Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Ornelas.
Amy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My own experience with an eating disorder as a teen left me with a strong desire to give back to others who struggle with disordered eating. I became a dietitian because I love food, I love feeling good about loving food, and I so deeply care about helping other people find their way back to a peaceful relationship with food and their bodies! I was lucky enough to gain extensive training and experience over the years in a wide variety of eating disorder-specific treatment settings and levels of care, and I loved every second of it. However, I also love my other most important job, which is being a mom to my four sons. The long hours working in treatment centers kept me away from my family at times, and so I decided to make a change. In 2016 I launched into full-time private practice, and have been at it ever since! I now have an awesome work-life balance going on~ I get to provide nutrition therapy to my amazing clients for part of the day, and then I am able to make it home in time to pick my kids up from school in the afternoons. I am incredibly grateful to have found myself in a career that allows for such a deep level of professional fulfillment while also allowing me to be a full-time mama!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest hurdle I had to overcome in my career was taking the leap into full time private practice. I am totally comfortable in my role as a clinician, but being a business person does not come naturally to me! I’ve had to learn new skills and push myself outside my comfort zone, but taking that risk has helped me to grow in ways that I would never have imagined. I love being my own boss and being able to run a business that I am so proud of. My practice has steadily grown since its inception, and it has turned out to be one of the scariest but most rewarding moves I’ve made in my career.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Amy Ornelas, RDN, CEDRD – what should we know?
There is so much misinformation out there about the interrelationships between food, bodies, and weight… my work is all about helping people really understand the science of food and their bodies in order to let go of the stress of eating and weight regulation. I provide nutrition therapy with an intuitive eating, non-diet approach. My specialty is eating disorder treatment, but what this really means is that I specialize in helping people with any degree of food and body distress find their way back to a peaceful, enjoyable relationship with food. I see patients with severe clinical eating disorders, but I also work with people who have tried tons of diets and are just sick of it, people who feel unhappy with their bodies and want to make a change, people who want to understand how to really eat in a healthy and balanced way…. I love to help people learn to tune in and listen to their bodies and eat in a way that supports their wellbeing. At the end of the day, food just doesn’t need to be as difficult as we make it out to be! Feeling hungry and dissatisfied all the time, feeling stressed out about food, and constantly struggling with weight is such a hard way to live. Through a combination of education, food- and body-related counseling, guided behavior change, meal planning, and mindfulness, I help my clients ditch diet culture and body hatred once and for all.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I really, really, really love my work! I view nutrition therapy as a collaboration between myself and my client, where we come together and explore food and body image as a team. I see each client as an individual with unique history and experiences with food and their bodies. When people come to me they are typically expecting to make some changes in their eating, but over and over I have heard from my clients that they receive so much more from our work together. They walk away with a deeper understanding of themselves as humans, with a stronger sense of self-respect and self-worth, and with a gentler view of themselves and their behaviors with food and in all areas of life.
Pricing:
- Sessions range from $100-$120.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.i-heart-nutrition.com
- Phone: 619-871-6633
Image Credit:
Micaela Malm
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