Brenna O'Malley RD

Nutrition Therapy so you can nourish yourself without guilt

The Wellful is a virtual private practice is dedicated to uprooting diet culture and helping you to honor your health and eat without guilt. We work with humans who want to recover from disordered eating, chronic dieting, and improve their relationship with their body.

If you feel like your relationship with food or your body is interrupting your life, you deserve support, and you don’t have to do it alone.

Disordered Eating

It’s really hard to see how powerful and far-reaching diet culture is when we’re in it. It normalizes disordered eating and overall not feeling “enough”. Diet culture and years of trying to control food and your body, can make you feel like there is something “wrong” with you for not being able to stick to your diet or feeling obsessed with food.

We’re here to help you relearn your relationship with food so you can feel empowered in your choices, and have those choices take up less of your brain space. So you can put your brain space and energy towards the other things in your life you’d like to focus on.

Do you believe:

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  • You NEED to have a ‘flat’ stomach or abs to be beautiful.
  • Your body needs to change with the seasons.
  • Skipping meals is normal.
  • ‘Saving’ calories before drinking or a meal out is normal.
  • Your worth is determined by your weight.
  • Always counting calories is normal and healthy.
  • Weight loss should be praised.
If you believe any of these, schedule a discovery call today and let’s chat.
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Adolescents & Students

Does your child express distress in their body? Do they express desire or engage in behaviors to change their body size? Have you followed certain food rules for as long as you can remember? Do you find yourself wanting to change that, but have a hard time knowing what you actually want to eat and how to incorporate those choices in a healthy way?

Don’t worry, you aren’t alone! Our clients often come to us because they are tired of feeling like they spend all their energy and brain space dedicated to making food choices. They felt like vacations, holidays, or social gatherings were always so anxiety inducing, and wanted to do this work as a gift to themselves. We’ve worked with them to stop letting food thoughts & being anxious in different food situations take their brain space + energy away from the things that are important to them.

Do you:
  • Track everything in My Fitness Pal or a food tracking app?
  • Like the sense of control tracking your calories or exercise gives you?
  • Want to detox or say ‘diet starts tomorrow’ when you feel uncomfortable in your body or eat ‘off plan’?
  • Feel too anxious to stop tracking every single thing?
  • Feel guilt when you eat something that tastes good, or you like?
  • Feel unsure of how to eat without a diet…because you’ve been dieting or following food rules for so long?
If you feel like you’re struggling with how to get started or want support as you navigate building a healthy foundation for your relationship with food & your body, let’s chat!

Food Allergies + Intolerances

Not sure how to eat to nourish your body with a food allergy or intolerance? Discovering you have a food allergy or intolerance can helpful and relieving for managing symptoms and your health, but it can also be a really hard day, especially if you love that food or are unsure how to accommodate these new ways of eating. Not being able to eat a certain food without it causing inflammation is not the vibe. AND navigating your nutrition after finding out that information can be tough. Nutrition education around food intolerance + allergies can be confusing. We’re here to help you learn how to nourish your body and feel flexible around eating, while also keeping you safe without those pesky foods you’re allergic or intolerant to. Whether you just discovered a food intolerance or have lived with a food allergy your whole life, we’re here to help you live a full life that doesn’t revolve around all the foods you can’t have.
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The Wellful - Body Image Support

Body Image

Living a full life does not require first taking up less space. It is not a prerequisite, but diet culture passes on this narrative that you first need to check off the box of being smaller or fitting a mold. How are we all going to achieve those big, scary, amazing things we want to do, if we are constantly trying to take up less space?

We do acknowledge and hold space for the fact that – our culture does treat people differently based on body size, appearance, and whatever the “standard” of beauty is. You may have lived experiences that also support these messages and make it difficult to navigate taking care of yourself and your body. We’re here to tell you that you are worthy of a full life, just as you are. Your body will go through changes, you may not look like you once did, and your clothes may fit differently, but that will never change your worth.

Your body is not the problem, diet culture is.

Do you often:

  • Check your weight and measure your body?
  • Pull on parts of your body?
  • Compare current & past photos of your body?
  •  Is the way you feel about your body conditional on how it looks from certain angles?

  • Do you also let the results or those actions and whether you deem them good or bad for the day affect your mood and daily activities?
  • Pinch & hold your skin to assess?
  • Seek reassurance from others about your body changing?

Your body is not meant to take up as little space as possible. If you are looking to move towards body neutrality + acceptance, or navigating what can feel turbulent around body image, your relationship with food and disordered eating, let’s chat!

Generational Dieting

Have you gone your entire life with little to no education around what you should be eating to nourish your body other than diets that have been passed down from generation to generation? Have you gone from one diet to another and then back again for your entire adult life? Did you discover that your daughter has disordered eating and it made you look at your own relationship with food and your body?

Dieting is not a new thing, but not dieting is.

You might have years of experience dieting, restricting & binging, not listening to your body, eating based on a meal plan or calorie number, going long periods of time without food, or sucking in your stomach. You have tons of practice at those things. So it makes total sense that rebuilding your relationship with food, your body, and yourself would be challenging and unfamiliar. BUT you don’t have to do it alone.

Do you resonate with any of these?

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  • I accidentally saw my weight at the doctor’s office and am feeling awful.
  • I’m a mom of a child who struggles with disordered eating. I realized I don’t have the freedom for myself around food that I would like to.
  • I want to improve my relationship with food for my sake and my daughter’s.
  • I have been a yo-yo dieter my whole adult life.
  • I’m pregnant and want food freedom. I want to experience a sense of ease around food and my growing body.
  • I don’t want to waste so much of my time and energy trying to control my eating and body and instead get to be truly present.
Whether you want to better your relationship with food and your body for your sake or your family’s, we’re here to help!