Why It’s Best to Choose a Non-Diet Therapist

Supporting Mental Health Without Reinforcing Harmful Diet Culture

If you’re navigating anxiety, trauma, or disordered eating, finding the right therapist can be overwhelming. One critical—but often overlooked—factor is whether your therapist works from a non-diet lens. Choosing a non-diet therapist isn’t just a preference. For many, it’s a safer, more sustainable path to healing.

In this post, we’ll explore what a non-diet approach means, why it matters in therapy, and how it supports your overall mental health and wellbeing.

What Is a Non-Diet Therapist?

A non-diet therapist is a licensed mental health professional who does not promote weight loss or dieting as part of treatment. They also stay in their own lane, so to speak and don’t give nutrition information or promote eliminating a particular food to “heal” an issue. For the record, you should only receive actual nutritional advice and recommendations from licensed and registered dietitians. Instead, they focus on helping clients heal their relationship with food, body, and self through approaches like:

• Intuitive Eating

• Weight Inclusivity 

• Body neutrality or body trust frameworks

This approach centers mental and physical health over appearance or weight outcomes. Non-diet therapists also work to unpack internalized fatphobia and challenge harmful societal messages about bodies. This is also a social justice issue, as many aspects of diet culture are rooted in racism and the patriarchy. 

Why Diet Talk in Therapy Is Harmful

Many people come to therapy already carrying shame about their body or food behaviors. Introducing weight loss goals—explicitly or subtly—can reinforce disordered patterns, even when well-intentioned. I am aware of many therapists who have explicitly recommended weight loss and diets to their clients. Not only is this incredibly harmful for the reasons I’ll explore below, but therapists are not trained or educated to do this, unless they also happen to be a dietitian.

Research shows that:

• Dieting predicts weight gain, not weight loss, over time (Mann et al., 2007).

• Weight cycling (yo-yo dieting) increases risk for depression and metabolic issues (Montani et al., 2006).

• Fat stigma directly harms mental health and is linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and body dissatisfaction (Puhl & Suh, 2015).

A non-diet therapist works to interrupt this cycle, not reinforce it.

Non-Diet Therapy Supports Holistic Healing

For clients recovering from eating disorders, trauma, or anxiety, it’s essential to have a therapist who won’t unintentionally collude with diet culture. Non-diet therapy supports:

1. Body Trust and Autonomy

Rather than external food rules or scales, non-diet therapists help clients tune into internal cues—like hunger, fullness, rest, and safety. This can take some time as dieting and trauma teaches us to not listen to our internal cues and to distrust our bodies. 

2. Reduced Shame

Letting go of diet culture can dramatically reduce shame and self-criticism, which are common in trauma and anxiety presentations (Brown, 2006).

3. Trauma-Informed Care

Many non-diet therapists are trained in eating disorder and trauma-informed modalities that recognize how food and body control can be coping mechanisms—not moral failures.

How to Know If a Therapist Is Truly Non-Diet

Not all therapists who say they are “body positive” or “inclusive” have examined their own biases. Here are a few signs your therapist may be aligned with a non-diet approach:

• They never prescribe or promote weight loss.

• They understand the harms of diet culture and fatphobia.

• They are familiar with or trained in HAES®, Intuitive Eating, or similar models.

• They can hold space for body grief, weight stigma, and food-related trauma.

Who Benefits from a Non-Diet Therapist?

Everyone can benefit from non-diet care, but especially:

• People in recovery from eating disorders or disordered eating

• Those who have experienced weight stigma in medical or therapeutic settings

• People with a history of trauma, anxiety, or perfectionism

• Anyone tired of being at war with their body or with food

Choosing a non-diet therapist isn’t about giving up on health—it’s about defining health on your own terms, with compassion and flexibility.

Final Thoughts: Your Body Is Not the Problem

Diet culture thrives on the belief that your body needs to be fixed. A non-diet therapist sees your body as worthy of care—not control. When therapy includes body liberation, the work goes deeper: it heals shame, restores autonomy, and helps you build a more peaceful relationship with yourself.

If you're searching for a therapist who can hold that kind of space, a non-diet provider may be exactly what you need.

Want to Learn More?

If you're curious about working with a non-diet therapist or want to know what that looks like in practice, schedule your discovery call today!

References

• Brown, B. (2006). Shame Resilience Theory: A Grounded Theory Study on Women and Shame. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 87(1), 43–52.

• Mann, T., Tomiyama, A. J., Westling, E., Lew, A. M., Samuels, B., & Chatman, J. (2007). Medicare's Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer. American Psychologist, 62(3), 220–233.

• Montani, J.-P., Schutz, Y., & Dulloo, A. G. (2006). Dieting and weight cycling as risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases: who is really at risk?. Obesity Reviews, 7(1), 36–47.

• Puhl, R. M., & Suh, Y. (2015). Health consequences of weight stigma: Implications for obesity prevention and treatment. Current Obesity Reports, 4(2), 182–190.

A note about the above references, I recognize the stigma and harm related to the use of the word ‘obesity.’ This is not a word that I use or align myself with. However, in researching for this blog, these were some of the resources that I elected to use.