Mary Ellen Banevedes
Mary Ellen’s interest in nutrition began as a pre-teen when she saw how it could affect her performance as a competitive swimmer which was solidified when taking a class in nutrition in high school. She earned her degree in Dietetics at the University of Kentucky and completed her dietetic internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Mary Ellen went on to work in the in-patient setting for over 20 years.
During this time, she saw the need for diabetes care in her community. After providing many volunteer hours of diabetes education she obtained her certification as a Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, and then changed to working in out-patient clinics. During this time working in out-patient care, she had a schedule full of people, with and without diabetes, struggling with their weight. It became obvious that long-term weight loss was not possible even with extreme efforts.
She was given a link to a podcast about intuitive eating and has been down the intuitive eating rabbit hole since. She learned that her observations had a lot of research to support them and that an endless pursuit for weight loss was not necessary for health, or confidence. In her practice she came to learn that when people diet, there is frequently so much more to the dieting besides health or wanting to look attractive. Dieting can also be a way to control emotions around trauma.
Mary Ellen understood this well having used dieting and exercise to control her own emotional pain related to her traumas. Mary Ellen has since participated in many trainings in trauma-informed nutritional care and somatic nutrition counseling (which means that she works with her clients to regulate their nervous systems around food, exercise, and their body image). Mary Ellen’s work has not only guided people to improve health markers such as blood glucose, but also to make peace with food and their bodies liberating them to lead their lives based on their values allowing them to love themselves more, decrease their stress and anxiety, and improve their relationships with others.