Linn Thorstensson
Nutritional Therapist & Body Image Coach
Hi and welcome to Straightforward Nutrition, my little corner of the World Wide Web!
I am so happy and grateful that you are here. I have been writing, photographing and sharing here since 2013, a few years after completing my 3 year studies in Nutritional Therapy in 2010.
My story with food and nutrition have probably been with me most of my life, due to my mother’s interest in this area, long before I was even born.
Like many people who are drawn to doing this kind of work, I too have a history of disordered eating and body image struggles, which started in my later teens and carried on well into my mid 20s. Today I would consider myself well recovered, grounded in following my own body’s wisdom and rhythm for nourishment.
It hasn’t always been an easy journey to find peace and freedom around food and feeling connected with my body. To learn to hate it a little less but instead to take good care of it, in order to live a life that is richer, fuller and more fulfilling than what it was when I was preoccupied with making my body be something it is not.
A little while back I wrote a somewhat “poetic” story of my journey of healing my relationship with food, eating and my body. You can find it here.
On this website you will find, info about the work I do; helping people break free from the chains of dieting, restriction, bingeing and body loathing. You will also find blog posts on the topics of such, as well as lots of colourful simple to make recipes, beacuse I love creating in the kitchen, and I love photographing food!
This blog is here to inspire people like you, to become kinder and more compassionate towards yourself. Hopefully it will inspire you to find ways of nourishing yourself and your body, in ways that feels good to YOU.
But, this space is also for me, to write, to explore and to express my thoughts, learnings and knowledge on how we can navigate this intersection of food, eating and bodies with nourishment of all kinds, in ways that feel good, honest and true.
“This work is a journey of homecoming”
My Philosophy
I was interested in natural healing modalities long before I decided to study nutrition. And for many years (later teens to early twenties) I also had an “unhealthy” relationship with food, eating and my body.
I went from a fairly carefree teenager to one that was caught in the net of Diet Culture, believing that if only my body would be a certain size and the scales would show a particular number, I would be truly happy.
Over the years I have discovered that perhaps at the core of healing our relationship with food, eating and body is a journey of self discovery. A sense of trust and connection with our body. The courage to show up fully embodied. A homecoming.
In a sense my own journey is backwards, moving forward I’ve been learning and discovering in order to deeper understand why my past was the way it was…
I’ve trained in the paradigm “Food as Medicine”, and to an extent I believe this to be true. Our bodies need good quality food and nutrition to nourish our physical selves. However, when we look to food in order to nourish our spiritual selves, when we use food to try and “fix” ourselves and our lives, we lose the balance.
Nutrients by themselves can never fill the deeper desires we have for creativity, self expression and connection. Decoding this, to look beyond our cravings and body disatisfactions leads us on the path of healing, to a place of flexibility, choice and freedom. To a place beyond rigid rules and restrictive plans, to a place where you are capable of nourishing your WHOLE Self.
I am an Non Diet Nutritonal Therapist who offers nutritional counselling to folx who struggle with their relationship to food, eating and their body.
I strive to practice from a Health At Every Size, trauma informed and social justice lens. (I am however human and won’t always get it right!).
In my work I draw on a multitude of modalities, such as Intuitive Eating, Mindfulness, CBT, Motivational Interviewing Neuroscience, Somatic practices and Nutritional Therapy, with the intention to work with my clients in a person centred way. This means that every persons programme and journey will be unique.
I also actively engage in continued education and ongoing supervision.
Beyond that I also lean on my own recovery, self development work and of course each and every client I have worked with in the past who have taught me much beyond what the textbooks ever could!
I hold a 3 year Diploma in Nutritional Therapy from The College of Naturopathic Medicine, 2007-2010
I am Certified Food & Spirit Practitioner (Mind-Body Nutrition), 2015
A certified MB-EAT practitioner, 2017
Body Image training 2018
Nutrition Counselling Skills for Disordered Eating & Eating Disorders, 2018
A certified Eating Freely Practitioner (Binge Eating & Emotional Eating specialist training), 2020
Training in the overlap between GI distress & EDs with Marci Evans, 2019
The Coaching Way with Tara Mohr, 2021
Trauma Informed Dietetics, 2021
I currently serve as the secretary on the board of The Centre for Mindful Eating (TCME).
In the past I served as a Director (2016-2020) on the board of Nutritional Therapists of Ireland (NTOI)
I am a registered Nutritional Therapist and member of NTOI which means I am bond by the Code of Practice as set out by the organisation, do a minimum of 30h of continuous professional development. I also do ongoing supervision.