Kristin Williams, RDN, LD, CEDRD owner of Wonderfully Made Nutrition Counseling, works with eating disorders, disordered eating and chronic dieting through a Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating lens.
What is your current position?
I am a certified eating disorder registered dietitian and I own a private practice in DFW called, Wonderfully Made Nutrition Counseling. I work with adolescents as well as adults, offering in-person and virtual sessions for eating disorders, disordered eating and chronic dieting. I use a Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating framework while helping clients to heal their relationship with food. I also practice from a faith-based standpoint for clients who are interested in incorporating faith into the treatment of their eating disorder.
How did you get started in your career?
I started my career as a clinical dietitian in the hospital setting. Mentors encouraged me to “get my feet wet” in the hospital setting, though I knew that my passion was in eating disorders early into my career. During this time, I attended as many eating disorder networking and continuing education events as possible in order to add more tools to my toolbox. From there, I went on to work as an outpatient dietitian offering general nutrition counseling. In this position I was able to practice my motivational interviewing and counseling skills while working to build up the referral base for eating disorder clients at that particular clinic. I later transitioned from this position to working in two different eating disorder treatment facilities. While working at a treatment center, I started building a private practice on the side. I later transitioned to solely private practice and I absolutely love it!
What advice would you give to someone new to the field?
I would encourage someone new to the field to apply to their dream job! Don’t feel like you have to wait to get experience to at least apply for the job! I strongly believe that passion precedes performance and, if you are passionate about something, you can be trained and develop a skill set for it. The most intelligent people, if lacking passion for the field, will not do well in the treatment of eating disorders.
I’d also encourage you to get involved in professional organizations within your area to network and learn as much as possible. IFEDD and iaedp are great organizations to look into and both have local chapters.
Continuously learn! Read books, listen to podcasts and shadow mentors. Don’t stop learning. And remember that eating disorders are a tough, yet incredibly rewarding field. You do not have to have it all figured out, just constantly be willing to show up, listen and learn.
To learn more about Kristin:
Instagram: @wonderfullymadenutrition
Website: https://www.wonderfullymadenutritioncounseling.com
Book: Unworthy Weight. It can be purchased under the “shop” tab of my website.
Upcoming event: Body Image Conference for Teen Girls and Women- November 14th 2020 (you can register through the events page of our website or at Kristin’s website)