Elizabeth Saviteer, MS, LMHC, CN
Food and body struggles look different for everyone. Whether you are just starting the process of recovery from an eating disorder or need a non-diet approach to improve your health, you’re in the right place. I work with people at every point in their journey from stabilizing to thriving.
As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor & Certified Nutritionist with 15 years of experience at all levels of eating disorder treatment, I guide men & women to enter the next phase of their health journey. I work with adults in person in Spokane and online across Washington state and New Hampshire.
Nutrition and Mental Health Counseling
Support for every stage of food & body recovery, from stabilizing to thriving.
Here are 5 paths where you might find yourself,
though this process is not linear.
1. Restoring Safety
Your eating is inconsistent, fraught, or driven by an eating disorder. Thinking about food, weight, appearance takes up most of your brain space. Anxiety and guilt are predominant feelings. Your next step: Stabilize eating and reduce disordered behaviors.
4. Restoring Physical Health
Your eating disorder is in remission, (or a distant memory), but health issues remain or have emerged. You want to make changes in your diet without triggering disordered thoughts or behaviors. Your next step: Connect with healthy motives for change, and dial-in compassionate self-care.
2. Learning to Trust Your Body
You don’t yet trust your hunger and fullness, or your body’s ability to regulate your appetite and weight. Your next step: Move from structured (or rigid) meal patterns to intuitive, mindful eating that feels effortless.
5. Thriving & Fine-Tuning
Nourishing your body is a strong foundation, but you struggle with exercise, sleep, stress management, or unhealthy habits. Your next step: Fine-tuning nutrition, or dialing in your self-care so you can reach your next health goal. This step is optimization with grace, not perfection.
3. Making Peace with Yourself
Food is mostly peaceful, but negative body image and lack of self-worth still dominate. Your next step: Break the contingency between your appearance and self-worth, and find body neutrality, or even positivity.
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Hello, I'm Elizabeth
Licensed Mental Health Counselor ~ Certified Nutritionist, Master's Degree ~ Certified TEAM-CBT Therapist ~ Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor ~ IAEDP Member ~ Certified Integrative Health Provider
How I work: As both a therapist and nutritionist, I offer truly integrated care for the mind and body in one place. My approach is ED-informed and guided by the latest in nutrition research. I use CBT to help you build new patterns of thinking and behavior that actually stick, while understanding the emotional drivers behind your food and body struggles.
Depending on which path you're on, I'll take a more structured approach with prescriptive meal plan, or a more collaborative approach guided by your body's wisdom.
​About Me: I love this work because I’ve lived it, and helped hundreds of people find joy and peace with food. I recovered from an eating disorder in my 20s, and embraced intuitive eating and body acceptance. In mid-life I've been able to focus on fine-tuning what I eat and how I exercise to support my metabolism and hopefully prevent chronic disease.
I love to play the banjo and listen to podcasts. My favorite long form podcast is "Dolly Parton's America," I highly recommend it!
What to Expect
1. Free initial consultation: If you like, we can meet for about 30 minutes to give us each a chance to make sure I'm the right fit for you. I'll ask you questions about your life, your history & relationship with food, and what your goals are for counseling. I'll describe how my approach would help your specific situation. No pressure.
3. We begin sessions. I'll always start by offering you empathy, deep listening, and compassion. Once you feel fully heard and understood, then we roll up our sleeves and get to work. We'll identify a specific goal and I'll show you a roadmap for how we tackle that problem. I'll walk you through the techniques that you'll use to change your negative thoughts, feelings, motivation, and actions.
Over the next sessions we'll keep using different techniques until you arrive at the shift you're looking for. We'll stick with one problem area until we've resolved it.
2. If you want to move forward I'll have you fill out some paperwork that will give me more specific information about your current lifestyle, health habits, and mental health symptoms.
Then I'll recommend a book or podcast or my free online course (whichever you prefer) to add structure & educational elements between sessions. On average clients spend 20 minutes/day on "homework".
4. Graduation! Once you've achieved the change you wanted we can work on the next problem or you can finish therapy and go live your life with the tools you learned.
