For August’s Tuesday’s with Tammy community question, Tammy tackles a question we often hear, “How often does a client at Alsana interact with the dietitian as part of the treatment team?”

At Alsana, the dietitian plays an integral part of the treatment team in both individual and group settings.  In residential care, a client meets individually with his or her dietitian twice a week after the initial assessment has taken place. This frequent contact allows the client and dietitian to address personal concerns and struggles that the client is experiencing and ensures that any adjustments in meal plans are done on a timely basis before progress is delayed. This frequent interaction also helps the dietitian  plan for individual food challenges that more specifically address each client’s needs and provide more up-to-date feedback to the treatment team. As the client steps down to a lower level of care, the dietitian continues to provide one to two individual sessions a week in our partial hospitalization program to support the client in the transition towards more independent living.

Alsana offers the unique benefit of having a team of both therapist and dietitian lead an eating disorder process group, in which the therapist guides the discussion with the dietitian’s input, and a nutrition education group, in which the dietitian guides the discussion with the therapist’s input. This dual approach models healthy family interaction and helps prevent splitting between two treatment team members by the client when a conflict arises.

It is our hope that the frequent individual sessions and the team approach to both therapy and nutrition education groups will strongly support our clients in their journey towards full recovery and reflect the personalized yet comprehensive treatment on which Alsana’s reputation is built.