Shannon Fenster MS, CN

My name is Shannon Fenster, and I am a Certified Nutritionist, she/her pronouns. I am an All Foods Fit and Inclusive Practitioner. I believe that body size is diverse, weight is not a measure of health and that all people deserve access to compassionate, gender-affirming, client-centered healthcare. I recognize that the field of dietetics is significantly missing the voice of practitioners with marginalized identities and strive to expand my knowledge from practitioners with lived experiences and diverse backgrounds. I recognize that eating disorders are a social justice issue and I am committed to offering Equitable Nutrition Care without weight stigma. I acknowledge my unconscious biases and recognize my privileges. My work with each client centers around cultivating relationships with food and the body. I aim to build nutritional adequacy by exploring food preferences, unpacking weight stigma, supporting harm reduction behaviors and building distress tolerance skills. I resonate with Ellyn Satter’s work, that “eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life” opening more time for life's desires. I have worked with adults and adolescents in recovery from eating disorders and destructive disordered eating patterns in residential, partially hospitalized and outpatient levels of care. It was during my work with patients in partially hospitalized care that I first learned about trauma-informed care, body acceptance, body image resilience and gender fluidity. Client sessions are tailored to each person’s needs with the goal of graduating clients from outpatient nutrition care and transitioning the continuation of care to their Primary Care Provider and/or Therapist. -We will explore nutrition- adequacy, autonomy and confidence -We will explore food group variety & preferences -We will explore food security, hunger, satiety and satisfaction -We will explore measures of health that are not weight focused -We will explore digestion & microbiome function -We will explore distress tolerance skills & the medicine of relief -We will explore body view & body image resilience & how to zoom out from diet culture I am a Committee Member with the Puget Sound Chapter of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP) and help to diversify continuing education credits required for healthcare providers to ensure all bodies are represented in conversations of healthcare. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree from The Evergreen State College and a Master of Science in Clinical and Counseling Nutrition from Bastyr University. I am a retired Licensed Massage Therapist and appreciate how the study of Kinesiology expanded my practice of centering, mindful movement and sports nutrition. I am from Washington and identify as able-bodied, a parent, a nature lover and a cis-gendered woman with Onondaga First Nations and European ancestry. I enjoy keeping chickens, composting, dancing, soccer, writing + drawing, pickleball and mountain biking with my family.