We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jayme White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jayme , thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

Prior to returning to graduate school to study clinical nutrition, I spent over a decade working as a Speech-Language Pathologist in the hospital setting helping adults recover from strokes, traumatic brain injury, neurological diseases, and a variety of critical illnesses. One of the most powerful experiences was helping my patients to regain the ability to communicate their basic needs and abilities we take for granted such as swallowing food. Helping people in such a vulnerable state regain such important functions in daily life taught me great empathy for others’ situations. I carry this over into the nutrition world with the ability to recognize we are all coming from our own unique lived experiences that shape our relationship with our bodies and food.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After struggling with my own health for years and getting minimal forward progress toward healing, I began to seek out other modalities of healing beyond what was offered to me. I felt traditional medical providers didn’t take the time or weren’t willing to listen or have the knowledge to help me dive deeper to identify the root causes impacting my health. I began working with Integrative Physicians and Nutrition providers who helped me to piece the puzzle of my health together and found the impacts of how I was nourishing my body with food to be the most influential. Once I started to learn more about nutrition I was hooked and knew I had to pivot in my career to help spread the knowledge I had gained so others could experience the immense changes in their physical and mental states I knew was possible for them.

During graduate school, I crafted my company Desert Mindful Nutrition, which is an integrative practice focusing not only on nutrition for disease prevention and healing chronic illness but also to provide education on stress management, sleep quality, and the impact of movement on the body. For anyone suffering from chronic symptoms such as low energy, brain fog, digestive discomfort (bloating, constipation, gas), anxiety, depression, painful menstrual cycles, the list could go on and on, I want you to know your symptoms are valid, real and should never be dismissed by your medical providers as normal just because they are common in today’s society. Another important aspect of Desert Mindful Nutrition is there are no specific goals around loss, by focusing simply on overall health improvement and symptom reduction your body will find its natural balance with weight. You won’t hear any calorie-counting advice or restrictive dieting guidance, all your favorite foods will still be honored.

As a Clinical Nutritionist, I provide a listening ear, nothing is too big or small, and it may be that missing piece to improve your overall well-being. I love being able to collaborate with my clients to meet them where they are at, incorporate their values, and teach them how to improve their own self-healing ability with the power of nutrition through a mindful lens. All bodies have the ability to heal, there is no judgment here where you are starting on your journey.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

To succeed as a Clinical Nutritionist I think gaining experience beyond your graduate program in working with people on their health is very important. Whether that comes from experiences prior to training in nutrition or after with something like a mentorship program is both valid. The key is the ability to recognize that each client you encounter will have different experiences, preferences, and relationships with food, what works for you or another client, may not resonate with them and you need to be able to truly personalize nutritional care to the individual.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For my business, I have focused on growing and connecting with clients locally by presenting information at local events and businesses that have shared values. At times this is a lot of work, but given how online/isolated we have been over the past few years I find people have really been receptive to my physical presence. I do think you need to follow your intuition as a business owner, by staying true to your brand values because deviating from that will cause a lot of confusion or mistrust in your audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.desertmindfulnutrition.com
• Instagram: @desertmindfulnutrition
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088812357219