What is your nutrition philosophy?

I specialize in helping individuals and families optimize their health, well-being, and eating behaviors using a non-diet approach. I practice weight-inclusive, gender affirming, anti-racist care. I believe in honoring and celebrating body and ethnic diversity, value individual lived experiences, and respect that eating practices are shaped by culture, experience, and family.


 

Do you take insurance?

I am considered “out of network” for insurance plans. However, I am happy to provide you with a coded medical receipt (superbill) that you can submit to your insurance carrier. If you’d like, you can call your insurance company to find out how if you have coverage for nutrition services. Sometimes they will provide coverage for an out of network provider or opt to create a “single case agreement” if there is no other in-network dietitian in your area available for the specialty services you need. When you call your insurance company, let them know that you would like to receive coverage or reimbursement for Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) provided by a Registered Dietitian for your medical condition(s). My NPI number is 1356540439.
The CPT codes (aka procedure codes) are:

  • 97802: initial visit (billed in units of 15 minute increments, thus a 90 minute initial session is 6 units)

  • 97803: follow-up visit (billed in units of 15 minute increments, thus a 45 minute follow-up session is 3 units)

The ICD-10 code (aka diagnostic code) depends on any medical conditions or diagnoses, but at minimum will be:

  • Z71.3 Dietary Counseling and Surveillance

Additionally, if you have a flexible spending account or a health savings account, most plans will allow you to use your allocated tax-free funds toward nutrition services. 

If you decide you’d like to come in, you’d simply pay out of pocket before submitting your claim to your insurance company. Think of this as an investment in your well being - you certainly deserve the investment!

The first step would be to set up an 90 minute initial nutrition consultation, which you can do directly here.


Will you help me lose weight? 

At SoCal Nutrition & Wellness, all body shapes and sizes are celebrated.

Evidence suggests that placing an emphasis on weight and weight loss (aka dieting) is associated with worse health outcomes. In fact, weight cycling (repeated periods of weight loss and gain) is nearly guaranteed to occur with weight loss interventions and is associated with adverse medical, metabolic, and psychological health outcomes.

Dieting has many clever codenames now, so you might be familiar with dieting as any “plan” or “lifestyle change” that restricts a food group, involves counting, prescribes rules to follow, or provides any sort of external control on your eating with the aim of creating weight loss.

So, instead of helping you focus on making your body smaller, I’d love to help you to make peace with food and your body and work toward any wellness goals without a weight focus. In this peacemaking process, some bodies change and others stay the same. The weight that’s meant for you is the weight that’s maintained while eating intuitively and engaging in joyful movement. Take this assessment to get a sneak peak of which areas of intuitive eating you may benefit from working on.

If you've been dieting or restricting for a while, this process can take some time and requires the aid of a professional. It'd be my pleasure to work with you on your non-diet journey.