FAQ

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What IS A  NUTRITIONIST?

 

Nutritionists help their clients stay focused on their goals by providing regular encouragement and motivation. They discuss the pros and cons of specific diets and food trends, and what impact those have on health. Nutritionists are experts in food and nutrition. They can help patients choose the right things to eat, help them plan menus, and advise them on the health effects of certain foods. Nutritionists assess a patient’s current dietary habits and needs, educate them on healthy eating habits, follow up to ensure the menus are working, and write reports that document a patient’s progress. They teach people about good nutrition and preventing health problems through proper foods. Nutritionists frequently work closely with individuals who have medical issues, such as those with diabetes or those undergoing chemotherapy, to help them find the right foods to eat for their best possible health.

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What is integrative and functional nutrition? 

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Integrative and Functional Nutrition is based on a medical nutrition model that combines the very best of modern science, clinical wisdom, and integrative therapies. Increasing consumer demand, advancing technology, and the changing healthcare landscape are driving the demand for clinicians trained in integrative and functional nutrition (IFN). A central theme of the training is learning to identify the “root causes” of disease methodically and systematically rather than the mundane prescription of medical nutrition protocols based on a diagnosis. This requires a deep understanding of function, not just pathology; networks of physiology, not just “silo” organ systems, and an organized, integrated nutrition assessment. The IFNCP (Integrative and Functional Nutrition Care Practitioner) is a trained clinician able to critically assess a patient using a “whole systems” approach and personalize a holistic nutrition care plan to restore function and improve outcomes.

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What is Slow Living?

 

“Being Slow means that you control the rhythms of your own life. You decide how fast you have to go in any given context. If today I want to go fast, I go fast; if tomorrow I want to go slow, I go slow. What we are fighting for is the right to determine our tempos.” — Carlo Petrini

 

“Slow living is just living slowly, in whatever and however way that means to you. It’s about knowing and passionately loving the things we value and designing our lives to spend the most time possible enjoying them. It’s about having intentionality and consciousness in our activities, about escaping the mindless scrolling and unproductive multitasking, and focusing on purposeful action. It’s about embracing the fact that you’re not doing it all – it’s about doing less, but better.” — Kayte Ferris

 

“A Slow Movement is gaining momentum as more and more people challenge the canard that faster is always better. To take part, you don’t have to ditch your career, toss the iPhone, or join a commune. Living Slow is not about living like a snail. It means doing everything at the right speed—fast, slow, or whatever pace delivers the best results. Many micromovements are already thriving under the Slow umbrella: Slow Food, Slow Cities, Slow Work, Slow Sex, Slow Technology, Slow Education, Slow Parenting, Slow Design, Slow Travel, Slow Fashion, Slow Science, Slow Art.” — Carl Honoré

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What is Shadow Work? 

 

A big part of healing and finding more peace is doing shadow work. That is, facing those parts of ourselves that we'd rather shove in a box and pretend didn't exist. The shadow is a term coined by psychologist Carl Jung, and it refers to our deepest wounds. The wounds that have us believing we're flawed, unlovable, undeserving people. These wounds are often created in childhood, but can sometimes develop later in life. Perhaps you were bullied or experienced a traumatic life event that created a wound. Other times, these wounds are cultural. They develop from prevailing social beliefs, such as the way money is tied to self-worth. When left unattended, these wounds fester, leading us to live in this place of deficiency. Doing shadow work allows us to live in a place of wholeness and expansion. We stop interpreting interactions through the lens of the wounded self. We understand that most things in life are not about us, but about the people who are acting unconsciously from their unhealed wounds.

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What is Inner Child Healing Work

 

 

Inner child work is the process of contacting, understanding, embracing, and healing your inner child. Your inner child represents your first original self that entered this world; it contains your capacity to experience wonder, joy, innocence, sensitivity, and playfulness. Not everyone is in touch with their inner child. Often, when people connect with their inner child, it's because they're dealing with a problem rooted in an early wounding. Even if your inner child is healthy and happy, there is a part of you that feels and reacts to life the way a child does. Everyone experiences this. The challenge is to know, accept, and connect with that part of your personality. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "Your Inner Child is that part of your personality that still reacts and feels like a child." I’ve worked with all different demographics of people. Over time, I’ve come to understand that most people seek help for relationship “communication problems”, destructive habits (addiction, self-sabotage), identity confusion (“Who AM I”), and generalized feelings of low self-worth. All the things I too struggled with during my emotional healing journey of  Emotional Abandonment, Childhood Emotional Neglect, Codependency, Loss of Sense of Self, Low Self-Worth, and Emotional Binge Eating Disorder. 

 

Each of these issues manifests differently, but they’re all tied to one thing: conditioned behavior practiced since childhood, which now needs healing to stop affecting your adult life in negative ways.

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What is CBT

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy approaches the way people perceive a situation as more closely connected to their reaction than to the situation itself. CBT helps people to change unhelpful thinking, worry thoughts, and their resulting behaviors. It uses a number of tools to bring about these changes. Much of the therapy work is focused on how the person misinterprets their actions and those of others, and gives them tools to alter their way of thinking and problem-solve in more useful ways of looking at the situation. This often leads to improving their mood and ability to enjoy their lives and being in the world.

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CBT is extremely useful in assisting people with anxiety, various mood disorders, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

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What is DBT

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Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) focuses on the psychosocial aspects of people’s behavior. The theory behind the approach is that some people are prone to react in a more intense and out-of-the-ordinary manner toward certain emotional situations, primarily those found in relationships with people whom they are close to. It suggests that some people’s distress in such situations can increase far more quickly than the average person’s, attain a higher level of emotional stimulation, and take much more time to return to a calmer emotional state.

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DBT helps the person identify their strengths and build on them while recognizing thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions that make their life harder. It is a highly collaborative approach with close attention paid to the relationship between the therapist and the client. People in DBT treatment are encouraged to work out problems with their therapist that they have in their relationships

 

DBT includes four sets of behavioral skills.

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· Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment.

· Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it.

· Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others.

· Emotion Regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change.

 

The term "dialectical" means to combine opposites. The primary dialectic within DBT is between the seemingly opposite strategies of acceptance and change. For example, DBT therapists accept clients as they are while also acknowledging that they need to change to reach their goals. For example, the four skills modules include two sets of acceptance-oriented skills (mindfulness and distress tolerance) and two sets of change-oriented skills (emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness).

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Brief solution-focused therapy is targeted toward solutions, rather than problems. Even the most chronic problems have periods or times when the difficulties do not occur or are less intense. By identifying the times when problems are less severe or even absent, we can discover many positive activities that individuals are not fully aware of. By making people aware of these small successes and repeating the successful things they do when the problem is less severe, it helps them improve their lives and become more positive and hopeful. This, in turn, assists individuals in becoming more interested in creating a better life for themselves.

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Because these solutions appear occasionally and are already within the person, repeating successful behaviors is easier than learning an entirely new set of potential solutions. Since it takes less effort, people may become more eager to repeat the successful behaviors and make further changes.

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What is Exposure therapy

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Exposure therapy is designed to help people manage problematic fears. Through the use of various techniques, a person is gradually exposed to the situation that causes them distress. The goal of exposure therapy is to create a safe environment in which a person can reduce anxiety, decrease avoidance of dreaded situations, and improve their quality of life.

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When people experience anxiety due to a traumatic memory, fear, or phobia, they often avoid anything that reminds them of it. This avoidance provides temporary relief but ultimately maintains the fear and pattern of avoidance. In some cases, the avoidance can actually make things worse and give more power to what is feared.  Exposure therapy is designed to reduce the irrational feelings a person has assigned to an object or situation by safely exposing him or her to various aspects of that fear.

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What is Self-Compassion therapy

 

​Self-compassion therapy is extending compassion to oneself in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, or general suffering. Self-compassion requires taking a balanced approach to one's negative emotions so that feelings are neither suppressed nor exaggerated. The three core components of self-compassion are self-kindness, recognition of our common humanity, and mindfulness. 

 

These components are all helpful for the emotionally sensitive person, especially those who suffer from feelings of immense shame.

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What are adverse life experiences

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Adverse life experiences during developmental periods can have a profound impact on adult physical and mental health. Challenges faced by children that may have once been viewed as “harmless” are increasingly understood as capable of influencing health later in life. The saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is certainly not always the case.

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The widely accepted Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) measure asks questions about child maltreatment (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect) and household dysfunction (parental separation or divorce, mother treated violently, household substance abuse, household mental illness, and incarcerated household member). Other forms of adversity that have been added to ACE measures include bullying and violence, discrimination, poverty, and medical trauma, among others.

In North America, one in four people has experienced at least one ACE. Prolonged exposure to ACEs can create a toxic stress response, which can damage the developing brain and body of children and cause long-term health problems. From clinical practice, I have observed that some of the common health problems stem from binge eating and substance use disorders.

While many individuals exposed to ACEs can be resilient (i.e., emerge stronger afterward), for others, it has been suggested that “time does not heal all wounds”. Some people develop PTSD after ACEs, while others do not. Many people blur out the memories of these experiences and thereby downplay the impact on their life, and some become entirely amnestic (i.e., don’t recall at certain times). Differences depend on individual factors (i.e., genotype) as well as the type of ACE experienced.

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Traumatic experiences during adulthood can also be quite damaging to health. For example, trauma and adversity of any kind can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food, compromised nutritional status, and various forms of disordered eating. The relationship between food, individuals, families, and communities must be treated with compassion and a holistic perspective that acknowledges individual, historical (i.e., multigenerational), and systemic (contextual features of environments and institutions) trauma. This perspective has been referred to as the Social Determinants of Health and is the predominant conceptual approach used in Public Health.

Adverse food-related experiences can include unreliable and/or unpredictable meals (i.e., food insecurity), restriction/control over food as well as body shaming (sometimes imposed by parents or family members), loss of food traditions (e.g., migration or family separation), and manipulation, punishment, or reward with food (sometimes by well-intentioned caregivers).

Dietary behaviors that can result from adversity include binge-like eating disorders and reliance on convenience foods high in sugar, salt, and fat, which is often referred to as food addiction. These behaviors can also include hoarding food, impulsive decision-making, and a de-prioritization of planning and budgeting. Understanding this can be the first step in moving toward a healthy relationship with food among people with binge eating.

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During my healing and recovery journey, I've learned that life doesn’t always go in a straight line. Our life choices and everyday decisions can get really messy and tangled; things move fast with an overwhelming sprint, and our paths twist and turn in many directions. The right things happen at the wrong time, and opportunities get passed by due to a lack of knowledge and inexperience. 

 

Some things happen within our life experience that we just cannot understand in the moment, no matter how badly we want an answer. And some things that we wish would happen just never do. To get through all these difficult emotions and to understand how to remove many of the obstacles, uncertainty, and negativity, I learned to do spiritual work for wound care and spiritual energy healing as part of my recovery for healing the abandonment wound. 

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Shadow work, aura cleansing, and balancing my chakra have all been a part of my wound healing recovery to understand how to cope with loss, negative fear-based thinking, toxic relationships with myself and others, and most of all, how to practice wound care, self-care, self-love, how to pray for healing, and develop my intuition. 

 

Trauma-informed nutrition therapy acknowledges the role ACEs and other forms of adversity play in a person’s life. It recognizes symptoms of trauma and promotes resilience by not exacerbating these hidden wounds.

A trauma-informed approach is characterized by an understanding that unhealthy dietary habits, chronic disease, and poor health outcomes may be a result of adverse experiences and not necessarily a result of individual “choices.” Therefore, trauma-informed nutrition therapy aims to avoid shaming, blaming, and stigmatizing. This perspective is critical to reducing weight stigma that is so pervasive in society nowadays.

Trauma-informed approaches focus on holistic well-being rather than weight and/or BMI and recognize that some nutrition interventions can be triggering. They acknowledge the strengths and skills of clients rather than pointing to a lack of willingness, and they inspire healing and a personalized relationship to food. Additionally, trauma-informed nutrition therapy is a practice of cultural humility and aims to address both conscious and unconscious biases.

 

Learn more about the Trauma-informed approach here.

 

Take the Adverse Childhood Experience Scale (ACES) quiz here.​

 

Message to Clients About Shadow Work

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I have felt the nervousness that comes from sitting across from a therapist for the first time. It can be utterly nerve-wracking to acknowledge that we want to make changes in our lives, and sometimes we can worry that wanting help reflects poorly on us. I want to assure you that I see seeking support as an act of great strength and courage. We only have one life to live, and you are trying to make yours the best possible. I would be honored to meet with you to hear about your struggles.

 

​As we work together, we will identify your particular gifts as well as the obstacles that you want to overcome. Collaboratively, we will identify how to shift experiences both internally and in your outer world that will allow you to feel more comfortable with yourself and in relationships with others. I hope that your therapeutic experience will encourage insight, growth, and hope. With that said, not all my ways are traditional; I also include holistic and spiritual approaches to my work. This type of inner work is not for everyone. 

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First, I want to say shadow work is not black magick or harmful. There's a misconception about that when someone says shadow work. On my journey to learning more about my ancestors and African spirituality, my spiritual teacher explained to me that, like winter is to summer, dark is to light, and moon is to sun, we have a shadow self. It's a part of our soul journey here on earth to find our light in the darkness. It's the difficult, painful, our inner demons, so to speak, feelings in our minds and hearts. It's a spiritual teacher's belief to have a balance of both light and darkness. Keep in mind, darkness is not necessarily evil; sometimes it's fears and insecurities. 

 

The shadow is a term coined by psychologist Carl Jung, and it refers to our deepest wounds. The wounds that have us believing we're flawed, unlovable, undeserving people. A lot of these wounds occur when you are a child. Like a childhood trauma, being bullied or harassed. Or in my case, the abandonment wound, which is a deep core trauma. It impacts us not only on a human level but also on a soul level. I believe that unhealed trauma, usually rooted in childhood, is the only thing separating us from the love of God, loving ourselves as well as loving others unconditionally without conditions. This is what allows us to remain trapped in the control of the fear-based worldview. Right now, there is a massive awakening happening to humanity. We are being called to heal our deepest wounds to create space for our soul's purpose and break generational curses of trauma and addiction. We can't let love and light in if these wounds go unsolved. It's about unlocking those darker thoughts and memories and facing them.

 

My teacher said shadow work is about confronting those uncomfortable feelings. Past wounds, childhood trauma, and unresolved pain from relationships.  Anger, guilt, shame, grief, and hatred are some issues that could go unresolved due to triggers caused by people who threaten your shadow self. If these feelings go unresolved, they can cause more problems. That's why open wound healing is so important. If not, open wounds can lead to violence, destruction, addictions, and reckless behavior. It can also lead to physical illness. You can wear your body down physically and emotionally. It blocks us from our potential and being positive and happy. This information made so much sense to me. It felt true on a deep soul level; therefore, I embraced it and practiced it within my daily inner work of wound healing and chakra healing for abandonment wounds and childhood emotional neglect. 

 

 What I learned during my shadow work expereince

 

My shadow work journal helps bring clarity to my life. I'm able to process my deepest pain and release habits that were keeping me from recovering, healing, and being financially stable. It gives me the ability to focus on who I am, what I am good at, what my weaknesses are, and most importantly, what makes me, me. When you struggle with codependency and people pleasing, you tend to lose yourself. My shadow work journal allows me to stay true to my identity, sense of self, and who I am as an individual. That way, I no longer feel responsible for my moods, feelings, behavior, opinions, life choices, hardships, finances, and happiness of those around me. 

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The more I learn about my authentic self, the more I have the ability to represent who I am as a person. With this truth, I place that truth on a board as a reminder to honor my own needs, feelings, values, beliefs, and inner voice. This allows me to own who I am, not hide or be ashamed of my uniqueness or flaws. I embrace all of me. The good and bad. 

 

In my discovery, I learned that my greatest strength is that I have a caring heart. A caregiver personality. I care way too much about people, especially when someone is hurting or needs support. I tend to feel their pain and experience pain too. This triggers me, and as a result, I rescue, fix, save, and try my best to please them. Because I care so much, it leaves me vulnerable to getting taken advantage of, manipulated, and walked on. 

 

I tend to sacrifice my needs to honor others' feelings and needs. When others refuse to show me the same love, respect, and dedication, I feel ignored, misunderstood, abandoned, and uncared for. In short, I feel disappointed and disrespected. I wonder why it is okay for me to show love and support, but others always seem to be unavailable or self-absorbed with their own needs. It seems as if they are okay with me staying stuck or abandoning my own needs as long as their needs are met or they get what they want. This breaks my heart! 

 

Instead of acknowledging how I felt and dealing with the issues at hand, I escaped with food and developed a binge eating disorder. Being rejected, shamed, and excluded, I had no idea how to deal with the stress and pressure. With that said, after years of self-discovery, I was able to manage my stress, fears, and emotional scars. 

 

Then in 2013, I relapsed. Since then, every day I've strived to heal and recover by honoring God and practicing self-care. I've been in full remission for seven years now.

 

Along with my shadow work journal, I follow a simple wellness plan.

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• Shadow Work Journal to process my emotions.

• Sleep schedule

• Water. Whole Food. Workouts

• Mood. Energy and Stress Management.

• Self-Care Routine

• Gratitude Journal

• Tag Sessions: Time Alone With God, and Ancestors, to hear guidance and develop my inner voice in order to take inspired action within my life. 

 

I challenge everyone to take this journey with me to slow down and remember who you are as a person because your feelings matter, your voice matters, your needs matter, and you matter as an individual. I learned that I am more than just a daughter of a police officer, a trucker's wife, and a mom of four. I am Nikki. I am Dr. White. I am a child of God. I am a business owner. I am a role model to not only my clients, employees, and children but to all women with addiction and unresolved trauma who are struggling to rebuild their lives just as I have done. Most importantly, I have dreams, goals, and needs too, and that's okay. In fact, that is great. I own my needs and desires!

 

I hope you choose to join me on this journey of abandonment wound healing. This challenge will help you figure out your shadow self's emotions, where they came from, and what you need to do to heal them. There are various types of healing exercises. There is journaling, divination, meditation, drawing, and other types of writing. The one we're going to focus on is the shadow journal. In a journal, write a negative feeling you are experiencing. Write each emotion at the top of your paper. Take each emotion/paper and ask yourself questions. For example, Anger, what angers me? What can I let go of that angers me? Why am I so angry? How can I be reborn without anger? How would my life be better without anger? Do this with every emotion you write down on each piece of paper. This is a good way to confront your emotions and reflect on what you need to do to make it better. This exercise will help you learn how to process your emotions and deal with stress as opposed to suppressing how you feel. 

 

I would love to hear your story!

 

Email me and let me know how things are going. All you have to do is start the process with your shadow journal. 

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So let's get to it!

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If you need help, book a clarity session, and I can walk you through the process. 

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​Is this right for me?  What kind of clients do you work with?

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You want a better relationship with food and begin your emotional abandonment recovery journey, and are ready and willing to change behaviors in your life to have it!  You aren't looking for a quick fix.  You understand that lasting change does not happen overnight and the real value is in slow incremental change - the kind that truly becomes a part of your life.  You can be honest about your struggles, willing and ready to face your painful wounds/heartbreak, and are open to receiving support and feedback to achieve a new perspective, even if that means learning to forgive those who cause you pain. Not for them but for yourself! 

 

Does this sound like you? If so, you are the right fit for our program.

 

"I’ve lost my identity. My sense of self. I feel completely confused and exhausted due to self-abandonment. I try to take up hobbies, but I just can’t find my ‘thing’. My life has become so wrapped up in everyone else's dreams and goals that there’s no joy anymore. I tend to find myself struggling with people-pleasing, codependency, separation anxiety, and depression, and I tend to emotionally eat because I don’t know how to get unstuck or even understand why I feel stuck or like something is missing in my life. I don’t know my place in this world; it’s frustrating that I revolve my entire life around my spouse or other people. Then I feel like no one cares about how I feel or even considers my needs. It’s like I just keep giving giving giving and everyone else keeps taking. I’m tired of these one-sided relationships, but I don’t know what to do."

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I'm not in Atlanta, Georgia. Panama City Beach, Florida, or Denver, Colorado.  Can I still work with you? 

 

Yes, absolutely!  I have a jumpstart online course, " Life Audit Workshop," and I also offer an annual self-study online coaching program with email support, Gutty Girl Lifestyle Academy. All you need is an internet connection and the desire to have peace in your relationship with food and the courage to begin your healing journey from codependency, self-abandonment, and emotional eating!  

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What can I expect from the initial 30-minute Voxer Clarity Session?

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We will discuss your goals and challenges, and I will share my thoughts on a proposed plan of action moving forward if our program is right for you.  This plan will entail the combination of sessions and resources that we both feel will best support you.  You should be prepared to commit to the process. Voxer is a chat format.

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How many sessions will I need and how often?

 

This will depend on you.  Some individuals achieve their goals in a matter of a few months; however, for others, this is a longer-term process.  I have some Emotional Wellness Counseling clients that I've worked with for up to 2 years.  For others with more specific, tangible goals, who seek to transition into a low-sugar lifestyle or seek household management sessions to complete a Life Audit and Kitchen Reset, the work might be 2-6 months.  From my experience, the sweet spot for starting to see real traction is somewhere between one year and the 3-6 month mark; that's why we offer both 90-day and year-long access to GGLA.

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What will I need to do?

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For this process to be most effective for you, you will need to take an active role. As our program are self pace and in written form, this means working on the things you and I talk about both during and between sessions, if and when you reach out for additional support.  Generally, the more of yourself you are willing to invest, the greater the return.  This is your work, and I am here to support and guide you by sharing my lived experience.  It's up to you to do the inner work that starts the healing process; that's why the format is self-paced.

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What kind of program do you offer?

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My programs incorporate a parallel approach that combines the creative process (expressive art and writing), emotional wellness counseling when you book a VIP Day, goals coaching, lifestyle management coaching, and a whole food-eating philosophy. Have you thought or said, "I know what to do... I just don't do it!"  That's the space we'll dig into... the "why" and then the "how".  As far as format, I coach clients via email, within Voxer chat, and virtually through my newsletter Gutty Girl Letters, and have an online self-paced course available for those who prefer to work on their own, at their own pace, with email support. We do offer in-person support at a premium rate for serious women ready to heal.

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Will I receive a weekly meal plan? 

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I do not offer a weekly meal planning service.  Lasting change comes from truly learning how to create meals for yourself based on healthy eating guidelines. I believe in the old saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day... teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime". I will show you examples of healthy eating and help you figure out what you need to do to be successful, and I will support and guide you in the planning, but it will be up to you to implement the weekly planning, meal prep, and cooking, as this is an important skill and part of your recovery. I do not condone codependency. I teach you how to live independently and make wise choices for yourself. Part of overcoming codependency and learning how to set healthy boundaries means learning to make your own decisions. If you do not know how to cook or meal prep, I will be happy to teach you the basics in a VIP Day Life Audit and Kitchen Reset Session. 

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How will we communicate?  

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Email, phone, Voxer, Substack newsletter, Gutty Girl Letters DMs, and text can be used for administrative purposes and Premium service scheduling issues.  Our scheduled sessions (office/phone/virtual email) are the only appropriate forum to work through any content-related issues unless this has been previously discussed and agreed upon by both parties.

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Why Don't You Counsel for weight loss or See Weight-loss Clients?

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As a Master Level Nutrition Coach. I currently hold four licenses in my private practice. I am a licensed board-certified nutritionist, weight management specialist, wellness behavior health coach, and Gut Specialist who specializes in trauma and addiction. I am also a license ordain minister certified as a Pastoral Counselor with over two decades of experience in vocational, grieving, marriage, and family counseling.  I no longer work as a nursing assistant who specializes in Digestive and Skin Health, IBS-C (chronic constipation), and Postoperative surgery for the management and prevention of constipation after surgery for c-section/postpartum moms, anal fissure surgery, and other surgeries that resolve constipation. The 80/20 Life Detox is a 90-Day program that was created to help clients with emotional abandonment trauma who struggle with codependency, approval addiction, aka people pleasing, and emotional binge eating. I help wounded women begin their healing journey by guiding them through the grieving process as they process their painful memories and traumatic events that have them stuck in life. and self-abandonment behavior, I use expressive art, writing, counseling, and coaching to help during their healing journey. I also help them rebuild their relationship with food and transition into a healthy, whole food plant-based lifestyle by teaching the importance of digestive, immune, and skin health and offering tools and resources to cope with emotional eating and life management after recovery.  Now everything is in one container, the Gutty Girl Recovery Path inside the Gutty Girl Lifestyle Academy Membership. 

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I do not see weight loss clients because I am an emotional wellness expert specializing in trauma and addiction, helping women recover from emotional abandonment trauma that causes unhealthy addiction and behavior habits, codependency, approval addiction, and emotional binge eating. In my private practice at Spiced Life Conversation, LLC, I provide clients with nutrition and spiritual counseling and lifestyle management advice to help manage their behaviors and release energetic blockage that prevents them from living a healthy, intentional life on their terms.  I teach why chronic dieting, emotional eating, codependency, and people-pleasing isn’t the answer and teach my client how to begin their recovery journey to heal past emotional wounds,  and transition into a healthy whole-food lifestyle, I teach how proper nutrition can help reduce stress, I teach how to lead cleanses and detoxes,  I help clients put their pain into perspective as I support them during their emotional abandonment healing recovery and create a healthier relationship with food, themselves, and others who overstep their boundaries and may trigger them to perform unhealthy behavior.  I assist in the organization process that sets the foundation of change. 

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This is not a dieting program. This is a specialized nutrition education and emotional wellness program for serious individuals in need of change who suffer from emotional abandonment issues that cause them to emotionally eat, people-please, act in codependent ways, and need to learn coping skills to lead healthier lives to stop self-abandonment. I no longer help clients who have stress that causes skin issues, constipation issues that cause them to experience a diagnosis that says they are on the verge of anal fissure surgery, who need to detox and cleanse to prevent surgery, or who recently had surgery but are experiencing constipation or seek to learn how to transition into a healthy, whole food lifestyle. This is a beginner's course for people who lack information and knowledge on how to eat healthy for digestion, skin, and general health, and who seek to start their recovery journey from emotional abandonment trauma that causes them to emotionally eat, people-please, and act in codependent ways that are affecting their normal way of life. Instead, we now focus on low-sugar living as this method has been proven to heal those issues. For example, when you enter a new relationship, do you tend to lose yourself? As time passes by and you look back on your life you see that you barely recognize yourself, and you don't remember the last time you decided on your own life you kind of have adapted to your partner's lifestyle and needs, you don't know your own goals and passions anymore, you've lost touch with what you want out of life,  you don't speak up about your wants and desires you tend to put others needs before your own. You think it's better not to rock the boat! Instead, you're shoving aside your individuality in favor of the relationship. You use us more than you use ME. Your self-esteem has lowered. You lack faith and confidence in yourself. You don't know what's best for you anymore. You look for anything to fill the void, binge drinking, binge watching TV, shopping, binge eating, to ease your unhappiness, and you wonder where your sense of self went off to. You feel hopeless, stuck, and want out of it, but don't know how to move forward. These are behaviors of my clients who struggle with emotional abandonment trauma and painful events that cause them to think and behave in unhealthy ways of codependency, approval addiction, aka people pleasing, and emotional eating. If this sounds like you. Let's have a conversation. 

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DOES Spiced Life Conversation, LLC ACCEPT INSURANCE?

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At this time, no, we no longer accept health insurance. Since rebranding my practice in 2016, my work is generally incompatible with the services that insurance will cover, so I don’t bill insurance companies anymore. However, physicians do refer clients to us.  We are happy to provide you with a receipt so you can submit it for reimbursement. Payments are expected at the time of your visit. For your convenience, we do accept all major credit cards and offer payment plans throughout the duration of the course. However, all payments must be paid at the time of the visit before any sessions take place. We offer a discount for paying in full during early bird enrollment. Getting on the waiting list secures your discount and spot for some premium services.

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Let Me Explain My Change of Heart. 

After completing my post-doctoral residencies, going through my healing and recovery journey, and as my specialty evolved, I realized accepting insurance no longer made sense for the work I do. Ultimately, my decision came down to acting with integrity and practicing what I preached to clients, and personal beliefs based on what I've seen in the mental health field. 

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Insurance companies operate on a medical model, which means they require a diagnosis to establish that you have "a medical necessity" to seek services to pay providers. The vast majority of insurance companies don't consider relationship issues (like couples or family therapy), developmental/attachment trauma, existential issues like generational emotional wounds, codependency, people pleasing, emotional eating, financial stress, money blocks, impostor syndrome, life transitions, personal development, or self-improvement as "medical-necessities" because there are no diagnoses for these in the DSM-5. 

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Plus, I believe that you have a right to the confidentiality of your medical records. You also have the liberty to progress through treatment and/or wellness plans at a pace that's best for you- one that allows you sufficient time to take in everything that you're experiencing. As a seasoning counselor, I've seen that growth, healing, and recovery unfold differently for each person. 

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In a prior contract with a mental health company, I've seen an insurance company decline authorization of additional sessions because clients weren't progressing fast enough, many didn't reimburse for 60-minute sessions, the company was under audit, and the person doing the audit would read the treatment plans and progress notes searching for fraud to determine whether if the company was allowing the client to overuse insurance coverage. I saw this as unnecessary and a lack of privacy and confidentiality. I believe if you are paying your hard-earned money for insurance, you should be able to use it for any health issue or self-improvement. As a certified Notary Public and Loan Signing Agent, I understand fraud prevention, which is my job. However, call me crazy, but as a Nutritionist and Intuitive Spiritual Counselor, I feel that people should get the help they need without fear, stigma, or reprisal for making their mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, and personal growth a priority. I'm just saying that's my own belief. 

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CANCELLATION POLICY: NO-SHOW AND LATE CANCELLATION FEE

Please notify Spiced Life conversation as soon as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment–either by phone or email. If you do not attend your appointment or have not given a 48-hour notice, you will be charged the full session fee. Exceptions include dangerous weather or a medical emergency during an in-person session. A $75 No show and late cancellation fees are expected before the next appointment.

 

NO REFUND POLICY

 

***Please note that once we have sent you the information (the intellectual property), there is no way to return it. So please be sure about your decision before you sign up for these programs. There are NO REFUNDS or exchanges on ebooks, courses, training program courses, or coaching sessions, once they have been paid for and downloaded.

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DISCLAIMER 

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This website is for information purposes only. Nikki (Spiced Life Conversation) will not be held accountable for the use or misuse of the information contained on this site. I am not a doctor and do not claim to be one. As such, the information you read cannot be taken as medical advice or substituted for one. Nothing on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. I shall not be held liable for the decisions made by readers of this site. I strive to always disclose when such situations take place. 

To put your mind at ease, I only promote products/brands that I use and enjoy. Spiced Life Conversation does not accept advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions, or other forms of compensation other than our 17-year affiliation with Avon. I have used Avon products since childhood. I was brought up using this brand; it's all I know, use, and recommend. I am an Avon skincare consultant. I became part of the Avon affiliate program in 2008 to raise funds for my outreach program through my nonprofit organization, The Light of Day Inc. I did not want to depend on government loans, so I found a simple solution to my problem.  I give ten percent of each purchase to the outreach the rest pays for the organization's expenses. The www.youravon.com/nikkiwhite link to Avon is my online e-store; you will probably see it spread out throughout the website. We appreciate your support and belief in us. Thank You! I love hearing from people who cross my path that my work has helped. Please feel free to email me and ask questions, or just to connect. I love hearing recovery stories and the tools you use to cope. Feel free to connect with me, especially if you are in the Atlanta, Denver, Colorado, or Panama City Beach area. I work in all three places in person a lot. I would love to have a meet and greet. Or even schedule a lifestyle management session while I'm there. Let's meet up for coffee and conversation. Thanks Again! 

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About Dr. Nikki LeToya White, Ph.D.

 

Long Bio

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Dr. White is a caring and detail-oriented Registered License Board Certified Trauma-Informed Nutritionist, Folk Herbalist, Recovery Coach, Wellness Practitioner, Author, Visual Artist, and Intuitive Spiritual Counselor known for her sugar detox cleanse, popular LonerWife Diaries book series, and other health and wellness programs and wellness products that support women's health and women in recovery. Dr. White specializes in trauma recovery, emotional eating, and emotional recovery from codependency. Her work is deeply rooted in addressing emotional and psychological issues that affect eating habits and overall wellness, designed for introverted and highly sensitive individuals looking to find balance, slow living, and connect in a slow-stimulation environment as they heal and recover at their own pace. She earned her bachelor's degree in health service administration, her master's degree in education leadership from Keiser University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and her doctoral degree in Christian Counseling from Alabama National School of Theology.

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Books and Programs:

Dr Nikki LeToya White has authored several best-selling books, including the popular LonerWife Diaries Series. 

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Services:

Through her platform, Spiced Life Conversation, she offers trauma-informed nutrition counseling, recovery coaching, and support for women in recovery from issues like abandonment issues, sugar addiction, codependency, people pleasing, emotional eating, and childhood emotional neglect rooted in anxiety. She also supports women's health issues, such as coping with vaginal atrophy diagnosis, nutrition in recovery after abdominoplasty surgery, diastasis recti repair, and financial stress. As well as running an Avon Skincare Clinic as an Avon Skincare and Wellness Consultant. 

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Approach:

Dr. Nikki LeToya White's approach is holistic and therapeutic, focusing on healing past trauma of abandonment and emotional wounds caused by childhood emotional neglect trauma to achieve sustainable recovery and wellness. Her main focus is on sobriety from sugar addiction, binge eating, codependency recovery, and helping women reclaim their self-worth and create healthier habits. Her approach heavily involves mindset coaching and understanding how early trauma affects adult behavior. 

 

Her work is centered around emotional and psychological healing, particularly for women in recovery from trauma and emotional eating issues rooted in anxiety caused by abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma. Her sugar detox cleanse challenge is designed not just to eliminate sugar but also to promote overall emotional and physical well-being. It includes strategies for dealing with emotional triggers and building healthier habits. Participants receive support through her free online community and email counseling and coaching to help navigate the challenge of detoxing from sugar, creating healthier habits, and maintaining a balanced diet. The program provides educational material on the effects of sugar on the body and mind and practical tips for reducing sugar intake and managing cravings. Her work teaches clients how to reprogram their subconscious mind and break free from self-sabotaging patterns, largely tied to feelings of unworthiness and emotional abandonment that cause them to lose their sense of self in relationships. 

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Benefits of Dr. Nikki LeToya White Sugar Detox Cleanse Challenge:

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Improved physical health

Reducing sugar intake can lead to better energy levels, lower blood sugar levels, weight loss, and improved metabolic health. 

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Emotional Stability:

By addressing the emotional aspects of sugar addiction, participants can achieve greater emotional balance and resilience. 

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Sustainable Lifestyle Changes:

The program aims to help participants develop long-term healthy eating habits and a more balanced lifestyle. Her Four Levels of Healing Course helps the beginner woman in recovery travel through four healing levels as she heals and recovers at her own pace to release abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma rooted in anxiety that causes her binge/emotional/stress eating, codependency, people-pleasing thinking and behavior patterns. 

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Dr. Nikki LeToya White's approach is unique in its emphasis on the connection between emotional health and dieting habits, making it a comprehensive solution for those struggling with sugar addiction, trauma, and emotional eating habits. 

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​​​Clients see Dr. White for consultation on processing difficult emotions, coping with loss of sense of identity and fear of rejection, general healthy eating, mindful eating for emotional stress, sugar addiction, and realignment coaching to build a stronger sense of self. 

 

During her consultations, Dr. White works with each client to discuss ways to improve their diet to lead a healthy lifestyle, reduce emotional eating and sugar cravings, and reverse sugar addiction caused by emotional eating. She encourages them to address fear-based thinking and limited beliefs, to process emotional pain, and be active participants in decision-making about their health, well-being, and life choices as opposed to being influenced by others' opinions, moods, feelings, and lack of happiness that cause guilt and shame, which are both triggers for people pleasers and highly sensitive people.

 

If you are a highly sensitive entrepreneur or someone who seeks to begin your emotional healing journey of abandonment and childhood emotional neglect and seek to deal with stress, develop positive habits, seek to overcome sugar addiction, emotional eating, want to change your eating lifestyle, focus on honoring your own needs in life and within your business, have accountability and find more balance in your life and business begin your journey today. 

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Education. License. 

American Fitness Professional & Associates AFPA

American Association of Drugless Practitioners Certification & Accreditation Board

 

Received Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Counseling in Marriage and Family Counseling with a Minor in Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery- Alabama National School of Theology, January 2009-September 2012

 

​​Received Master of Science in Education, MsEd-Teaching, and Learning- Keiser University, Tallahassee, Florida, 2010-2011

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Received Bachelor of Arts in Health Service Administration- Keiser University, Tallahassee, Florida, 2010

 

Registered License Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist License #105903278 11/6/2024-11/6/2028

License Board Certified Weight Management Specialist License #105903226 7/10/2024-7/10/2028

Registered License Board Certified Holistic Health Coach License #105903375 8/26/2024-8/26/2028

Registered License Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach License #105903330 8/12/2024-8/12/2028

License Evangelist Ordained Minister by Harvest Tyme Missionary Baptist Church-2009

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Continue Education:

Certified Natural and Herbal Strategies for Menopause

The Herbal Apothecary-Wellness and Healing with 100 Plants and Herbs

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Sort Bio

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Dr. Nikki LeToya White provides practical strategies to help highly sensitive entrepreneurs, college students, and women in recovery get unstuck and move forward. 

 

​Dr.  White has been in full remission for binge eating disorder and codependency behaviors since Fall August 2016. She has spent years helping women improve their mental and emotional health and overcome sugar addictions, cravings, dependencies, and emotional "stress" eating caused by abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma. As well as prepare and recover for surgery with proper nutrition

education. 

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Specialties:

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• Gain clarity about abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma.

• Emotional eating, sugar addiction, and body concerns.

• College adjustment and stress management as it relates to emotional eating recovery.

• Nutrition for post-op surgery.

• Life transition for survivors of codependency (people pleasing).

• Imposter syndrome as it relates to the fear of success and being abandoned.

• Financial Stress, taking on others' debt, and money block emotions/unhappiness in life.

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If you actually read through this entire page, you are our kind of people. Follow through, serious about making shifts. Most will see this much information and say no, I don't have the time, or just don't want to read it. Thank you. You will succeed in your goals. 

 

Love and Light!!!

Nikki LeToya White

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In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? -Psalm 56:11​​