What to Know Before Becoming a Private Practice Dietitian — Registered Dietitian Columbia SC

Thankfully, I’ve had enough conversations with friends and colleagues in the field, including many private practice dietitians that looked up to right from the beginning, and know these struggles are all super normal, which I didn’t realize at first. I looked around on social media and it seemed like everyone around me knew exactly what they were doing. I was clearly the odd one out, stumbling aimlessly through my career! If that’s you, I’m here to say nope! Everyone feels lost sometimes, or even a lot of the time!

I vividly remember how scary those early days felt, which is why I am really passionate about passing on resources, support and advice for other private practice dietitians. There’s a lot of things I wish I knew before starting a nutrition private practice, things that would have saved me quite a bit of stress and feelings of failure. As you can see from the 175+ comments, I know this has struck a chord with many of you, so I’m giving this post a bit of a refresh, along with some new resources for aspiring private practice dietitians.

First, I’ll answer my most commonly asked question…

How did you become a private practice dietitian?

I started off as a dietitian as many do: in clinical dietetics. My dietetics internship at Emory was very clinically focused. After I graduated, I started working in a clinical position at a small, community hospital. My job let me dabble in a bit of everything. I spent each morning in the ICU doing critical care nutrition, but I also taught nutrition classes for cardiac rehab, saw outpatient appointments, and covered an inpatient cardiac unit, where I did a lot of nutrition education.