Our dietitians are incredibly passionate about helping people with complex chronic conditions, particularly invisible illnesses. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting their patients with an individualised approach to make sustainable and realistic change, within each patient's own capacity.

Dietitians specialise in optimising food intake to support both general health, and for specific medical conditions and symptoms. They are the experts at using food to assist in the management of a wide variety of chronic health conditions.

Why are we different?

• We understand invisible illness - all our dietitians have undertaken additional training to gain a deep understanding of the conditions we treat here at AHC.

• We focus on helping you understand your condition and ‘why’ you may be experiencing certain symptoms. Then we focus on the ‘how’ by discussing what barriers might exist for you when it comes to accessing food and support you to work through these. Then we focus on the ‘what’ by looking at how we can use food and fluid to support your condition and help work towards your goals.

• At AHC our dietitians believe that you are the expert when it comes to your own health. Therefore we take the time to support each of our patients with an individualised approach - as no two people are the same.

• Our dietetics team practice with a Health at Every Size (HAES ®) approach and provide a trauma informed, non-judgemental, holistic and weight neutral space for all individuals they treat.

What can a dietitian help me with?

 Depending on your presentation and what we uncover in your initial session, some of the education points and strategies that we might cover with you include:

• Guidance around eating to best support your specific chronic condition. See individual condition pages for more information - https://activehealthclinic.com.au/treatments/
• Support with gut symptom reduction and control, while maintaining as wide a variety in the diet as possible. Using both food and non food based approaches, such as the low fodmap diet and guidance towards gut directed hypnotherapy.
• Understanding and managing reactions to certain foods or food components
• Improving and stabilising appetite
• Support in working towards achieving adequate nutrition intake for your body’s needs as best as possible.
• Building a more supportive relationship with food.
• Reducing anxiety around food and improving quality of life.
• Practical strategies to make food more ‘fatigue friendly’ and help it fit into your life.
• Advice regarding supplements.

What would my time with a dietitian look like?

• Your sessions with a dietitian will be one on one consultations either in person at our Blackburn clinic or via telehealth.
• Prior to your first appointment, you will be asked to fill in a short assessment form, with specific questions that your dietitian will need answers to, in order to provide you with the best care possible.
• Your first appointment will be a detailed assessment, where we will focus our discussion on: your story, your goals, your history and your current food and fluid intake. From this information we will create a plan including what we will cover together in our sessions going forward.
• Follow up sessions are usually 50 minutes. However, we are able to make changes to meet your capacity.
• In these sessions we will implement the planned education and strategies, while also supporting you with any other challenges that pop up in the gaps between our sessions.

How long do I need to see a dietitian?

We find that most people require at least 4-5 follow-up sessions to get through their plan but this will vary based on the nature of your symptoms and your goals.

Your dietitian will be able to give you a good idea about how many sessions they think will be necessary by the end of your first session.

Meet our dietitians

Want to learn more about our practitioners? Check out their ‘about me’ videos below to get to know them and see who might be the right fit for you.

All about Amy

All about Luke

All about Mel

All about Shay