Chelsea Stegman
MS, RD, LD
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
We ask every featured student a set of in-depth questions about their clinical experience, their path to neuronutrition, and what the program has meant for their work. Our goal is to give others an honest, unfiltered look at what practicing in this space actually looks like, and showcase the impact that our students are having in their communities.
Chelsea Stegman is a Registered Dietitian of 10 years based in Chicago, IL. Her work spans functional medicine, mental health, and wellness spaces, and she currently sees clients through her virtual practice, Chelsea Stegman Nutrition, LLC, as well as through Nourish. She has been featured in Women's Health and Well + Good. You can follow her work on Instagram at @chelseastegmanrd and on Substack.
What originally drew you toward the intersection of nutrition and mental health during your early training, and how did those experiences shape the direction of your career?
In college while studying dietetics, I witnessed the progression of an eating disorder from a close friend, which actually ended up being fatal a few years later. As an attempt to understand this powerful illness, I tailored many of my projects to eating disorder research and treatment and sought out additional psychology classes.
In both my undergraduate years and graduate years, my "field work" for eating disorders actually ended up being psychiatric hospital settings with more of a wide range of mental health disorders. This allowed me to zoom out and really get curious about the impact of food and overall mental health.
Across the different environments you have worked in — psychiatric care, eating disorder recovery, functional medicine, wellness spaces, and community programs — what patterns did you start noticing about how brain health, stress, and nutrition interact?
I noticed that while it is well known that stress impacts brain health and the nervous system, it also seemed to be the common denominator for many of the metabolic issues I was seeing in functional medicine and wellness spaces.
While we are all living different realities and there are many systemic issues working against us that can be stressors, in every setting it was always inspiring to see people slowly becoming more connected to their bodies and getting in the driver's seat regarding their stress and well-being, all at their own pace.
You mentioned wanting to focus more on mental health in private practice but finding the field difficult to navigate. What specifically felt missing or misaligned in the education or approaches that were available at the time?
In the inpatient psychiatric setting our main goal was just to get patients to eat anything. There was so much opportunity for prevention and early stage intervention for this population.
Later on, I felt like I kept hitting roadblocks with the overall rhetoric on social media regarding nutrition and mental health and how certain practitioners were approaching care. There was a lack of trauma-informed care, and a lot of the "miracle talk" often used around weight loss seemed to bleed into this area as well.
When you discovered neuronutrition and the NANCP program, what made it feel different from other programs you had explored?
It seemed like a program rooted in both research and integrity, and tackled this topic from almost every angle possible.
There's a missing link between your clients' nutrition and their brain.
Learn how to address it with the 7-day Neuronutrition Lesson Series.
Has anything in the curriculum helped you reinterpret past experiences with patients or programs you worked on earlier in your career?
I feel like almost every past patient experience could have been at least slightly improved by this experience, but the salivary cortisol tests I used to administer and interpret really stand out to me. We didn't really discuss a history of trauma as part of that equation, which could have contributed to a more validating interpretation.
Diving deeper into the concept of interoception could have helped in many cases too.
How do you see neuronutrition changing the way you help clients understand the connection between their past experiences, their physiology, and their current health patterns?
Knowledge is power, and simply understanding the connection between their past experiences, physiology, and current health patterns can help them accept where they're at so that they can mindfully carve a path forward. Feeling understood by their practitioner creates an environment where they are more likely to change.
For a while, the connection between the mind and body seemed like an abstract concept, but neuronutrition discusses this in a practical and scientific manner.
You mentioned interest in applying this work to populations such as people with trauma histories or Parkinson's disease. What motivates that interest, and what impact do you hope this approach will have for those clients?
From getting out in the field, I am realizing that patients with trauma histories are more common than we'd like to think. I feel that any practitioner can benefit from being trauma-informed.
I also have a unique and personal experience with Parkinson's — I just spent the last two years in Florida in the same city as my grandmother who has Parkinson's. I saw first-hand how it progressed and impacted her quality of life and independence. Similar to eating disorders, this sparked me to attempt to understand it better and see how I can use my expertise for prevention and treatment.
Looking ahead, how do you hope neuronutrition will shape the future of your practice and the kinds of conversations you are able to have with clients about their health?
I will add in some of the science — which perfectly expands upon what I already have in my programming — to help them understand their bodies better, the surveys to help them understand their patterns better, and the education and tools used in this course to help them understand their past experiences and how they may impact their neuronutritional health today.
This knowledge will also help me reach different populations.
There's a missing link between your clients' nutrition and their brain.
Learn how to address it with the 7-day Neuronutrition Lesson Series.