The nutrition counseling assignment was a very enlightening experience that took me through a variety of emotions.

Before starting this course and completing my preliminary interview, I was very nervous in my abilities to provide a meaningful experience for my client. Although I recognized that this assignment was intended to allow a learning experience, I still wanted to ensure that I provide the client with some useful tools or information so they felt that is was a meaningful activity. I would have to say that my greatest concern was that I would have the skills and confidence to successfully carry out the nutrition counseling session. To calm my nerves, I just kept telling myself that this is my first experience counseling a patient and that it is not going to be perfect because I am still learning. I also continued to tell myself that although I will get more comfortable in this role it is never going to be perfect as there is always something else to learn, and new skills to acquire.

The preliminary counseling session had a couple of unexpected experiences, and thus did not go according to plan. The original time and date agreed upon for the initial interview failed to come to fruition due to a scheduling mishap. Because of this I was unable to complete the preliminary interview before the in class debriefing session. Although this initially felt disastrous, upon reflection it was actually a valuable learning experience. In practice there are inevitably going to be times where I will have clients change appointments at the last minute, or not show up all together. This experience taught me that in the end it is not a disaster as appointments can always be rescheduled. Luckily I was able to re-schedule with my client as to complete the preliminary interview, even though it was after the initial dead line

After the Scheduling mishap, the preliminary counseling session went very well! My client had quite a unique situation in that she was dealing with some troubles with disordered eating. Initially, I thought this might be too great in scope for me to handle due to my limited knowledge, but I thought it would be a good challenge. As soon as I started the counseling session, all of my nerves were put at ease. The client was very friendly and open, and was very keen to participate in the session. Although the client description had mentioned disordered eating, I soon came to discover that the client had already overcome a number of struggles, and was looking for more tools to help her continue down her road to wellness. This experience introduced me to the notion that all though a case may seem one way, they can often end up being completely different. It taught me to come into every situation prepared, but open minded to expect the unexpected.

The follow up session went equally well. From my first session with my client, I sensed that she was looking for some tools to help her establish a healthy relationship with food. To prepare for the follow up session, I gathered a few resources related to the food groups as well as portion control, but I decided to leave the format of the session open ended to enable her to ask any questions she may have. This proved to work out well, as the client was very appreciative of the resources I brought, but seemed to be more interested in having a number of her questions answered.

This whole experience taught me the importance of coming into each counseling session open minded, and tailoring the counseling approach to suit the needs of each client. Overall, this experience more than any other made me very excited to start my career as a Dietitian!