Helen West

Helen is a clinical dietitian and metabolic balance coach who specialises in eating disorders, obesity, and gastrointestinal conditions.

My Passion

In every case my aim is to empower you to celebrate lifestyle change and appreciate a new life-long connection with food and nutrition. 

My Personal Story

The start of my love of good food began as a small child cooking cakes with my grandmother, which sowed the seeds for a flair in Home Economics.

Throughout my school years this passion continued and at sixteen I went to a cookery college in Eastbourne.  Although I loved cooking every day for a year,

this was my first time living away from home and I was young and easily influenced.

At nearly 6ft tall I have always been slim and sporty but in an all girls college I wanted to ‘fit in’ and as it seemed everyone was on a ‘diet’ except me, I too started to restrict food.  Within 8 weeks I had lost 1.5 st. My whole personality had changed from happy go lucky to moody, irritable and angry – I didn’t recognise myself.   I know now that I was at the very start of an Eating Disorder. Luckily, term ended I went home for the holidays.  Once away from that environment I quickly went back to my old self and regained my weight but I will never forget how quickly an Eating Disorder can develop and the impact it has. 

I went on to working in the catering industry for 8 years but needed a break so not knowing which direction to take I completed a secretarial course and worked for 6 years in London as a secretary in the property and fashion industries.  Although I acquired multiple skills and experiences along the way it was not my passion and I knew it was time to reignite why I truly loved food but not necessarily through cooking.

My Journey

I currently work for the NHS and private healthcare sector as a Registered Dietician. 

In 1991, I returned to education and trained as a dietician at London Metropolitan, qualifying in 1996 with an honours degree in human nutrition and dietetics. This consolidated my early passions in cooking, nutrition, health & fitness and equipped me to contribute to the positive change in others. This length of service has not only given me a wealth of experience but allowed me time to continually advance and engage with a multitude of health and dietary approaches which in turn gives me the opportunity to share this expertise:-

These include: Eating Disorders, Tier 3 Weight Management, Clinical nutrition and metabolism, Metabolic Balance Coaching, Sports Nutrition, Advanced Hypnotherapy, an MSc in the psychological approaches to health & management. 

I have also found that a short term low FOD MAPs diet can be a useful intervention for irritable bowel syndrome and help reduce the effects of inflammatory bowel conditions such as Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease.

My particular areas of professional interest and expertise are in all branches of disordered eating and weight management but more importantly delivering the most effective result always starts with delivering the most appropriate pathway.

Whether you need to optimise your recreational fitness training and find the balance between exercise and nutrition or struggle with body issues related to stress and anxiety, I will lead your journey and be with you to promote a healthier, happier outcome.

My Approach

Some would say that I like to chat…..but our initial contact will consist mainly of listening and building trust. Understanding your story and giving you the safe space to be able to share what you would like to achieve is paramount. The chatting and advice will follow! 

Although there are general targets most people want to achieve, there is never a typical solution, so we may work together using Metabolic Balance, or in conjunction with a therapist from Health Matters to address disordered eating.  This may include bulimia, anorexia, ARFID and everything in between. It might be that you need help with clinically diagnosed gut related conditions such as IBS Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBD Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 

I would like to think my strength is using my knowledge from my various walks of life. First and foremost Dietetics but blended with knowledge and experience from my catering background and love of good food. Combine this with my other passions for cycling, pilates, strength training and the skills I have learnt with behaviour change and continued professional development over the years and I believe, together we can achieve your long term results.

• 2024 – Present
• NHS Bank Community Dietitian
• 2005 – Present
• Weight Matters Group. Dietitian
• 2024
• Oviva a remote private Tier 3 service for weight loss.
• 2021
• Fakenham Tier 3 Weight Management Service, Norfolk. Dietetic role in a multi-disciplinary team of GP’s, nurses, psychologists and exercise experts, enabling patients to lose weight and in some cases, progress to bariatric surgery. 
• 2019
• Emotional Eating with Dr Denise Radcliffe
• 2017, 2018, 2019
• Norfolk Obesity Network Obesity Study Days
• 2018 – 2020
• Brama Care Residential Eating Disorder unit, consultant Dietitian.
• 1997 – 2017
• NHS Lead Community Dietitian, West Norfolk GP Practices.
• 2016
• Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice Conference
• 2015
• ESPEN – The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism in Lisbon, Portugal, 
• 2015
• Metabolic Coaching for Metabolic Balance
• 2012
• Mental Health and Eating Disorders, Leeds Metropolitan University
• 2011
• FOD MAPs (Fermentable Oligo-saccharides, Di-saccharides, Mono-saccharides and Polyols,  King’s College, London
• 2010
• ILM Management Course, King’s College, London
• 2009
• Management of Chronic Kidney Disease,  King’s College, London
• 2008
• Master Practitioners Diploma in Eating Disorders – The National Centre For Eating Disorders
• 2004 – 2006
• MSc in The Psychological Approaches to Health and Management, University of Bedfordshire, Luton
• 2003
• Diabetic Project Looking at newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetics in 4 GP practices across West Norfolk published in Practical Diabetes, November 2005
• 2003
• Change Course Writing Business Cases and Coaching Skills and writing patient leaflets
• 2002
• British Dietetic Association Change training using CBT, Interpersonal skills, motivational approaches to change Level 1-3 with Dietitian,  D. Pearson – Birmingham
• 2001
• Diploma in Advanced Hypnotherapy – Austin Training, London
• 2000
• NHS Foundation Management Course
  covering active listening, learning styles, appraisal training, presentations, developing assertiveness, team building, counselling for performance improvement, and building rapport.
• 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005
• Working with obese patients 4 x 3 day courses using NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique with Transform Consultancy, Leamington Spa
• 1996
• Presentation skills course using Kolb Method – Transform Consultancy,Leamington Spa
• 1996
• Sports Nutrition Foundation – Accredited Sports Nutrition , Lougborough University, Leicestershire.
• 1991 – 1996
• London Metropolitan University, North London
  BSc (Hons) in human nutrition and dietetics.