I have been
imagining CISANE for
many years as a means to building and supporting a community of people interested in
exploring
the nature and practice of nutrition education in order to optimize
counselling experiences for clients and those engaged in nutrition
counselling work. My primary interests are how
meanings of eating and feeding influence eating behaviour and
relationships,
and the potential for arts in nutrition education practice and research,
and in
dietetics pedagogy. These interests infuse every aspect of work that I do
related to nutrition education.
Throughout my career, I have
worked as a clinical dietitian, a clinical nutrition manager, in public health,
and as a nutrition education consultant to NGOs, professional associations,
health authorities, and governments. I now have a faculty appointment at Acadia
University. I qualified as a dietitian with an Nutrition degree from the
University of Guelph, and a Dietetic Internship at Vancouver General Hospital.
I hold a Masters degree in Adult Education (UBC), a PhD in Community Rehabilitation
and Disability Studies/Educational Research (University of Calgary), and a
diploma in Textile Arts and a certificate in Documentary Film (Capilano
University).
Where it all started…
Having
had little instruction or
role modeling on how to approach nutrition counselling/education in my
own
training, when I started practicing as a clinical dietitian, I did what I
thought I was supposed to do – I provided basic
nutrition information and practical ‘tips’ with little attention to the
relevance of this information for the people who sought my advice or who
had been referred to me. All the while, I felt that this
approach wasn’t really meeting client needs ...but I did not know what
else to do.
The inspiration for my doctoral
studies was my sense of ‘I am not being effective - I have to learn how to do
this job better’. I had not understood at the time that what had seemed to me
as ‘odd’ or confusing comments and questions from clients and their family
members were the results of their efforts to sort through dietary cacophony
(Fischler, 1993), the contradicting and confusing messages about food and
eating, and how their changed health status had affected their relationships
with and through food.
Why art school? I did the Textile Arts program at
Capilano University in North Vancouver for fun (because I was bored with the fabrics
that were commercially available for sewing projects) and I wanted to explore another of my interests (as I had worked in dietetics for a long while). I did the Documentary
Film program to learn how to use film to extend the reach of research findings,
that is, to get nutrition education research findings to the public more
readily so that they could apply them in their own lives. While engaged in these
studies (2007-2010) I stumbled onto the possibilities that exist to use the
arts in health and nutrition practice, education, and research, and the
wonderful organizations that had been promoting these ideas for decades (e.g.,
Global Alliance for Arts and Health; Arts Health Canada).
Vision for CISANE: The vision is that CISANE will serve
to connect dietitians and others working in human services who are interested
in studying and advancing the practice of nutrition counselling and education,
and the use of the arts in these endeavours. The first offering in Fall 2014 will
focus on nutrition counselling skills development. Future plans are to offer
opportunities to explore arts-based approaches in nutrition education, and to
create works with and for the public.
