Accepting new clients

Dietitian (APD)

(she/her)

Laurissa is an accredited practicing dietitian (APD), and has considerable experience working with individuals in different stages of life. She currently holds a position at Perth Children’s Hospital Eating Disorder Service, working with inpatients and outpatients, namely adolescents with complex eating disorders including Anorexia-Nervosa, Bulimia-Nervosa and ARFID. Laurissa is constantly upskilling in the latest evidence base in the nutrition and mental health spaces. Of note, she is trained in Family Based Therapy (FBT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR). She is confident in working with families and young people in moving through eating disorder recovery. Prior to this, Laurissa has worked in various roles in rural Western Australia, as well as in the United Kingdom, working across various specialties including paediatrics (e.g. cow’s milk protein allergy, faltering growth, and coeliac disease), renal disease and various other conditions including diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), congestive heart failure and malnutrition.

Laurissa is strongly committed to social justice and acknowledges that eating disorders and disordered eating occur across all body sizes. Hence, in work with clients Laurissa is curious to understand and validate their unique story of challenges with food and body image, in order to individualise care in a way that feels meaningful. This may also include supporting clients to advocate for themselves to friends, family and other health professionals, to protect and promote their chance of being at peace with food and their bodies. She is passionate about helping clients break free from a lifetime of diet cycling, and enjoys supporting clients to move into a new space in their lives, where they no longer feel ‘crazy’ around food. Laurissa has a flexible approach and plenty of practical strategies and tips to offer, that will be tailored to each client and ‘meeting them where they are at’. Frameworks referred to may include Health at Every Size® and Intuitive Eating.