along with meal and therapy groups, treatment planning, case management, and other individualized support.
The program also offers a Trauma & Eating Disorder track. This is for adults who are navigating both trauma-related symptoms and eating disorder concerns.
This type of coordinated care can allow nutrition, therapy, and practical support to work together. That’s rather than treating each concern separately.
What Are the Benefits of a HAES-Aligned Approach?
The potential benefits depend on the individual. However, a HAES-aligned approach can help create a nutrition environment that’s less focused on rigid rules and weight stigma.
For someone recovering from an eating disorder, this may make it easier to focus on meaningful treatment goals such as:
- Eating more consistently
- Meeting nutritional needs
- Expanding food variety
- Reducing fear around food
- Developing greater flexibility
- Challenging rigid food rules
- Building trust around eating
- Improving the relationship with food
- Supporting recovery alongside mental health treatment
These goals aren’t necessarily achieved through nutrition counseling alone. Eating disorder recovery often benefits from coordinated psychological and nutritional support.
What Should You Look for in a Nutrition Counselor?
If you’re considering HAES-aligned nutrition counseling, credentials and eating disorder experience are important considerations.
For eating disorder treatment, you may want to ask whether the nutrition professional is a registered dietitian. Do they have specialized experience working with eating disorders or disordered eating?
You can also ask about their treatment philosophy. For example:
- How do they approach weight and body image?
- Do they use rigid meal plans or individualized planning?
- How do they approach food fears?
- Do they provide food exposure support?
- How do they collaborate with therapists or other providers?
- What happens if you need a higher level of care?
These questions can help you understand whether the provider’s approach fits your needs.
Why Choose a Multidisciplinary Approach?
Eating concerns rarely exist entirely in isolation.
A person may need nutritional guidance while also working on anxiety, trauma, body image, compulsive behaviors, or other mental health concerns.
Well Behavioral Health brings together registered dietitians, therapists, coaches, case managers, and other providers within its broader care model. Its team can also collaborate with outside treatment providers when appropriate.
This creates the flexibility to build care around the person. That’s rather than requiring everyone to follow the same treatment path.
Getting Started With HAES-Aligned Nutrition Counseling
A healthier relationship with food doesn’t have to begin with another restrictive diet or a rigid set of nutrition rules. HAES-aligned nutrition counseling can provide personalized support. This is focused on nutritional needs, sustainable eating patterns, food flexibility, and your relationship with food.
If you’re looking for support with disordered eating, body image concerns, or an eating disorder, contact Well Behavioral Health today. You can learn more about nutrition counseling, meal support coaching, therapy, and eating disorder IOP options. A personalized assessment can help you understand which level and combination of support may best fit your needs.
