Meet the Practitioners
Dana Monsees, MS, CNS, LDN
Specialties | Gut Disorders. Adrenal Fatigue & Hormonal Imbalances. Binge Eating.
Cristina Hoyt, MS, CNS
Specialties | Eating Disorders. Anxiety. Gut Disorders. New Parents.
Ready to learn Whole-Hearted Eating™ in action-oriented steps directly in your inbox?
how we work
We work with people in packages - here’s why
It took a long time for the body to get to this place, and it’s going to take a while to untangle and heal our way out. We work from a non-diet, non-restrictive approach, which takes longer (and is much more effective long-term) than doling out protocols at standalone sessions.
Packages provide us with the opportunity to create the support structure and action plan to work towards the goal that you’d like to accomplish during our time together. All of our packages provide a starting point for working together, but many of our clients continue to work with us long after their initial package is completed.
we specialize in
The Clinical Stuff
evidenced-based, non-dogmatic nutrition therapy that centers on a personalized, root-cause, and whole-body approach to symptom and chronic illness management through nutritional and lifestyle support. Includes:
Medical nutrition symptom analysis
Vitamins, medications and lab work review
Review of health, diet, and body image history
Functional labs: stool testing, hormone testing, organic acids testing
Coordination of Care: we work alongside your other practitioners for seamless and team-oriented care. We coordinate with physicians, pediatricians, therapists, psychologists, athletic trainers, and other medical specialists to create a comprehensive care plan.
Targeted recommendations based on your goals; divided into nutritional support, nutrient repletion, and integrative lifestyle recommendations for long-term, sustainable health-promoting behaviors and chronic symptom management.
The Messy Stuff
We dive deep into our clients’ relationship with food as an essential piece to healing our bodies. We believe you can’t heal a body you hate, and you can’t micromanage your diet into a healthy relationship with food. A fraught relationship with food and your body creates a chronic stress state - which can contribute to chronic symptoms, disease, anxiety, depression, disordered eating, etc. We can’t ‘heal’ one without working on the other - this is an essential part of our work both in and out of session via action guides, additional reading, exercises (the non-movement kind), journal prompts, and in our courses in the Whole-Hearted Eating™ Academy.
Whole-Hearted Eating™ where non-diet nutrition, weight-inclusive care, and integrative health collide.
we’re not your typical nutritionists.
we value…
Neutral Nutrition
No arbitrary removal of entire food groups, calorie restriction, or weight loss based nutrition guidance. We believe that you deserve to understand how your body functions and how nutrition can play an integral role in your overall vitality without it being weight loss driven.
Weight Inclusive-care
No weight loss programs. We believe in Health at Every Size and weight inclusive care because we know (backed by research) that your size does not determine your overall health. We believe in providing equal-opportunity, non-discriminatory care to ensure that every client obtains neutral and supportive nutrition - no matter their size, shape, race, ethnicity, gender identification, etc. This is a safe space for all bodies.
Chronic Illness/Symptom Management
Traditionally, this is handled in either medications or overly restrictive elimination protocols that you’re expected to stay on for the rest of your life. We believe in a middle ground approach where we take an add-in approach to support chronic illness/symptoms rather than a restrictive approach. We believe that chronic illness management doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Book an appointment.
Discovery sessions are complimentary.
FAQs
Do you accept insurance?
Unfortunately not at this time. We are able to provide you with a Super Bill to submit to your insurance company, but cannot guarantee coverage or even partial coverage. However, some clients of ours have been able to get coverage and have also been able to use their FSA or HSA card.
Where will the sessions take place?
All of our sessions will happen remotely via the HIPAA platform, Practice Better. All of our sessions are either conducted over the phone or through privacy-protected video sessions in Practice Better.
Do I have access to you between sessions?
Yes! Practice Better has an incredible platform that allows you to directly message in between sessions - that can be used for rescheduling, questions about recommendations, coordination of care with other practitioners, etc. If something comes up that you’d like to discuss at your next session, it can be shared in the messaging feature.
Do I have to have blood work available?
No. Bloodwork can be helpful but isn’t mandatory. It can be helpful to have bloodwork if you are working with a physician on something like high cholesterol, diabetes, hypothyroidism, etc. - and we can help coordinate with your physician to order blood work if necessary. But we can do so much together by discussing your health history, medical nutrition symptom questionnaire, and current symptom presentation without having bloodwork or functional lab testing.
Do you require your clients to order any kind of added tests or labs?
Nope! They can be helpful tools, but certainly not a requirement. If you’re interested in doing some functional lab testing for hormones, stool testing, etc. - we can order that for you to be discussed in-session.