We recently connected with Denise Skinner and have shared our conversation below.

Denise, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

When I first started my dietetic internship I wasn’t quite sure in what area of nutrition I wanted to end up in. And honestly, I got a little panicky after my clinical rotation was over & nothing seemed to fit. I was starting to second guess my decision to go back to school at that point. I just did not fit into the standard model that I was seeing for hospital dietitians. There were definitely some clinics that were interesting, but nothing that would make me show up to work every day. But that changed when I started my community rotation at a county mental health center. I had never thought about mental or behavioral health as a possibility before, but I was fascinated. I quickly saw the gap in care for individuals that struggled with eating. Often times people are told to just “eat healthy” or “lose weight” without any more guidance than that. On the surface, that makes some sense, but after spending time with these families, I realized how complex those statements really are. We don’t all have the same resources, needs, knowledge, time, or opportunity. This sparked an interest in disordered eating & health at every size.

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

I am one of five providers in a private practice group, Finding Balance Wellness, that specializes in disordered eating. We currently have 3 therapists & 2 dietitians. There are 2 offices, one is located in Lee’s Summit Missouri & the other is in Merriam Kansas, that is where I am at.. All our providers also offer telehealth as well.

I work with anyone who has recently discharged from a higher level of eating disorder care & are transitioning out of the formal treatment setting. Our focus is integrating treatment & recovery into their everyday lives. I see individuals who think they might have an eating disorder & don’t know what steps they need to take to recover. I also see those that have disordered eating habits, such as chronic dieters, that struggle with eating in general.

It is important to know that I don’t do weight loss, that gets asked a lot. It will never be a focus or an intervention in my practice. I want to create a space of weight neutrality. I work with my clients to find where their individual body settles when they are not using disordered behaviors, regardless of their current weight status. I do use weight as information to help support recovery for some clients, depending on their need. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk about weight though. We are definitely going to talk about weight, when it does matter, & its influence in our lives & how it impacts our body image.

We all deserve to eat without fear, rules, judgement, worry, or burden. I work with my clients to help define what that actually means for them, to better understand their bodies, to work with their bodies, & to eat without guilt or shame,

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Connection is critical. Diet culture is so ingrained into our everyday lives & our bodies are perpetually critiqued. It feels like we are always under the microscope, being judged. We are told to ignore our hunger & that we should disregard our genetic diversity to have the “ideal” body. It is so exhausting, that we end up feeling disconnected from ourselves & from our bodies.

I have the privilege of helping clients learn to trust their bodies, to rebuild the connection they lost or maybe never even had. But to do that, they have to feel connected to me. I am asking people to be vulnerable & do very hard things. They need to feel seen, feel heard, & feel understood. I work very hard to meet my clients where they are at & collaborate with them on changes in ways that make sense for them.

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

Growing up & throughout school, it was reinforced to always be right & to have the right answers, no matter the problem or the subject. That is how we measure success. How else do you demonstrate knowledge? You have to have the right answers. This gets you what you want in life. Everything revolves around that & for the most part, that makes sense. What I personally had to unlearn is that I don’t always have to be right to help people. There is a distinct difference between being right & having the right knowledge. In my line of work me being right isn’t necessarily helpful. I need to have the knowledge to know what questions to ask, the ability to discern what is disordered & what is authentic, & the knowledge to recognize when someone needs education & not correction. It is my job to facilitate a way for my clients to repair their relationship with food & their bodies. That could be basic nutrition education, learning how to cook for one, food decision making strategies, & exploring food freedom. There is no one right way to do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.findingbalancewellness.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Finding-Balance-Wellness-Center-110213461266586

Image Credits
McCallum Place Eating Disorder Center