Corinne Dobbas - Nutrition and Body Image Counseling

About Corinne Dobbas, MS, RD.

Corinne DobbasHi, I’m Corinne

I’m a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, and certified intuitive eating counselor with over 15 years of experience in Marin County and Sonoma County, California. I specialize in eating disorder recovery, disordered eating, and body image concerns – and helping clients break free from the mental, emotional, and physical toll of chronic dieting.

Ultimately, I help clients nurture a caring and compassionate relationship with food and their bodies.

I use evidenced-based treatment practices in my work and also take into account who the client is in the room and what their experiences have been. My work is evidence based and relational. I believe we need science and that every client, every person, and every family has their own unique needs.

I work with adolescents, young adults, and adults. I offer individual nutrition and body image counseling sessions for those healing from chronic dieting, body image concerns, and disordered eating and 1:1 eating disorder nutrition therapy for those in recovery from an eating disorder.

In eating disorder care, I closely collaborate with other members of a client’s treatment team, like their medical doctor, therapist and/or psychiatrist. With adolescents, I also closely work with parents and caregivers so they can support their loved one in becoming nourished and well. I see clients at my office in Mill Valley, California and online via a secure, HIPPA-Compliant video platform for those in California and select states in the U.S.

Of note, I have a special knack (and love) for being able to support those with chronic eating disorders or those with a complex eating disorder history – and those with a co-occurring trauma history or substance misuse. The intersection of these things is not uncommon.
You may be wondering… What does nutrition therapy mean?

It doesn’t mean that I’m a mental health therapist – but it does mean that I’m a registered dietitian who stays within her scope of practice of food, movement, and body image. And that in my work, I utilize various counseling skills, modalities, and approaches to better help my clients form a lasting healthy relationship with food, movement, and their body.

Before I share a little about how I work and how we may work together, I’d like to offer you the invitation that it’s never too late to make peace with food and your body – despite whatever you’ve been told or whatever you’ve tried before. A peaceful relationship with food and your body is possible.

Full recovery and healing is possible.

In my client sessions, I strive to create a safe, judgement free, therapeutic space where you can come, process, and learn how to kindly be with (and in) your body. And where you can learn how to make peace with food. My style is a mixture of counseling, coaching, and educating, so clients can gain insight, tools, and experiences in what a healthy relationship with food and their body looks and feels like and so caregivers and/or family can support their loved one’s healing journey.

In working together, we’ll explore various tools to aid in your food and body image healing journey: nutrition education and science, intuitive eating principles, embodiment practices, self-compassion, body image healing tools, weight-inclusive care, self-care practices, and various self-coaching techniques and skills to help lessen and eliminate eating disorder behaviors.

Ultimately, together, we’ll start nurturing some of the most important (and longest) relationships of your life—your relationship with yourself, and your relationship with your body and food.

Here are some of the things
we may explore in our work together:

  • Ending body and food preoccupation. In other words, how to stop thinking about numbers, calories, food rules, and your body so much (because it’s exhausting).
  • Becoming properly nourished and building a flexible, healthy relationship with food and with time, developing skills to eat in attunement with your body’s cues.
  • Exploring what it’s like to move and connect with your body out of kindness and respect, instead of out of guilt or feeling like you have to.
  • Allowing yourself to truly rest.
  • Acquiring tools, so you can healthfully cope with emotions and be more flexible in your thinking when it comes to food, your body, and movement.
  • Reflecting upon and redefining your own definition of health for your age, stage, and phase of life.
  • Removing shame, guilt, and “good’ V “bad,” “healthy” V “unhealthy” labels from food.
  • Developing skills to approach yourself with curiosity, compassion, and care.
  • Learning to tolerate and be with uncomfortable emotions, so you can be with your body and yourself, especially during challenging food and body image moments.
  • Connecting with your values in food and body image healing work.
  • And surrounding yourself with people, activities, and hobbies that mirror where you want to go in your life and that broaden your concept of self and self-worth.

Things I believe…

  • All bodies, of all sizes are deserving of respect, care, and kindness.
  • All individuals deserve weight-inclusive, non-shaming care.
  • Body diversity is a thing (even if we all ate and moved the same, different body shapes and sizes would still exist).
  • You don’t have to love your body to have a peaceful relationship with your body, but hey, it’s great if you do.
  • Eating should be flexible, enjoyable, and fun (not rigid, anxiety-inducing, or preventing you from fully living your life).
  • Juice, sugar, and cookies (with real butter and flour) are OK to eat. So are kale salads, salmon, and berries. There is a balance.
  • You can trust your body and with time, your body will trust you too.
  • Health is about learning how to listen, connect, and care for your body and yourself as a WHOLE human – mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually – in a sustainable way.
  • Everything you need to make peace with food and your body is already right there inside of you – not lurking in another diet, detox, wellness guru, or “lifestyle” program.
  • With practice, self-compassion, patience, and support, you can rediscover your body’s own innate wisdom, so you can start making peace with food, building a caring relationship with your body, and connecting with yourself as a whole person. Because… YES, this is possible for YOU.

Finally, I believe…

“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you–all of the expectations, all of the beliefs–and becoming who you are.”

— Rachel Naomi Remen

VIEW SERVICES
CONTACT ME

Professional Bio

Corinne Dobbas, MS, RD is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, and certified intuitive eating counselor with over 15 years of experience in Marin County and Sonoma County, California. Corinne works with adolescents, young adults, and adults. She specializes in eating disorder recovery, disordered eating, and body image concerns – and helping clients break free from the mental, emotional, and physical toll of chronic dieting. She has a special knack (and love) for being able to support those with chronic eating disorders or those with a complex eating disorder history – and those with a co-occurring trauma history or co-occurring substance abuse recovery. The intersection of these things is not uncommon. Ultimately, she helps clients nurture a caring and compassionate relationship with food and their bodies.

Corinne works with clients individually and in groups. She is also the host of The Body Image Podcast.

Corinne began her work in body image, disordered eating, and eating disorders, after spending some time working with clients through the traditional weight-normative approach in the first few years of her career (where the emphasis is on weight and weight loss when defining health and wellbeing). It was here that Corinne realized something had to change, as this approach left many of her clients distressed and engaging in disordered eating behaviors.

Corinne has spent the latter part of her career engaged in clinical supervision and various trainings to enable her to competently and successfully work with individuals struggling with food and body image concerns, disordered eating, chronic dieting, and eating disorders. Today, Corinne works from a weight-inclusive approach (where the emphasis is on viewing health and wellbeing as multifaceted and on reducing weight stigma). In her work, Corinne uses a variety of tools, techniques, resources, and therapeutic approaches to help her clients nurture a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body.

Corinne graduated cum laude from Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences with a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences and completed her dietetic training at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She received a Masters of Science from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Further professional training was through the completion of Body Image Training for Clinicians, Nutrition Counseling for Eating Disorders, the Big-Hearted Embodiment Intensive Clinical Training for Eating Disorder Recovery, Clinical Approaches To Treating Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT) for Dietitians Treating Eating Disorders, and The Original Intuitive Eating Pros® certification process to become a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, among others. Adding to her unique background, Corinne has completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in Marin County, California, and she has taught nutrition at the university level.

Today, Corinne resides in Sonoma County, California with her daughter, son, and three dogs.

Professional Credentials, Certifications and Training

  • Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RD/RDN), #1001085
  • Master of Science (MS) in Nutrition, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
  • Dietetic Internship, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences (BS), Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
  • Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
  • Befriending Your Body: Embodiment and Self-compassion Skills Training for Disordered Eating and Making Peace with Your Body with Ann Saffi Bassetti, PhD, LCSW-R, C-IAYT
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Dietitians Treating Eating Disorders with Stephanie Boone, MS, RD, CEDRD
  • Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT) for Dietitians Treating Eating Disorders with Stephanie Boone, MS, RD, CEDRD
  • Emotion-Focused Family Therapy Core Clinician Training with Dr. Adele Lafrance
  • Eating Disorders Boot Camp Training & Advanced Training with Jessica Setnick, MS, RD, CEDRD-S
  • Nutrition Exposures in the Treatment of Eating Disorders with Katherine Jordan, MS, RDN, LDN and Caroline Hughes, MS, RDN, LDN
  • Clinical Approaches To Treating Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder with Jennifer Rollin, MSW, LCSW-C
  • Nutrition Counseling for Eating Disorders with Marci Evans, MS, CEDRD-S, LDN, cPT
  • Big-Hearted Embodiment Intensive Clinical Training for Eating Disorder Recovery with Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, CEDS-S
  • ARFID for Dietitians: A Responsive Feeding Therapy Approach with Katja Rowell, MD, Grace Wong, Nicole Wavra & Naureen Hunani (RDs) & Erin VandenLangenberg, PhD, MPH, LP
  • Clinical Approaches To Treating Body Image Issues with Jennifer Rollin, MSW, LCSW-C
  • The Body Positive Fundamentals for Treatment Providers with Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, CEDS-S and Connie Sobczak
  • Body Image Online Training for Clinicians with Marci Evans, MS, CEDRD-S, LDN, cPT and Fiona Sutherland, APD
  • Wellcoaches Core Health and Wellness Coach Training
  • 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training with h3 Yoga in Novato, California