About Natasha Snapper
Natasha Snapper (she/her) is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Yoga Teacher and Future Therapist + Social Worker who helps womxn break free from disordered eating and instead re-define what "healthy" means to them -- without restriction, obsession, diet culture or weight stigma. Natasha will start taking 1:1 therapy clients in Summer 2025 and plans to combine therapy with intuitive eating work for a comprehensive approach.
Can you share your personal journey with dieting and how it influenced your decision to become an intuitive eating counselor and future therapist?
I’ve wanted to be a therapist since I was 12. I vividly remember standing in the middle of my middle school hallway after a vulnerable conversation with a friend and realized that I was passionate about mental health. Initially, I envisioned working with families and couples. However, my own struggles with disordered eating, along with my eventual recovery, shifted my focus.
I began struggling with food and my body before I can even remember. Growing up in a larger body compared to my sisters often made me the target of comments from extended family, which planted seeds of insecurity early on. Being in a toxic dance environment further amplified my need to shrink my body to fit in.
While I had traditional therapy for an eating disorder in high school, it wasn’t enough to help me fully heal. It wasn’t until I combined therapy with intuitive eating that I truly found food freedom and full recovery. And because intuitive eating had such a prominent impact on my own relationship with food, I decided to become an intuitive eating counselor with the goal to combine therapy with intuitive eating support to help clients find full recovery and re-define their definition of “health” without diet culture and weight stigma.
However, I need to emphasize that if you’ve struggled or are struggling with dieting/disordered eating/eating disorder, and are thinking about pursuing a career in the field, I highly highly recommend taking time off to reflect if it’s a true interest versus a continued obsession! I took 4 years off after recovering and was in the fashion business world before pursuing therapy/intuitive eating professionally.
What were some of the most challenging emotions or times you faced when trying to break free from diet culture, and how did you work through them?
The most challenging part of breaking free from diet culture was how deeply normalized and ingrained it is in our society, and how weight-stigma is everywhere. Although I briefly experimented with stereotypical diets, my primary struggle was an obsession with 'health' and 'being healthy'—something that would later be labeled as orthorexia. I also struggled with what I call “dieting in disguise”—subtle behaviors like delaying breakfast, skipping meals before going out, or avoiding certain food groups under the guise of “health.” These behaviors were not only accepted but praised. Being vegan and, at times, gluten-free only added to the praise; people saw me as someone who was “so healthy.” My identity became tied to what I ate, my exercise routine, and how much control I seemingly had. Honestly, I thought I was fine.
It wasn’t until I started binging—something that carried so much shame—that I realized something was still wrong and got support from an intuitive eating counselor. With the support, I realized that my friends and family didn’t appreciate me for my eating and exercise habits, they valued me for so much more than that! Specifically, no one cared about me being vegan or not being vegan, except for myself. That realization helped me let go of the identity I had built around diet culture. I also surrounded myself with people who aligned with my values, and set boundaries with those who didn’t. Who you surround yourself with is so important!
How do you help clients navigate feelings of guilt or stress around food, especially when they’ve been conditioned to see certain foods as “good” or “bad”?
In order to be able to say “NO” to the voice in their head that labels foods as “good” and “bad”, it takes continued work! Clients have responded well when we break down the value that a specific food provides. For example, pizza is often labeled as “unhealthy” or “bad,” but when you break it down, it contains all three macronutrients—carbohydrates (crust), fats (cheese), and proteins (meat)—that our bodies need. Additionally, I help clients identify the non-nutritional benefits of food, such as connection, culture, comfort, and warmth. For instance, sharing a meal with family or enjoying a cultural dish can be incredibly fulfilling beyond its physical nourishment, often things we forget to think about!
The most crucial part, however, is exposure. Talking about food only helps to a certain extent; the real progress happens when clients eat the food they fear. This approach helps clients reduce anxiety over time. For example, if someone struggles with dairy, we might start by adding yogurt to a smoothie and gradually increase exposure to dairy in different forms. The more they practice, the easier it becomes.
What does feeling happy and healthy in your body mean to you personally, and how has that definition evolved over time?
This definition has changed drastically for me over the years. For a substantial part of my life, health was purely about physical health and appearance—how I looked, what I ate, and how much I exercised. Ironically, when I looked the “healthiest” by societal standards, I was at my unhealthiest—mentally, emotionally, and even physically.
Now, for me, feeling happy and healthy is about what my body and mind can do, rather than how they look. It’s about how I feel emotionally, how much energy I have, how strong I feel, my quality of sleep, the strength of my relationships, and whether I’m fulfilled in my work - it's so much more holistic and multidimensional!
How do you encourage clients to reconnect with their body’s hunger and fullness cues when they’ve been disconnected from them for so long?
Reconnecting with hunger and fullness cues takes time and lots of patience! The hardest part for clients is ensuring the body is adequately fueled. Your body won’t give you hunger cues if it doesn’t have the energy to do so! So, step one is normalizing consistent and adequate nourishment to get those cues back!
Once hunger cues start returning, I introduce clients to the Intuitive Eating hunger and fullness scale, which rates hunger and fullness from 1-10. This tool helps them recognize subtle signs of hunger beyond just a growling stomach, like low energy or irritability. We use tracking exercises to build awareness of these cues, always emphasizing curiosity over judgment. I love the Intuitive Eating Guide that Feelings Found has created!
A key part of this process is ensuring that hunger and fullness don’t become another set of rigid rules! It’s okay to eat even if you’re not “perfectly” hungry or to stop before you’re “perfectly” full. We work on learning the other types of hunger – beyond physical hunger – practical, taste, and emotional - that remind clients that they have full permission to eat. This helps reduce shame, rigidity and judgement.
Can you share a moment when you witnessed a client have a breakthrough in feeling more at peace with their body, and what that experience was like for you as their counselor?
One of the most rewarding breakthroughs is watching a client eat a food that used to cause them stress and then move on without overthinking it. For so many clients, the struggle isn’t just eating the food—it’s the mental spiral that precedes and follows. Seeing someone break free from that cycle is incredible.
I’ve worked with clients who’ve made peace with foods like dairy, pasta, seasonal lattes, and desserts. What’s most rewarding is when they realize it’s not just about the food itself but also about the experiences it allows them to enjoy, like sharing a meal with loved ones or connecting with their culture. When clients see themselves making progress, it becomes a powerful motivator for further healing, they get to feel and see themselves that this process works!
Looking back at your own journey, what’s one thing you wish you had known about body acceptance and intuitive eating that could have made the process easier for you?
I wish I had started my intuitive eating journey earlier! I also wish I had learned more about the research behind intuitive eating and the long-term harms of dieting—because honestly, those topics don’t get talked about enough. When I was struggling, I was so obsessed with “health” that I think knowing about the long-term risks of dieting might have been one of the wake-up calls I needed.
I also wish I had used social media differently back then. If I had found a community of non-diet, weight-inclusive, and intuitive eating professionals and creators, I can only imagine how helpful it would’ve been. Instead, my feed was filled with “clean eating,” Whole30, and fitness accounts that just reinforced the unhealthy mindset I was stuck in.
That’s exactly why I started my account—to change the narrative around health and eating. I want people to know they don’t have to spend their lives stressing about food and their bodies. There’s so much more to life than that!
