The Mindful Dietitian is both a learning resource and community, supporting Dietitians & health professionals to grow in insight and understanding of body inclusivity & liberation. Let’s redefine and challenge the mainstream standards to further our collective message to do better, together.
The Mindful Dietitian is a community striving to do better to provide equitable care for all people. Together, we’ll explore and stay curious about new insights, and walk the talk in our commitment to continued learning. We focus not only our own message, but stand alongside that of others to elevate our collective voices, and honor those who have gone before us.
Values brings meaning & purpose to our work. Values support us in staying grounded & in alignment with what truly matters. Our community values:
Be connected to the ‘why’ behind your life’s work
Stay grounded in your courage towards an ethical practice
Make a bigger impact by coming together as a community
Lean into discomfort & seek opportunities for growth
a Non-Diet Dietitian, Body-inclusive health practitioner & Yoga Teacher from Melbourne, Australia.
My approach to supporting you, and our community comes from my own experiences of feeling completely lost, alone & confused at various times in my career. And like many of you, I was *this* close to completely dropping out of the profession, believing that if I was a "better" Dietitian, people would do what I thought they "should" be doing.
*Sigh* I know…many of us have been there.
Fortunately for me, I stumbled upon the Non-Diet Approach & Health At Every Size (R) along my path. And over the last 20 years, I’ve committed thousands of hours (& lots of PD budget!) studying humans, paradigms, philosophies & practices. I’ve sought training, support and supervision from colleagues whose work I have most deeply admired, and worked in clinical eating disorders, elite high performance sport, private practice & tertiary education. My longer-term interest in mindfulness-based practice took me in the direction of yoga, and I've been teaching for more than 2 years now, gathering more insight into my own practice as a professional, and life as a human.
People often ask me: ”But how did you get here?" The truth? Despite my perfectionistic tendencies, I didn’t wait to "get it right" before putting my work, and my voice into the world. I learned to lean into the (many) moments of discomfort from a place of curiosity rather than fear. I infused mindfulness and self-compassion throughout my work for many years to build an active personal practice. And I became passionate about building community, developing meaningful collaborations & sharing our collective messages around food and body peace.
That’s when I figured out that my passion and purpose is supporting colleagues like you. This is what really lights my fire: to help you build more skills and confidence in bringing the Non-Diet Approach, Mindfulness & body-inclusive healing messages to the world. Through my live and online trainings, individual & group supervision, and teaching Masters level Dietetics courses here in my home city of Melbourne, I found what I was meant to do.
While I don't take myself too seriously, and I do say "sh*t," amongst other colourful language quite a bit, doing good work in the world is what really matters to me. I know it does to you too.
It's an incredible privilege to walk alongside you all, thank you for being here.
Fiona Sutherland is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Director of both The Mindful Dietitian, & Body Positive Australia. She has been practising for over 15 years primarily in the areas of eating behaviour, eating disorders, body image, sports nutrition & education/training. Fiona is a committed Non Diet Dietitian, and is passionate about supporting & educating Health Professionals to develop skills and insight into working with clients from a weight-inclusive, heart centered lens.
She is also host of the Podcast “The Mindful Dietitian” and a Sports Dietitian, working with emerging professional dancers at The Australian Ballet School.
Fiona is a dedicated mindfulness practitioner and Yoga Teacher, bringing a particular emphasis on mindful eating and the intersection of food environment, eating psychology and body image into her work and training. She has trained in MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), MSC (Mindful Self Compassion) and MB-EAT (Mindfulness Based Eating Awareness Training). Fiona is guest lecturer within the Melbourne-based Dietetics courses across four Universities within the areas of eating behaviour, Body Image, counselling skills and the Non Diet Approach. She is currently also sits on the Australia & New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders (ANZAED) Executive and co-convened the 2018 ANZAED Eating Disorders Conference.
Credentials
MSc (Nut & Diet), APD
Accredited Sports Dietitian (ASD)
Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200)
Completed
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy training (2005)
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (2013)
Mindfulness Based Self Compassion training (2015)
Mindfulness Based Eating Awareness Training (2015)
Yoga Teacher Training (2016)
Supervision training for clinicians (2014)
Australia New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders Exec (current)
Association for Size Diversity & Health Board Member (2016-17)
Current work
Director - The Mindful Dietitian
Co-Director - Body Positive Australia
Nutrition Director - The Australian Ballet School
Lecturer - Deakin Univeristy, Melbourne University, Monash University, La Trobe University, Swinburne University
Writer - Dance Australia Magazine
