Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cindy Spratt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Cindy, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

My life had always revolved around food & health in one way or another.
So it wasn’t a surprise for me, or anyone that knows me well, to alter my career path and choose that of Holistic Health & Nutrition, particularly after having had a life altering experience with Cancer (but that is another story).
After graduating from the RHN program, however, there was still a loss of sense of direction that I struggled to nail down. I took a Culinary Nutrition Program to enhance my skills and knowledge, which was so valuable and empowering, but I still felt lost in a sea of others providing Nutritional support. While I knew I was on the right path, there remained this inner knowing that I hadn’t quite found a way to use my own unique history/life/passions/strengths to provide the powerful support for clients that I knew I had within me.

As the search continued, I opted for an Eating Psychology Program, which ignited a noticeable spark. While that program provided so many incredible tools for supporting my Nutrition practice, it was only the start of something much bigger.
Slowly, cautiously, I began to consider Eating Disorder Recovery counseling in conjunction with my Nutritional background. This thought became an energetic bubbling within that became impossible to ignore. With a past so thick and laden with Eating Disorder difficulty, and Nutritional understanding having been a driving force in my own recovery, my professional path forward became clearer and clearer.

I found a Holistic Recovery Coaching Program that aligned with my educational and personal values. It was that weekend, during an intensive training in Denver, Colorado amongst other practitioners with similar pasts, passions, and values, where I finally found what I was looking for. That training provided me with tools, yes, but it gave me the PERMISSION I needed to move my Nutrition business in a transformational direction. Once I committed to this specialty in and amongst the other Nutritional coaching & teaching that I offer, the inner connectedness that I had been searching for, finally settled into a calm and powerful knowing.
And while my work now involves many aspects of Holistic Nutrition, it is the ED Recovery Counseling that is a main driving force for me to stick with this career path, enabling me to provide the help for others that I wish I had had as a young woman.
When these clients find me, they find a sense of relief and comfort that is deeply healing in and of itself.
And that alone is worth all of it for me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

It’s simple: I want to help people reunite with food in a way that makes them feel great, inspires better health, and nurtures their entire being.

I am a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Eating Psychology Counsellor, specializing in Culinary Nutrition & Eating Disorder Recovery. I am a wife and mother, a cancer survivor, a distance runner and nature lover, and a total Food Fanatic! After spending over a decade battling an Eating Disorder in my younger years, followed by a Cancer Diagnosis in my early 30s, I have spent the last 15 years studying and learning how to provide support to others out there looking for a Holistic Approach to thriving health and emotional/mental happiness & stability.

As a Nutritional Practitioner, my approach to health intertwines what I know and love about nutrition with eating psychology, body image healing, dysfunctional eating recovery, and culinary passion.Teaching about nutrition is simply not enough: true nourishment is both highly individualized and all encompassing in mind, body, and spirit. In order to be heard and healed in a way that is sustainable long-term, we must consider the person, and all aspects of their life, as a whole.

I offer a variety of Nutritional Services including One-on-One Consultation, Online & In Person Cooking Classes and Workshops, yearly Retreats, and Personalized Batch Cooks. I am currently working on my first Cookbook and am enrolled in a CBT training for Eating Disorders and Trauma.

I am deeply grateful for the work that I do and my ability to contribute to overall better wellness, connectedness, and collective growth. I am dedicated to the continued learning and evolution involved in client work and education, I love my work and am excited for all that’s yet to come!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2009, when my child was just 18 months old, I developed appendicitis. Upon further investigation, the emergency Doctor recognized that there was a tumor blocking off the blood supply to my appendix. I had emergency surgery involving a bowel resection and removal of 1/3 of my colon and a large section of the small intestine. The tumor was deemed malignant and I was advised to have several rounds of chemotherapy.
Instead of succumbing completely to the medical advice, having always been more aligned with Holistic Healing, my husband and I decided to dive deep into educating ourselves around the aspects and capabilities of Holistic Recovery versus pharmaceutical intervention. This difficult and life altering experience with Cancer has been a pivotal moment in my life. It granted me the motivation to change my career path, take a hard line towards physical health & resilience, return to athleticism, and live a life that prevents Cancer development on every level possible. My refusal of chemotherapy has forever been a decision I will never forget nor regret, as I’ve been Cancer free now for 15 years.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In my Counseling Practice, I had to learn quickly that it was imperative to have firm boundaries with my clients.
All people are so unique in their needs, strengths, and capacities. I’ve recognized that it’s important to acknowledge the uniqueness of every client and start from the very beginning, slowly, carefully, in order to develop trust and understanding in the client-counselor relationship.
I had a few clients, in the beginning of my practicing years, that pushed my boundaries, emailing me constantly in between sessions and pushing our time together during sessions. After going over on my session times much too often, I realized that I needed firmer boundaries around ending sessions and also around communications in between sessions. Once I set these firmer boundaries, by adding a few lines in my client agreement and reminding clients during session, I found that sessions went smoother and my clients were amenable to respecting my time. This has forever been an important lesson I’ve learned professionally and personally, and requires regular check ins to hold myself accountable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cindyspratt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cindysprattnutrition/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cindysprattnutrition
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-spratt-663042a9/

Image Credits

Amanda Mary Creative