Ellyn Satter

Full Curriculum Vitae

Ellyn Satter, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD, is a therapist, author and lecturer. Her warm, practical and entertaining writing and speaking style have captivated parents and professionals who work with children for over 20 years. She is a Registered Dietitian, a holder of the Diplomat in Clinical Social Work, and has a private psychotherapy practice. Satter has combined her expertise in nutrition and psychology to pioneer the field of feeding dynamics. Her Division of Responsibility in Feeding has become the golden rule for feeding children. In addition to writing and speaking, Satter specializes in psychodynamic psychotherapy and in the symptom management of eating disorders. Her books, journal and magazine articles, teaching materials, seminars and media interviews have improved the lives the children and adults alike.

Satter is a popular speaker, both nationally and internationally. Her audiences are enthusiastic about her transformative, clear and theoretically sound conceptualization of eating and feeding based on a competency rather than a deficit model. Satter emphasizes that errors in eating and weight management grow out of environmental and attitudinal forces that undermine and distort innate capabilities. She is a leader in empowering nutrition, health and mental health professionals to identify and correct those distortions to allow their clients to gain eating competence.

Ellyn Satter Associates was established to provide resources for professionals and the public in the area of feeding dynamics and eating competence. The business offers professional training, publishes training materials, teaching resources and books for parents and professionals, and generates magazine and journal articles.

CREDENTIALS

BS Nutrition South Dakota State University 1963

MS Nutrition University of Wisconsin Madison 1967

MS Social Work University of Wisconsin Madison 1981

Registered Dietitian

Member of the American Dietetic Association

State of Wisconsin Certified Dietitian

Member, National Association of Social Workers

Member, Academy of Certified Social Workers

Board Certified Diplomat, National Registry of Health Care Providers in Clinical Social Work

Certified Independent Clinical Social Worker, Wisconsin

EMPLOYMENT

2002-present Owner and director, Ellyn Satter Institute

1992-present Owner and director, Ellyn Satter Associates

1985-2002 Psychotherapist and specialist in eating disorders, Family Therapy Center of Madison

1967-1985 Jackson Medical Clinic, Madison, WI

1981-1985 Psychotherapist, Psychiatry Department

1978-1985 Specialist in eating disorders

1967-1981 Clinical dietitian and director, Nutrition Center, Jackson Clinic

1979- present Independent consultant, author and trainer

1973-1978 Clinical nutrition consultant, Community Memorial Hospital, Edgerton, WI

1964-1965 Clinical dietitian, University of Wisconsin Hospitals

PUBLICATIONS

Books

YOUR CHILD'S WEIGHT; HELPING WITHOUT HARMING. Madison, WI; Kelcy Press, 2005

CHILD OF MINE: Feeding with Love and Good Sense. Palo Alto: Bull Publishing; 2000.

HOW TO GET YOUR KID TO EAT...BUT NOT TOO MUCH. Palo Alto: Bull Publishing; 1987.

SECRETS OF FEEDING A HEALTHY FAMILY. Madison, WI; Kelcy Press,1999.

Book chapters

The feeding relationship (pp. 121-150) in D.B. Kessler, & P. Dawson (Editors), Failure to Thrive and Pediatric Undernutrition. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 1999.

Journal articles, partial list

Ellyn Satter Institute Position Statement: Eating Management to Prevent and Treat Child Overweight. Health at Every Size 2004; 21

A moderate view on fat restriction for young children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2000; 100: 32-36

Internal regulation and the evolution of normal growth as the basis for prevention of obesity in childhood. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1996; 860-864.

Feeding dynamics: Helping children to eat well. Journal of Pediatric Health Care 1995; 9:178-184.

The feeding relationship: Problems and interventions. Journal of Pediatrics 1990; 117(part 2, supplement):181-189.

Childhood eating disorders. Journal of The American Dietetic Association 1986; 86:357-361.

Magazine articles, partial list

Raising a great eater. Parents 1996 (March):108-110.

To eat or not to eat? There's more to the question! School Foodservice & Nutrition 1995 (June/July):33-40.

Picky, picky, picky! Parents 1994 (January):68-71.

A theory on eating disorders and body image distortions. Cooking Light 1991 (March/April):38-39.

Running on empty. Parenting 1991 (February):80-84.

Teaching materials

ELLYN SATTER'S FEEDING WITH LOVE AND GOOD SENSE: Video and Teacher's Guide

ELLYN SATTER'S NUTRITION AND FEEDING FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN: Handout Masters

Ellyn Satter's Montana FEEDING RELATIONSHIP Training Package

Videotapes

FEEDING WITH LOVE AND GOOD SENSE: Video Tape Series. The Infant, The Older Baby, The Toddler, The Preschooler.

COUNSELING/THERAPY

Private psychotherapy practice working with anxiety, depression, social conflict and adjustment, couple and parenting issues. Specialize in evaluating established eating and feeding problems people of all ages, with particular attention to the developmental, social and emotional forces that exacerbate the disorder. Design of symptom management protocols, with particular expertise in responsible treatment of eating disorders within the context of general clinical practice.

WORKSHOPS

VISION WORKSHOPS for professionals, providing training in effective outpatient diagnosis and treatment of established eating and feeding problems. Both secondary intervention workshops, they offer the primary intervention worker an in-depth understanding of feeding and eating dynamics while clearly defining the line between eating management and psychotherapy. FEEDING WITH LOVE AND GOOD SENSE teaches evaluation and treatment of established feeding problems with case studies in food refusal, poor growth and obesity. Teaches in depth the the principles of feeding, child development and parenting. TREATING THE DIETING CASUALTY teaches symptom management for the failed chronic dieter and patients with midrange eating disorders. Powerful, theoretically sound, step-by-step method teaches positive, orderly eating based on internal regulators.

SPEAKING

Seminars for parents about raising healthy eaters and for the public about eating management. Introductory and primary-intervention training for medical, nutritional, child care and mental health professionals in feeding and eating management.

CONSULTING

Advice and resources for professionals, agencies and programs about incorporating feeding and eating considerations in planning research and providing services. Instituting feeding relationship and eating dynamics applications in providing primary, secondary and tertiary intervention for children and adults. Working with cross-disciplinary nutrition/mental health teams in developing generalist-based eating disorders treatment programs.

MEDIA

Frequently interviewed for newspaper, magazine and television features about feeding and eating, including Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, New York Daily News, New York Post, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Los Angeles Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Parents, Parenting, Child, Family Circle, Woman's Day, Parade, Good Housekeeping, Dateline NBC, The Today Show and Cable News Network.

PERSPECTIVE

Eating well is one of life's great pleasures. But for many people, the pleasure has turned to distress as they struggle with feeding themselves and with feeding their children. Adults feel upset and uncertain about their own eating, and their feelings rub off on their parenting with food. The key word with eating has come to be avoidance, as adults strive to control weight and prevent disease in themselves and their children. Given the increasing negativity about food and weight, the gap is widening between what people think they should do and what they are able to do with eating.

Most people say focusing on health and nutrition takes all the pleasure out of eating. Many go back and forth between 'being good' and 'being bad.' They avoid favorite foods and eat less-than-satisfying amounts, then make up for the deprivation with out-of-control eating. Others try to forget about eating by grabbing food on the run instead of having meals. These methods don't work for adults, and they certainly don't work for children. To feel safe, children depend on their adults to provide them with appealing food at predictable times.

There is a way to eat that is satisfying without going out of control, a way that is based on competence rather than inadequacy. The key word is trust. Acknowledging, trusting and acting on what lies inside is basic to mental health, and it is basic to nutritional health, as well. You can learn to trust your internal signals of hunger, appetite and satiety and trust your body (and your child's) to know how much to eat. You can build trust in your ability to be a reliable provider of satisfying food. And you can build trust in your body to be the size and shape it needs to be.

To become trustworthy, dedicate yourself to nurturing yourself—and your children. Make your eating important. You will be less preoccupied with food, not more. You will know you can go to the table hungry, find appealing food there, eat until you are satisfied, and be truly willing to stop. You will be able to forget about food between times, knowing there will be another meal or another snack and you can do the same all over again. Then eating will take its natural place of being one of life's great pleasures.