There are many pathways to a full-time private practice, and Jennifer’s guest Glenys Oyston shares her journey of an incremental process to realizing her dream. Listen to her inspiring story of discovering Health at Every Size, niching down, and overcoming impostor syndrome on this episode of the Pursuing Private Practice podcast.

Glenys tells us about her experience of being a restrictive dieter in her twenties, and how she chose the Dietetics industry with the career goal of being a weight loss dietitian. Throughout her years of course work, her obsession with food restriction and fear of gaining weight was dominating her life, and upon discovering HAES as a student, reflects on the transformation it had on her perspective, breaking her free from the diet lifestyle.

Incorporating the principles of HAES with her inpatients and primary care work with spinal cord injuries and geriatrics, she met her future podcast partner Aaron Flores, RDN whom she learned about Intuitive Eating. All the while, she worked full-time with the dream of one day having her own private practice.

Glenys tells how she transitioned into a practice incrementally over three years, and dealt with impostor syndrome by pushing through and learning by doing.

“The only way to get through the fear is to go straight through it, and keep working at it until you’ve helped enough people that you start to feel good about it.” – Glenys Oyston

Some of the topics discussed include:

• How discovering Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating broke her free from restrictive eating issues, and empowered her to be okay with her natural body size. 
• The journey of starting her private practice with an incremental progression over several years; first with a blog in late 2014, ‘Dare to Not Diet’, then a podcast in 2015 with Aaron Flores, to taking her first clients in 2016.
• How she learned as she went, and has benefited from being one of the first to join the Pursuing Private Practice program
• How she dealt with fear of failure and impostor syndrome at each stage, and has built confidence by taking action and putting things in perspective to enjoy the ride. 
• Why she has narrowed down her niche of only working in areas she enjoys, and knows when to refer clients to other dietitians, without considering them as competition.
• The realization of her dream of full-time practice, and by making space for networking, more clients came.

“I’m in competition with the diet industry. I don’t buy the traditional competition model. I’m there to lift up my fellow dietitians.” – Glenys Oyston

 

Visit https://pursuingprivatepractice.com/ to learn more about resources to start and grow your dietitian private practice!