Psychonutrition education for dietitians.
New Approach Health teaches a holistic approach to nutrition care
Understanding a recommendation and carrying it into daily life can be two different experiences.
New Approach Health is a team of Registered Dietitians working with the psychology of eating, nervous system health, and behavior change. CPsyN™ Level 1 teaches Emahlea Wilcher’s approach to this work.
Look at what makes eating difficult.
A client may understand a meal plan and have trouble following it. Food rules, guilt, or an inconsistent appetite can make eating difficult. Those experiences can come up in private practice, nutrition education, and client support. They give you useful questions to examine within your role.
Psychonutrition looks at the relationship between nutrition, psychology, and eating behavior. Emahlea’s Psychonutrition House™ framework organizes the course around regulation, assessment, relationships, and decisions about care.
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Emahlea holds a Master of Public Health in Nutritional Sciences and a Master of Science in Epidemiology, both from the University of Washington. She completed the UW Coordinated Dietetics Program. You can also find her research publications.
Emahlea developed the Psychonutrition House™ framework and teaches it in CPsyN™ Level 1. The course examines how stress, body signals, and a client’s experiences can affect eating, with attention to the dietitian’s scope and referral responsibilities.
New Approach Health provides nutrition care and professional education. Complete Level 1 students study with self-paced materials and can bring questions to weekly live Q&A with Emahlea.
The Psychonutrition House™.
The house gives each area of study a place. Begin with regulation, work through the five Floors, and bring them together at the Roof. Trauma-informed principles are addressed throughout.
Examine regulation, body signals, and grounding. Consider how the client is experiencing the session before deciding what to address.
Examine eating patterns, stress, and burnout through the framework's nervous system lens. Review screening tools and their use within RDN scope.
Explore how diet culture, weight bias, and cultural context shape a client's experience of food and their body.
Examine attachment, co-regulation, and the dietitian–client relationship, including your own responses during a session.
Study motivational interviewing, self-determination theory, and ways to examine ambivalence and the function of an eating pattern.
Examine meaning-based food practices, values, radical acceptance, and post-traumatic growth within the course's framework.
Use the PHFAP assessment and Prioritization Matrix to bring the material together in a documented case.
What you’ll examine in practice.
Pay attention to body signals.
A client may arrive feeling overwhelmed or unsure whether they're hungry. The framework starts with noticing these signals and considering how the client is experiencing the session. The regulation module examines the gut–brain connection, interoception, and grounding in nutrition care.
Find out what eating is like for this client.
Food rules, past experiences, and cultural expectations can affect a client's choices. The course examines diet culture, weight bias, and cultural humility so you can consider that context in your assessment. It also addresses when a concern calls for referral.
Be clear about your role.
You need to know which questions belong in nutrition care, what to document, and when to involve another professional. Module 0 covers CDR scope and flexible boundaries, the Clinical Translation Guide, and referral decisions. Later modules apply that material to assessment and cases.
Explore the psychonutrition course.
CPsyN™ Level 1 covers assessment, motivational interviewing, and documenting care through Emahlea’s framework. New Approach Health awards the Certified Psychonutritionist™ credential to eligible graduates.
Review the curriculum and enrollment options to decide whether the material fits what you want to study.