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Ashley Sandhu
Nutrition Counseling Practice
NUTR. 0551
10/03/2020

I counseled Roxanne Siebert on how to eat a balanced and healthy diet, when there are

financial restrictions. During the counseling session, she liked to be addressed as Roxanne

Siebert and identified herself as either she or her. Roxanne Siebert is 37 years old and works at a

restaurant, as a bartender. Since, she works a full-time job and is also a student, she finds it hard

to eat a balanced diet. Roxanne Siebert has a limited budget for food and believes eating healthy

can be very costly. Her and I were able to go over a handout called “eating on a budget” and

make a SMART goal that prioritized meal prepping. Since, she doesn’t classify herself as

religious and doesn’t identify into any cultural group; there were no food groups we had to

eliminate.

To prepare for the nutrition counseling practice, I made sure to read chapter four first.

When I completed the reading, I watched your videos on chapter 4. I learn best by first reading

the book and then listening to someone talk about the material. When I finished watching your

videos, I read over the project directions and watched your video on the lab instructions. I printed

out all three handouts to familiarize myself with the content, before doing the counseling session.

I also printed out LMF forms 5.3 and 7.6 to have them handy during the counseling session and

as the observer. I familiarized myself with the motivational nutrition counseling algorithm and

had it Infront of me during the session for the resolving phase.

During the involving phase, I established a relationship with my client, Roxanne Siebert.

I told her I was an RDN, my name and asked her how she would like to be addressed. I then
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proceeded to ask her why she came in today and what she would like to focus on for today’s

session. Roxanne Siebert told me a little about her background; age, gender, occupation and if

she is religious or belongs to a cultural group. After collecting this data, getting to know her and

what was important to her, in terms of today’s session. I gave her an outline of the what today’s

session would look like. I also made sure to asked her if she would like to make any changes to

the outline and if she was okay with today’s agenda.

To get a better idea of Roxanne Siebert’s eating habits, I conducted a 24-hour dietary

recall. This not only provided information on her eating habits, but it also helped me determine

what educational resources would be the most beneficial for the client, moving forward. Since,

her 24-hour dietary recall seemed fairly nutrient dense and there was nothing I thought was

imperative to discuss; I told the client I had three educational handouts and asked her what

handout she would like to go over. Roxanne Siebert was most interested in going over the

“eating on a budget” handout. I shared my screen with her and we went over this handout in

detail. I made sure to pause throughout and ask questions, to make sure she understood the

material. Based on information in the handout, we decided to make one SMART goal that

correlated with something she thought she needed to work on. She focused her SMART goal on

meal prepping because she could buy in bulk, which would help her save money and also

encourage her to eat healthy. Roxanne Siebert was very enthusiastic and excited to implement

this goal, she said she was a 10 on the scale.

Since, the client was confident and ready to put her goal into action. I asked her if she had

any past experience with meal prepping. She said she did not, but she did have experience

buying food in bulk, to save money. I told her that, that was great and we discussed how her past

experience could help her with her new goal. We first discussed writing down the ingredients she
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would need to purchase, to prepare her dishes for the week. After that we went over the stores

she would purchase from such as Costco or Sam’s club. These stores are great for buying food in

larger quantities, at a fair price. Then I shared some of my other client’s favorite recipes, which

she could incorporate in several dishes, to decrease both the cost and grocery list. I praised her

on her readiness and excitement to achieve this goal and affirmed her successful past experience

with buying food in bulk.

In closing, I reviewed what happened in the session. I made sure to summarize her goals

and what we planned to do to accomplish her goals. I then identified her strength and praised her

on her strong self-efficacy. Before leaving the Zoom counseling session, I sent her a copy of her

SMART goal so she would have something to look back on. I then thanked her for making the

time to attend the counseling session and asked her when she would be available for a follow-up

appointment. We scheduled the counseling session a month from today’s date. This would give

the client enough time to execute her SMART goal and for me to see what worked and what

doesn’t work for her.

From the nutrition counseling practice, I learned that every counseling session is very

different and tailored to the client. During the counseling session, I tried to incorporate

everything I learned from the book and listening to the lectures. I also tried to integrate some of

the experiences you have had counseling your clients, into my counseling sessions. I really

enjoyed being the counselor because the session was a lot different than what I prepared for, for

the actual session. I had a lot of fun thinking on my toes and trying to figure out what would

benefit the client, the most. I also enjoyed being a client because it helped me realize things I

needed to work on. I acknowledged the fact that even though I live a busy lifestyle, I need to

make time for things that could potentially affect the quality of my life. I have already
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incorporated meal prepping; on Sundays and it has already improved my diet. As the observer, I

learned a lot! Not just reinforcement of what I incorporated into my counseling sessions but most

importantly, things I did not include in my session. I was able to take notes on points I liked, that

they included in their counseling session, to incorporate in my future counseling session. What

struck me the most when observing, was points that were not discussed and skipped over. I think

this was because I had a fairly large checklist Infront of me, that drawled attention to the

mistakes made. Even though some points were not discussed, the counseling session still

sounded smooth and it seemed like a lot of preparation went into preparing for the counseling

session. I think that going over the Interview Assessment Form, after the session, allowed the

counselor to see things they did well, which helped build confident. I also think that it was a

strong educational tool that allowed the counselor to see what needed improvement and, in the

end, develop stronger counseling skills. Based on my Interview Assessment Form, in future

counseling sessions, I need to slow down and ask more questions throughout the educational

phase.
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Forms
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