We recently connected with Dalia Kinsey and have shared our conversation below.

Dalia , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

In my mid-twenties I became severely ill. Fighting through the process of getting to the root of what was causing my hair to fall out in clumps, excessive sweating, hand tremors so severe that I couldn’t hold a pen, and fatigue that made me fall asleep behind the wheel after 10+ hours of sleep, taught me unforgettable lessons about how deeply inadequate health care can be when it comes to supporting folks of color in a health crisis.

Visit after visit physicians blamed my steadily increasing weight for my symptoms, repeatedly failing to offer me individualized treatment, getting stuck on my skin color and body size. After years of effort, I was eventually diagnosed with Grave’s Disease a chronic autoimmune condition. While my weight had nothing to do with my symptoms, weight bias and racist assumptions about ability to care for myself delayed my diagnosis for almost a decade and almost cost me my life.

Bias has real life consequences for our health. Both because it impacts the level of care we receive from health care workers and because the experience of racism, homophobia, and misogyny elevate baseline stress levels.

The parting advice I received from the diagnosing physician once I entered remission was to “avoid stress” so that I could stay in remission.

When Georgia Floyd was murdered, and I found myself simultaneously living through the second wave of the civil rights movement and a global pandemic I was overwhelmed by anxiety.

I looked everywhere for information to help me navigate dealing with chronic stress that never ends. Every resource I found only addressed temporary stressful events, like a move, a job change, or the end of a relationship – events that anyone can experience.

I couldn’t find a single resource that addressed how to manage the relentless stress that Black, AFAB(assigned female at birth), queer folks like myself experience because of racism, homophobia, and misogyny.

The process of developing my own framework for protective self-care has lead my practice to where it is today.

I welcome everyone into my practice but I center the most vulnerable because people with marginalized identities deserve care that is tailored to our unique lived experiences and powerful enough to support our healing.

My approach to wellness is holistic (mind, body, spirit). Because this is what it took to nurture myself to remission, and what it takes to stay in remission.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Registered Dietitian, Certified Holistic Health Coach, and author of Decolonizing Wellness: A QTBIPOC-Centered Guide to Escape the Diet Trap, Heal Your Self-Image, and Achieve Body Liberation. My mission is to eliminate health disparities and make wellness accessible to all. My team and I offer inclusive wellness trainings, courses, and 1:1 coaching to professionals that are ready to transform their health.

Burnout and chronic stress are the biggest threats to health of our time. Standard jobsite wellness programs offer one size fits all recommendations that make people feel even more alienated from the bodies and stressed out. Our mindful and holistic approach gives clients the tools they need to identify their perfect wellness formula and create permanent changes that support their well-being.

I’m proud that we have developed programs that consistently leave clients better off than we found them. We take care to be trauma aware and avoid triggering disordered eaters and burned out employees in a way that no other job site wellness program does. We hold and affirm the individualism of every client, offering solutions that might not work for everyone but WILL work for them.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

During my training to become a Registered Dietitian (both in college and during supervised practice) there was a strong emphasis on weight and dieting as a health promoter. My professional experience, lived experience, and research taught me that weight is not an indicator of health and that many things contribute to overall well-being, Focusing on body weight alone fails clients on multiple levels. It encourages people to reject their current body and ignore other things that support wellbeing like healthy relationships, joyful movement, intuitive eating and stress management.

It is easier to make sustainable changes when we are at peace with our body. The body is the greatest resource we have to determine when, how much, and what we should be eating. A rejected body is an ignored body.

My practice is weight-neutral because of the harm and stress that encouraging restrictive and unsustainable dieting has on clients.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Absolutely. Nutrition and chronic stress are at the root of so many health problems. My training helps me reduce suffering and transform lives. Wellness is a resource that can support every life mission. I can’t imagine a more impactful profession. When your health improves your entire life improves. I love being part of that transformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.daliakinsey.com
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/daliakinseyrd
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daliakinsey/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/daliakinsey