Welcome!
My name is Francesca, it's nice to meet you!
Getting started with a new provider can be scary- you're trusting us with a lot: your physical and emotional safety just to start. I've gone ahead and provided the information I would want to know prior to engaging in a vulnerable process so you can make an informed decision about your care. If there's anything more you'd like to know, I'm happy to share during a free 15min consultation call.
Francesca Marchiafava,
MS RDN LDN (She/Her)
What you can expect:
Francesca believes in caring for the whole person. She practices with a dedication to promoting human dignity and care for mind, body, and spirit. Individualized treatment means giving each person the attention they need with respect for each person’s unique circumstances, challenges, and strengths. She understands her responsibility in duty of care, and promises to always put respect for the person first. She practices evidence based, nuanced medical nutrition therapy to provide effective and intentional treatment. She is committed to hearing your lived experience and working within your belief system to foster intrinsic motivations for recovery and set achievable health goals. It is her objective to lead you to the realization you deserve wellbeing and make nutrition decisions from a compassionate place of genuine self-care.
She believes in making values-based committed actions and sees nourishing the body not just as a matter of improved biomarkers, but as a vital way to support a full meaningful life. Engaging treatment is an exploration of meaning, an examination of health beliefs and behaviors, and a discovery of authenticity. She holds hope for every person who walks through the door and understands one’s relationship with food and the body is so much more than food. You will be received with compassion and be fully informed every step of the way. She just asks that you be open and willing to engage. You will be challenged and held accountable in support of personal growth, but never shamed. She believes in fully acknowledging and reflecting on choices, granting ourselves understanding, and recommitting to goals after problem solving to support making preferred actions. She understands undesirable behaviors manifest to meet valid needs, serve a purpose that needs to be addressed, and will help you move towards healthier choices. She rejects the idea that health is ever black and white, restriction is necessary, or that one must use fear to motivate change. She wants to help you disseminate nutrition information, destigmatize nutrition and health behaviors, and empower you to ultimately make choices that honor your body because you deserve it. It is her goal for you to feel security and peace around food. She wants you to feel safe in your body.
Her commitment to you:
She recognizes you are the expert in your body and lived-experience, and you will retain autonomy in treatment. She made the decision to pursue dietetics not medicine as she finds nutrition more empowering for the patient. She believes in putting your health and recovery into your hands. She wants to foster self-efficacy and independence. She rejects the paternalistic model of care, and wants to work with you and for you. She values your input and insight and believes you are the best advocate for your interests. She is committed to doing no harm and will always advocate for your well-being, which she believes includes guiding you in the achievement of your goals.
She is committed to holistic collaborative care and will connect with your other treatment team members as needed. She is also well read in philosophy, comparative religion, and psychology, which guides her strong commitment to professionalism, bioethics, and cura personalis. She values the right to personal beliefs, opinion, and spirituality (or lack thereof) and will work to honor your needs with respect to your cultural identity.
Services she provides:
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1:1 Nutrition Counseling
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ERP Snack and Meal Support
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Group Sessions
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Group Education (nutrition, performance nutrition, movement, diabetes)
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Nutrient Analyses
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Values-Based Health Counseling
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On-going Diet Log Reviews for Chronic Disease Management
Clients she works with:
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Disordered Eating, Emotional Eating, Cyclic Dieting
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Performance Nutrition/Sports Nutrition
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Type 1 & 2 Diabetes
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Cardiovascular Disease
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Celiac’s Disease
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Food Allergies
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Acute & Chronic Malnutrition**
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Anyone looking for balanced nutrition education and/or to heal their relationship with food and body
**Medical clearance for outpatient work required
Experience
Francesca is a licensed master’s level registered dietitian who has completed a full clinical internship, qualifying her to treat various medical comorbidities through nutrition. She has experience on hospital rotations, outpatient centers, and working with disordered eating at many levels of care, including residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient. She is trained in the nutrition focused physical exam, medical nutrition therapy, motivational interviewing, ERP, and nutritional counseling. She has also had the unique experience of facilitating meal support and psychoeducational groups for CBT, DBT, ACT, self compassion, intuitive eating, mindful movement, and mind-body connection. She is educated in the reintroduction of movement in recovery and can advise on how to re-engage in physical activity safely. She has a passion for keeping up with medical research and is always happy to provide the evidence supporting her clinical decisions. She regularly attends continuing education seminars and is excited to learn more about what matters to you to ensure you receive the individualized care you deserve. If she ever feels she cannot meet your needs, she will put your health over her pride and provide appropriate referrals.
Education
Nutrition and Dietetics MS &
Dietetic Internship
Northern Illinois University
Francesca completed her dietetic internship with the Academy Nutrition Dietetics Foundation, Lutheran General Hospital, Northwestern Memorial, Linden Oaks Behavioral Hospital, and Center for Discovery. She held a teaching assistantship and facilitated sessions for Science of Nutrition for upperclassmen. She chose to specialize and participated in graduate coursework focused on Sports Nutrition, Eating Disorders and Obesity. She additionally assisted with a systematic review of cooking and gardening programs for elementary aged students.
Nutrition BS
Case Western Reserve University
Francesca completed the requirements for the didactic program of dietetics and a bachelors of science in nutrition during her time at CWRU. She volunteered with the Cleveland Food Bank and Squire Valleevue and Valley Ridge Farms to promote food security and sustainable farming. She served as the university's liaison at the Slow Food's movement Terra Madre conference. Her capstone project was on the role of plant based diets in meeting future global food demands, which looked at mitigation strategies for reducing the environmental impact of the food industry. She enjoyed tutoring small groups and individually for organic chemistry to assist those preparing for the MCAT.
Sociology BA
Case Western Reserve University
Francesca took her favorite class, Health Illness and Social Behavior, as part of the didactic program for dietetics her junior year and found a passion for viewing health in its social context. She spent the next year and a half overloading her schedule and stayed over summer to complete the coursework for a bachelor's of art in Sociology. She designed her curriculum to focus on medical sociology, including the chronic illness experience and the sociology of mental illness. She is passionate about the social determinants of health, intersectionality, and theory. She was inducted in the International Honor Society of Sociology. She also chose to tutor to spread her passion.