Hi, I’m The Radical Dietitian
Hi, I’m Virginia. I’m a cat mom, blogger, dancer, gardener, cook, and avid closet curator. I’m a daughter, a good friend, a partner to a wonderful man, a childless woman (a mix of choice and life circumstance) who proudly nurtures the next generation through my work as well as many other avenues. I’m a deep feeler. I came into this work thinking I would heal the world through “the correct” nutrition choices, and through my work have come to understand that the bedrock of healing lies in the relationship we have to ourselves and our bodies, moving away from the reductionistic noise of food morality (that ignores classism, racism, ableism) and towards a deeper healing wherein our body stories are known, honored, and tended. Towards a place where food and eating are celebrated and safe, and not feared and endlessly stressed over, which upholds a system of power that is harmful to all of us, and disproportionately impacts oppressed peoples.
I’m also a middle aged white (Scotch-Irish, German, Swiss, English lineage), queer, cis-female survivor with an able body and neurodivergent mind (ADHD&trauma impacts). I benefit from unearned straight-size privilege and the lineage of class privilege, and the unearned privileges of my skin color, gender identity, able body, and citizenship. I have lived experience of being temporarily disabled, living with chronic pain, and an eating disorder. I do not consider healing a moral obligation and understand that it has varying degrees of availability for people because of systemic inequities.
I grew up on a river in very rural Virginia, appreciating the quiet and the water and the magnolia trees that surrounded me. Seattle has been home since 2005 with a couple of years living and farming on Whidbey island, which holds a special place in my heart. Currently I live with my partner and our two awesome cats. This land where I live and work is amongst the unceded land rightfully owned and tended by the duwamish tribe long before white settlers arrived.
My first career was in the environmental and sustainable agriculture field, from education and outreach to field work and farming. This work deeply informed my healing and is a part of my lineage. Farming was my first exposure to deep reverence for food and land.
I have my masters degree in nutrition and dietetics and an undergraduate degree in sociology. I am a certified Body Trust provider and this work has been foundational to my practice. I’m deeply grateful to my teachers and mentors Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant for giving voice to this healing paradigm.
I consider my clinical practice an ongoing creative endeavor, guided by my clients and my own healing process. I am motivated by the deep desire for change in how people relate to bodies, nourishment, and healing; and the restructuring of the systems in which are perpetuating so much violence onto bodies.
Here’s what I want you to know about working with me…
I believe that we heal in community, as such I strive to bring my whole human heart to the work we do. I acknowledge in such that I will cause harm, and I am committed to repair and working to unwind the harmful ways I have been socialized into systems of oppression.
I will not pretend to know answers that I don’t, nor will I pretend to be perfect in my own life and healing. I will sit with you in the discomfort of the unknown when it is here, and I will not try to minimize, bypass, or pretend that it will go away for my own comfort.
I will likely cuss. I laugh. I want to know you, and create a trustworthy space, as I trust what we know within the healing community- that relationship is the most effective healing modality we have.
My work is an integration of my sociology and nutrition degrees and ongoing training, my lived experience, Body Trust, my connection to the land and farming community, my healing & recovery, my spiritual practice, my ancestral lineage and the lineage of my teachers.