What is Nutritional Therapy ?

"You're a nutritional therapist - do you give dietary advice?"

I hear this a lot. And I understand why.

The term 'Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioner' (RNTP) doesn't really provide a clear identity to what I actually do with my clients. Here's a list of what you can expect from me and other Registered Nutritional Therapists:

We will take a detailed health and life history, which we map to look for potential root cause of symptoms.

We map your symptoms and act according to your presentation:

-We look for common nutrient deficiencies and challenged biochemical pathways​

-We run standard and functional tests to understand what is happening below the surface… this includes:

  • Microbiome and GI testing

  • Nutrigenomic/epigenetic testing

  • Standard blood markers

  • Metabolomic testing

  • Urine, blood, hair and saliva tests to determine toxic & pathogenic load

  • Mitochondrial testing

  • Urine, blood and hair tests to determine nutrient levels

  • Salivary and blood cortisol tests

We use these results to ‘‘clear the fog” :

  • We optimise dietary intake.

  • We provide you with a personalised therapeutic nutraceutical programme to ensure your basic needs are covered.

  • We provide guidance for reducing your toxic load.

  • We optimise your gut, liver pathways, immune health, metabolic and hormonal health, and cellular health.

We then consider the drivers of your symptoms or diagnosis, which might include:

Autoimmune reactions and an overzealous immune response

  • Cellular toxin overload

  • Presence of pathogens

  • Mitochondrial dysfunction

  • Cell danger response

  • Childhood trauma

  • Ongoing stress

  • Environmental factors

Complex conditions require ongoing review and continual support. We meet our clients regularly to:

Make changes to your diet and supplement schedule based on any symptom changes

Support you through any challenges that you are facing

Retest regularly to monitor progress

We are integrative practitioners. This means we understand the importance of having a big team of support. As such, we:

Communicate with your primary healthcare team and your neurologist 

Make recommendations for a number of supportive therapies

Include your carers and family members in all decision making and correspondence

We are also research focused:

We continually update our knowledge with in-house and external CPD and academic courses

We stay on top of the latest conventional and nutritional advances in the conditions we work with.

And yes… we also give dietary advice

The differences between Nutritional therapists, Dieticians and Nutritionists

Sometimes it can help to understand the difference between the professions that work in the nutrition space.

To help with that, we've drawn up this table for you.