Queer Bodies, Diet Culture & Finding Joy in Food with Claire Gasper

Hey, Let's Be Perfectly Queer fam! This week, we’re diving deep into a topic that affects so many in our community—our relationships with food, body image, and the toxic grip of diet culture.

We’re joined by Claire, a passionate dietitian and eating disorder clinician (who is also Queer!), to unpack how queerness intersects with body expectations, weight stigma, and the never-ending pressure to fit into societal norms. From the harmful effects of public health messaging to the struggles of navigating medical spaces, we’re getting real about the unique challenges we face.

🔹 What we’re unpacking this episode:
🍽️ Diet culture and weight stigma 
💜 The intersection of queerness, body image, and mental health
⚕️ Finding an inclusive and affirming healthcare provider
🚫 Breaking the cycle: Why food isn’t “good” or “bad” and how to ditch the guilt
🏳️‍🌈 Why body neutrality might be a better goal than body positivity

Claire also shares some tips on rebuilding a healthy relationship with food and how to seek support without judgment. If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in your body, struggled with food rules, or just want to learn how to be a better ally to those navigating these challenges—this episode is for you.

💌 We want to hear from you! DM us or email letsbeperfectlyqueerpod@gmail.com and tell us:

• How has queerness shaped your experience with body image?
• What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self about food and self-acceptance?

You deserve to take up space, to eat with joy, and to exist without shame.

Usefull links from this episode:

• BLOOM eating disorders support group for VIC residents: https://events.humanitix.com/bloom-online-support-group-796fxy6c?hxchl=hex-pfl 
• Butterfly website https://butterfly.org.au/
• dietfreeme.com.au
• @dietfreeme on Instagram

Transcript

Podcast: Let's Be Perfectly Queer

Episode Title: Queer Bodies, Diet Culture & Finding Joy in Food

Host(s): Katie

Guest(s): Claire

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Katie (Host) | 00:00:04 to 00:00:23
Welcome to let's Be Perfectly Queer, a queer podcast creating space to talk about all things queer. My name is Archie. And I'm Katie. And we are your hosts. Questions of how you identify, seeking answers to clarify whether queen or somewhere in between.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:23 to 00:00:32
Let's be perfectly queer. Well, welcome back and thank you so much, Claire, for coming onto the podcast. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:32 to 00:00:44
It's been a long time coming and I appreciate your patience. You've been absolutely brilliant. You're welcome. Now, Claire, would you mind introducing yourself? And however that comes to, be sure.

Claire (Guest) | 00:00:44 to 00:01:15
I will try and keep it concise. So I am Claire. I'm in my mid-30s. I am an accredited practising dietitian and a credentialed eating disorder clinician. I have a private practise here in Booragoon, which is a suburb in Perth, Western Australia, specialising in supporting people with eating disorders, disordered eating, body image concerns, that sort of thing.

Claire (Guest) | 00:01:15 to 00:01:31
In my personal life, I have a partner, I have two small kids, so that gets me very busy. Absolutely. Goodness me, look at you, you work woman. Gosh. I identify as a queer woman.

Claire (Guest) | 00:01:31 to 00:01:44
I also am neurodivergent, I have ADHD and I live in a small fat body. Oh, beautiful. I love that. What a fabulous, like, holistic look at you. Thank you very much for that.

Katie (Host) | 00:01:44 to 00:02:05
Today we're going to be talking a lot about being a dietitian. We're going to be talking about how your, well, how the world of, like, society looks at queer bodies and how it tells them to eat as well as, like, the issues that we have in being queer. But I want to know a little bit more about you, if that's all right. Oh, I will talk about myself, happily. Fabulous.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:05 to 00:02:47
First question that is what made you wanted to be a dietitian? That's a good question. And I think it's a question that for a little while I was maybe, I'd say maybe a little bit in denial as to my actual motivations and that sort of relates more to my own sort of disordered relationship with food and my body. So way back when, like 20 years ago, when I was in high school, you know, you do work experience and you're trying to get a feel for what sort of work you'd like to be doing. I was pretty confident that I wanted to do something in health.

Claire (Guest) | 00:02:47 to 00:03:28
I wanted to help people and had an interest in wellbeing. I did some work experience at a public health organisation and I got to spend a little bit of time with A few different allied health professionals, like a physio, dietitian, podiatrist. And I think the dietitian role was one that really stood out to me as sort of combining a love for food that I have and an interest in food with. Along with that sort of more broader desire to be in a helping profession. So that is sort of how I guess I came to that decision of, yep, I'm going to be a dietitian.

Claire (Guest) | 00:03:28 to 00:04:05
But as I alluded to earlier, I think a component of that was that I was maybe unconsciously sort of striving for a solution to some of the challenges that I was having with food and I was having with my body and thinking, well, okay, if I, you know, study this, then I might be able to help myself with. With my own relationship with food and my body. And that experience is actually quite common amongst dietitians. Oh, really? That.

Claire (Guest) | 00:04:06 to 00:04:38
Unfortunately, a lot of dietitians have their own sort of, yeah, disordered relationship with food and that's partly what motivates them to go into studying. It's generalisation. I'm not here out saying that like all dietitians, but it is a common experience. So I definitely don't think that was the main driver for me, but it was there sort of under the surface and I wasn't really aware of that at that time. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:04:38 to 00:05:04
Goodness, how interesting. I didn't realise that's a big thing, but I guess that is the way for a lot of different careers that people find it really interesting because the resonance that sits with them. Definitely. Do you find that in your journey? Have you found that where you are now has really helped how you identify as both like, being queer and the, I guess the, the norms that get put on you, as well as like, neurodivergency and how to.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:04 to 00:05:36
How to actually fuel your body, feel better in your body in those aspects? Oh, definitely. I mean, just in the last five years alone, I have gone through so much personal growth and professional development as well, to the point that I. I feel like I am coming from a really authentic space as a. As a person feeling really comfortable in my identities, but also practising as a clinician from a place of real authenticity.

Claire (Guest) | 00:05:36 to 00:06:09
Yeah, yeah, I. That feels so much more relaxed than, you know, I think back to when I was a new dietitian and I just sort of graduated. I hadn't, I hadn't come out to my family at that point. You know, I was comfortable with my own identity and sharing that with my partner and my friends, but it wasn't something that I'd shared with my family, I didn't know that I was neurodivergent. I was working from very much the.

Claire (Guest) | 00:06:09 to 00:06:26
The. The mainstream medical model that I learned at uni. So I see that, you know, over. Over that sort of period of. Of over 10 years, there has been so much growth in terms of who I am and, and how I practise.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:27 to 00:06:55
And thankfully, I mean, I'm going to make a vast generalisation, but I feel like we've kind of moved forward in understanding that there isn't one body type that suits everybody and that there you have to appreciate and love your body for what it is, because there's no. There's no little box that we can fit in. It's not how it is. We all have different things that we're dealing with, both physiologically as well as from an environmental point of view or, like, even genetically. Definitely.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:55 to 00:07:14
It can all affect. It's kind of crazy. I love the fact that, like, the journey that you've gone on. I know that with health care as a general thing, it's really important to have rapport with your clients or your patients or consumers, and it makes a huge difference. I mean, I've been on both sides and I feel like someone who lives with a great amount of anxiety.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:15 to 00:07:31
It's so much easier having somebody who's kind of been through the journey and you, you know, you're coming into it without a sense of judgement. It's just like. It's a beautiful. I mean, I was complimenting you earlier on at such a beautiful office space and I'm like, it really. It feels.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:31 to 00:07:49
Feels warm and embracing and I'm like, if I ever needed your help, I would be like, yes, Claire, I'm coming back here. This is beautiful. I'll come and live in your office. Good study. The next question, I guess I wanted to ask is, like, do you find that there are certain themes that you see when you've got queer consumers come and see you, or queer clients come and see you?

Katie (Host) | 00:07:49 to 00:08:28
Is there certain things that you're still seeing to this day that people within the queer community are struggling with? Definitely. And I'd say that there are. There are things that are probably unique to the experience of being a queer person. And then there are also more kind of general experiences of people just trying to navigate this world that are perhaps exacerbated by the additional trauma and stigmatisation that many queer people experience.

Claire (Guest) | 00:08:28 to 00:09:38
So we know that experiencing, you know, weight stigma is. Is a risk factor for people engaging in disordered. Eating or disordered exercise practises, but if you're someone who is experiencing weight stigma and you're also experiencing, you know, homophobia and you happen to live in a, you know, in a body shape that doesn't fit what society says and you're a person of colour, it's sort of like the more marginalised by society you are, that all kind of compounds the stress and anxiety that provides a really fertile ground for eating disorders to thrive. So the research tells us very clearly that queer people are at an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. Not because there's something inherently disordered about being queer, but just that, you know, we, we face so much pressure already from society, let alone all of the stuff that non queer people are facing.

Katie (Host) | 00:09:38 to 00:10:02
It makes a lot of sense and I guess it's, it's one thing with all these compounded issues that you have to deal with as a queer person. There's only a certain amount that you can control. Absolutely. And I can understand that, like if you're looking at, from that perspect, if eating is something you can control, sometimes you end up over controlling that. And it seems that like, oh, I lost my train of thought for a second.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:02 to 00:10:28
That's on neurodefgency. Exactly. I feel like it should just be sparkles that pop out when that happens. But I guess, I guess it's the thing of like, there's so many things to do with when you're queer and if you can control something and it will make you feel better, then I can imagine that people start controlling eating or people start controlling that disordered area of them. I want to ask the question of like, I love the fact that you're non diet dietitian.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:28 to 00:10:50
Do you mind unpacking what that actually means? Sadly, and I think this probably explains why I'm sometimes hesitant to introduce myself to people as a dietitian. Like in a social context, you're like. It'S not a bad word. In that social context, people say, what do you do?

Claire (Guest) | 00:10:50 to 00:11:36
And more recently I've, I've been leaning more towards saying, oh, I'm a therapist. Not that I'm trying to pretend I'm a psychologist or something, but the work that I do as a non diet dietitian is therapy work. It's really about helping people to heal the relationship that they have with food, with their eating, with their body. So I am just as interested in how and why you're eating and how you feel about your eating as I am what and how much you're Eating. So non diet nutrition is about supporting someone's physical well being and mental well being at the same time.

Claire (Guest) | 00:11:36 to 00:12:34
So we're not getting into that sort of very black and white way of thinking about foods where food is labelled as healthy or unhealthy or you've got good foods, bad foods. And on all these rules about eating, it's really about reconnecting with your body's natural sort of appetite rhythm, trusting your body to tell you what, how much when you know it needs food and allowing yourself to eat foods for enjoyment, to eat foods for other sort of non hungry reasons without feeling guilty, without experiencing shame or frustration or needing to make up for your eating in some way. So you know, that's, that's what non diet nutrition is all about. That's beautiful. I love that so much because I, I don't think that there's any generation that hasn't had some form of disordered eating in built into them.

Katie (Host) | 00:12:34 to 00:13:17
Like I feel like this is something that spans, like a lot of it spans nearly everybody. It's something we get ingrained as kids is like, oh, you got to finish your plate or you can't have dessert because of this or why are you eating because you're bored. Like there are so many things that are associated with eating that leads to like lack of enjoyment or feeling guilty. Definitely, definitely. You know, even if I'm, if I'm being nice and say like well meaning public health initiatives, even if I give them the benefit of the doubt and say that as well meaning, you know, even things like the traffic light system at school canteens, you know, okay, we don't have good bad, but we've got, you know, good bad.

Claire (Guest) | 00:13:18 to 00:13:56
So it's still just reinforcing this idea that some foods are better than others or some are more acceptable choices than others. And it takes such a narrow view of eating and it reduces food just to the nutrition. And that ignores the fact that we eat for reasons more than nutrition. You know, food is a way that we connect, connect to our culture or connect with our loved ones or it's a way that we celebrate. I mean, if we take emotional eating as a concept that is often portrayed as a negative thing.

Claire (Guest) | 00:13:57 to 00:14:17
Think about, you know, if you got a promotion or you did really well at uni or something really happy happened in your life. One of the things that you do is you probably go out for dinner and you celebrate. Absolutely. I mean that like that's emotional eating. It is, you know, so it's a very normal part of the human experience.

Claire (Guest) | 00:14:18 to 00:14:49
It's okay to eat food for comfort, it's okay to eat food because it helps you feel better. Or maybe you're missing your granny so you make her apple pie recipe or, you know, all of those things get ignored when we just reduce food to the nutrition. Oh, so true. And like, like you're saying food is really engrossed in feelings and emotions, both like positive and negative, depending on what you've gone through there. But you're right, it's so enforced into memory.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:49 to 00:15:12
I mean, you can look at your cultural background, you look at other backgrounds. I mean, if we weren't meant to enjoy food, why would we have taste buds, right? I mean, come on now, I mean, yeah, like, why does food taste so delicious? I know, Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, if we were going down the train of thought of like, all emotional eating is bad, we wouldn't bloody have birthday cakes, right?

Katie (Host) | 00:15:12 to 00:15:53
I mean, come on now, it's a celebration. Yeah, exactly. Another part of my, my work as a non diet dietitian and how I would separate myself from, say, what you might think of as like traditional or mainstream dietitians is that I practise from a position of size inclusivity. So recognising that bodies can be in various states of health at different sizes in different shapes. And it's just fundamentally false to assume someone's health based on their body shape or size.

Claire (Guest) | 00:15:53 to 00:16:45
And that goes both ways. You know, if a person in a larger body goes to see their GP and the GP does the tired old BMI calculation and puts them into this, this category, gives them a label and then suddenly it's, well, you've got to go see the dietitian because surely you're overeating to be that large. And we've got to send you off to the exercise physiologist because I'm sure you're unfit and you're a slob and you know, we're going to send you all these blood tests because you know your cholesterol is going to be through the roof, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the other, you know, the flip side of that too is someone in a straight sized body walks in to see the gp, GP goes, yep, okay, well your weight's fine, so, you know, must be all good, come back and see me when you need. You know, that person could be quite unhealthy physically, mentally.

Claire (Guest) | 00:16:46 to 00:17:22
But it's missed because of the biases that are attributed to weight. Oh, completely. Just because somebody has what you would say is normal BMI doesn't mean that they're not struggling with eating or struggling with other facets in their lives. Oh. One of the things that I rant to my girlfriend about, like, constantly is that I'll have people that come to me in a straight sized body or a larger body, they'll be very unwell with an eating disorder and yet at some point someone has told them that they're not underweight, so they're fine.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:22 to 00:17:42
Great. Yeah, yeah. And I'll get care plans from doctors for people with a diagnosed eating disorder. And one of the care plan goals will be something about like, lose weight to achieve a healthier bmi. You're like, God, dude, do you do not realise how damaging that is?

Claire (Guest) | 00:17:42 to 00:18:10
Like, this person has an eating disorder that centres around being highly preoccupied with their weight or shape. Yeah. And you're just reinforcing that in their care plan paperwork. Like it, it enrages me and I wish it were the exception, but it, it happens so damn often. Do you often find it really hard talking to healthcare professionals about this and being like, well, what you think the goal is is actually not what the goal is.

Katie (Host) | 00:18:10 to 00:19:03
Is it quite hard, like, developing that? Understanding it is tricky. I mean, I've got, I'm fortunate in my work that I've got some gps that I do feel more trusting of that I will sort of send clients to if they're needing a really good quality gp. But it's sort of hit and miss really out there as to whether someone's GP is unintentionally, I'm sure, colluding with their eating disorder or whether they have a GP that is actually backing up what I'm saying. On that note, then what is like a couple of points you would give GPs or other healthcare professionals just to be like, this is how you can improve how you develop rapport with your clients or how you can improve your outlook on eating disorders, dietitians, just food in general and that relationship with your clients.

Claire (Guest) | 00:19:03 to 00:19:50
Probably one of the most impactful shifts in perspective that I would suggest a GP could take would be treat your larger bodied clients as if they have a BMI of 21, 22. So take weight off the table. So, okay, let's say, you know, you were sitting here and that patient was behind a screen and you couldn't see their body shape or size. You know, what questions would you ask? What further investigations would you order to actually treat this person as an individual, not treat them as their weight or treat them as their bmi?

Katie (Host) | 00:19:50 to 00:20:01
Oh, such a good point. There's nothing quite like that. I've been down the journey of like, because I've got asthma and the, the. Have you tried losing some weight? Oh, God, absolutely.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:01 to 00:20:10
They're like, oh, you're short of breath, you must be unfit. It's because you're fat. And I'm like, well, I am. But like, I can tell you what. It'S not this, yeah, still short of.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:10 to 00:20:28
Breath when I was skinny. Like, that's life, you know, like thin people get asthma. Absolutely doesn't discriminate, funnily enough. It really doesn't. I like a lot of comorbidities, it doesn't discriminate and it's one of those things that I feel like a lot of people are like, oh, well, diabetes definitely related to be your weight.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:28 to 00:20:49
And I'm like, well, it's not necessarily. There's a lot of genetic predispicitions that lead you to have diabetes. I've seen people who have been morbidly obese or. And I actually, I find it quite hard as an individual saying morbidly obese as a healthcare practitioner as well, because I don't agree with the bmi. But then also I'm actually, I'm seeking your advice.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:50 to 00:21:27
What's a good way of describing people? Because I don't like, I'm fine to describe myself as fat because I find it empowering, but I don't know how to describe other people, other individuals. What's the good way of going about it? You've touched on, on something that is, is really important for healthcare providers to be aware of and I guess it's sort of an analogous to talking about like how someone might identify as a queer person too, is that, you know, myself, just like you, I'm very comfortable using the term fat as a way to describe my body. Yeah.

Claire (Guest) | 00:21:27 to 00:22:00
You know, in the same way that I'd say I have brown hair, I have light coloured skin, I'm fat. Like it's a neutral thing for me. I use the term small fat to be a little more specific in recognising that bodies aren't thin or fat. There's, you know, varying degrees of body size, but I wouldn't call someone else's body fat without knowing their relationship to that word. Yeah, exactly.

Claire (Guest) | 00:22:00 to 00:22:37
You know, for example, I'm quite comfortable describing myself as a queer person when I use that term to describe myself or identify. When I was saying something to my mum, she found that quite a hard word to get around because for her generation her conditioning was that queer was used as an insult. So we do need to be sensitive to how we describe bodies and I would defer to the person's preference in everything really. That's just a good rule of thumb. Yeah.

Claire (Guest) | 00:22:37 to 00:23:17
If we wanted to talk about some neutral language, I would say things like person, that person in a larger body or people at higher weights. And I would avoid using terms that pathologize larger bodies. So overweight, obese, they treat larger bodies as defective, as wrong, as unhealthy. Whereas if we can just say smaller bodied people, larger bodied people, we're not making any assumptions about their body size or shape being bad. Yeah, it's actually a really good description of it because I'm just like, it's just based on fact of like what you can see you've got a larger body.

Claire (Guest) | 00:23:18 to 00:23:30
Yeah. It is what it is. It's not made to say whether what your fat index is. It's not me to say what if you're unwell or whether you're not unwell secondary to how large your body is. And it's, it's very different.

Katie (Host) | 00:23:30 to 00:23:48
Like how people feel comfortable in their body at different weights. Yeah. Like there's nothing to say that somebody who might have had a smaller body that feels better in their body. It's having the empoweredness of like feeling comfortable within yourself of like whatever that is. And it's such a big thing with having the.

Katie (Host) | 00:23:49 to 00:24:02
It always said to me that like some people are like, oh no, like what are we doing? We're trying to make the world more woke. And I'm like, well, being woke, it's not about being woke. It's about considerate of being people. That's just not being a dickhead.

Katie (Host) | 00:24:04 to 00:24:12
Like just don't be a dickhead. That's all it is, is it's not hard. Funnily enough, we're trying to give you the skills. Yeah. We're trying to help you out.

Claire (Guest) | 00:24:12 to 00:24:40
Like take us up on the offer completely. And like the most important thing is just like that first step of like building rapport with something. It's always what I come back to is like the authenticity and building rapport with people is so important when you're a clinician or actually in any aspect of your life is that it means that someone can trust you to do the job that you need to do. And it's really. Nobody's going to listen to you if they're shut down, if you're not listening to them, if you're not respecting them.

Katie (Host) | 00:24:40 to 00:24:52
And respect is so many faceted. Like as a queer person, definitely knowing pronouns or just asking the question you're so right. I love the fact that you're just like, just ask. Yeah. Like, oh, God, could it really be so easy?

Claire (Guest) | 00:24:52 to 00:25:09
Yeah. And it really is, isn't it? It is, it's. It's about creating a, an environment that feels more inviting, more welcoming and feels safer for the, the people that you're wanting to engage with. That's so cool.

Katie (Host) | 00:25:09 to 00:25:27
I love that so much. What would you say? So if you had somebody who came up to you and I was just like, if they came up to you and asked you questions about being a dietitian, they would probably just go to you anyway. Not the point. What kind of advice would you give to people if they were like, look, I'm having issues with food, evidently.

Katie (Host) | 00:25:28 to 00:25:50
How can they seek out a dietitian? How, how can they actually start that. Journey a few ways? I mean, you, you don't need a referral to see a dietitian. If you want to claim a rebate from Medicare, then you do need a care plan from your gp, but you can just come and see a dietitian privately.

Claire (Guest) | 00:25:50 to 00:26:25
You can use the Find A Dietitian search tool on the Dietitians Australia website, type in your postcode and then it will pop up. You know who's in your local area. But I would think, I guess, carefully about the type of work that you're thinking you might need to do. So if you were thinking, you know, look, I. I'd really like to have a healthier relationship with food, I'd like to stop demonising certain foods or feeling guilty after I eat certain foods.

Claire (Guest) | 00:26:25 to 00:27:18
Then you're wanting to look for a dietitian who can actually help you with the relationship side of eating, not just the practical what and how much. And that is probably going to be a dietitian who is eating disorders informed whether or not you have an eating disorder, you would greatly benefit from seeing a dietitian who can sort of keep that in the back of their mind or even just draw from their understanding of disordered eating and how it plays out to help you in your sort of recovery journey from dieting. Because dieting, disordered eating and eating disorder, they're all points on the same spectrum. So we'd have what I would call truly normal healthy eating. Then we've got.

Claire (Guest) | 00:27:19 to 00:27:58
Dieting is sort of that first step on the disordered scale dieting and then more extreme dieting, we've sort of then varying into disordered eating and then that at the very extreme end, we've got an eating disorder. So if someone were wanting to find A dietitian who was eating disorders informed. A few years ago, it was released a new credentialing system for eating disorder clinicians. So you can actually look for a credentialed eating disorder clinician and that credential is awarded to dietitians and some mental health professionals as well. There is the.

Claire (Guest) | 00:27:58 to 00:28:20
I think it's Connect Ed Connected. Yeah, I could have that wrong. There's a website where you can enter your postcode and again, you can find a local CEDC in your area. Oh, so awesome. I would recommend maybe that route rather than say going to the Dietitians Australia website.

Claire (Guest) | 00:28:20 to 00:28:30
Sorry, Dietitians Australia. Because you're, you're gonna find someone who's likely to be a better fit. Yeah, thank you. That makes sense. And a lot with what you were saying about.

Katie (Host) | 00:28:31 to 00:28:43
It's. The work that you do is very much. It's therapy. It's really figuring out the relationship that people have with food and how to build that to make it will work better for them. Yeah, yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:28:43 to 00:29:02
Do you find often that your clients have to seek advice from like therapists as well as, like, if you find that it's really related to an incident or a trauma in their lives that you're just like, look, I, I will help you. Everything that I can do. Like, there is probably a ceiling here. Yeah. Oh, most definitely.

Claire (Guest) | 00:29:02 to 00:29:41
It's. It's really important that people practise within their scope. The scope of someone like myself who is an eating disorders trained dietitian who has upskilled and done a lot of training in the area of body image. You know, my scope is broader perhaps or more extended in one specific area than say a dietitian who predominantly works with people with diabetes. So there's a lot of work that I can do because I've undergone the relevant professional development that a new grad dietitian wouldn't be able to do.

Claire (Guest) | 00:29:41 to 00:30:22
And that would be the same with a psychologist. You might have psychologists who specialise in organisational psychology who might not feel competent at all in dealing with eating disorders or body image concerns. So it is really important that we seek out clinicians who have the training and the expertise in the area that we need them. And myself, and I know it's the case for my other non dietitian colleagues, we have really good working relationships with psychologists that we trust and will refer to each other. Oh, that's fabulous.

Katie (Host) | 00:30:22 to 00:30:57
Oh, I love the holistic approach of all this. I like how there's a lot of, I would like to say, like the more of the world understanding that humans are holistic. There are so many different facets to them and we all have to work together in health care because everything is so interlinked, whether it be the psychological, psychological to like your eating to your physical to your, your gut, health to your skin to all these other things. They're so interrelated and really like you've got to have clinicians who can work together and understand the importance of all specialties together as one for a human being. Yeah.

Claire (Guest) | 00:30:57 to 00:31:28
And it comes back to sort of what I was saying earlier in our conversation around, I think like intersectionality. So being aware that if you have a queer client, they are likely coming to you, experiencing a unique set of challenges that your clients who aren't queer aren't experiencing. Yeah. And those challenges are likely informing their presentation. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:31:28 to 00:31:36
It's bloody brilliant. Oh, I love this. So we're gonna have to wrap this up a little bit, unfortunately. I think we could talk forever. It's so brilliant.

Katie (Host) | 00:31:36 to 00:32:07
But where can people find you, first of all? Because if they're in. If you're in the Perth WA region, I'm not sure if you branch out to the eastern states as well, but where can people find you? Sure. So if you are interested in the work that I do and want to get a feel for, you know, what non diet nutrition is, what size inclusivity looks like, just get a taste, a taste of how you could have a different relationship with food.

Claire (Guest) | 00:32:07 to 00:32:36
My Instagram I think is a great place to go. I'm biassed. It is itfreeme so D I E T F R E E M E and then I also have my website, dietfreeme.com au I practise in person in my office in Buragoon in Western Australia, but I also do telehealth appointments so I have clients over east and we navigate the time difference. Fabulous. Love this.

Katie (Host) | 00:32:36 to 00:32:57
So flexible guys. So, yeah, I'm online, I'm in person and I always welcome the opportunity to also deliver education sessions for organisations as well. So sometimes that's another avenue that people engage with me. Absolutely. I think it's such a great space to be in.

Katie (Host) | 00:32:57 to 00:33:12
It's really important for health care professionals and I mean I've learned an abundance of things from you today. So thank you very much. Both me podcast me and my health care. B is just like very good, very good learning here. Thank you very much but no, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast.

Katie (Host) | 00:33:12 to 00:33:25
Thank you so much for your time and your knowledge. Definitely a wealth of understanding. I'M like, might have to come back to you another time for different reasons. You're so welcome. Thank you for having me.

Claire (Guest) | 00:33:25 to 00:34:14
I think it's an area that I'm particularly passionate about as a queer person in providing support to my fellow members of the queer community, because I know that people out there are struggling. There was a survey done in 2017, I think, that showed that almost a quarter of trans youth in Australia, I currently experience or have experienced an eating disorder. Almost a quarter. And, you know, I need my fellow clinicians to be aware of the unique challenges that, you know, not just trans people, but all queer people face that do have an influence on their eating and their body image. It's knowing your clients and their needs, isn't it?

Claire (Guest) | 00:34:14 to 00:34:29
And if you don't ask. Yeah, you know, ask. And if you recognise that this is an area of understanding that you don't feel confident in, take some initiative and do some professional development. Absolutely. Get in contact.

Katie (Host) | 00:34:29 to 00:34:35
Diet free me, guys. Come on. We're giving you the resources. This is how it is. Yeah.

Claire (Guest) | 00:34:35 to 00:34:58
I mean, no one expects everyone to know everything and you can't know what you don't know, but you can recognise. Okay, as a clinician, I, I have a knowledge deficit. I'd like to be more supportive of my, my queer clients. How can I go about that? What, what can I do to create a safer, more inclusive space?

Claire (Guest) | 00:34:59 to 00:35:36
What can I do to be more aware of some of the challenges that a queer person might be experiencing? We certainly don't want people to make assumptions about. All queer people struggle with this or that or, you know, so it's learning how to, how to be curious and ask questions in a, in a sensitive way that isn't intrusive and isn't retraumatizing for people. But, yeah, I think it's something that you, you're only going to see positive results from if you can develop a better understanding of this. Oh, such good key points.

Katie (Host) | 00:35:36 to 00:36:03
I love that. Beautiful. So, Claire, what would you say are the key points that you want people to know about in regards to diet, free dietitians or healthy eating? I think a key point is that there is an alternative to dieting. So if you are someone who is unhappy about their eating, unhappy about their body, it's not diet or put up with it.

Claire (Guest) | 00:36:04 to 00:36:31
There is an alternative, an approach where you can feel happier, calmer about your eating, more flexible, you can feel accepting of your body and embrace it regardless of its size or shape, without treating food or your body as a problem that you need to fix. Thank you so much, Claire. I really appreciate it. Until next time. I hope that we have theme perfectly queer.

Katie (Host) | 00:36:39 to 00:36:41
Let's be perfectly clear.