Robin-Puertas Elyse RD CWC

I saw Elyse to receive information and help with disordered eating patterns of mine. In particular, I suffered from binge eating disorder paired with some anorexic tendencies. We met weekly and I was encouraged to keep a food log diary of everything that I ate and the times at which I ate. I maintained to keep a very honest log, even keeping track of behaviors that I was not proud of. At each of our appointments, we reviewed the food log and discussed reasons for binges and irregular eating habits. Through honest discussion, Elyse helped me to understand the physiological reasons behind my binges.
After a few weeks of meeting to particularly discuss the binge eating behavior, Elyse led a natural transition into teaching me how to construct my meals. She was a wonderful teacher, answering my questions and giving me handouts on the importance of each food group. Elyse also helped me determine what is an appropriate portion size for someone of my body structure.
The greatest thing about working with Elyse is that she was very conscious of the ways in which she spoke with me and discussed the eating disorder as something that was apart from me and something that I could overcome. She took an honest interest in the eating disorder as a mental condition and at each appointment we discussed psychological techniques I could use to calm and transform the eating disorder mind. The amount of information she shared with me empowered me to feel comfortable constructing cohesive meals and having a positive attitude around food. I would absolutely recommend Elyse to anyone who is looking to rid themselves of disordered eating.

I saw Elyse at PAMF for about two and a half years due to an eating disorder. She is an amazingly sweet person, but I don’t really think she’s the greatest dietitian. I often left my appointments feeling more determined to act out on my eating disorder behaviors. I did not improve under her care. She also tended to cancel a lot of appointments. There always seemed to be a mix-​up with her scheduler or something. She’s only down in her Palo Alto office two times a week so I find it rather ridiculous that she can’t manage that very well.
I was feeling like I was getting nowhere with Elyse and that she’d be fine continuing forever not making any progress or motivating me at all. The last straw is when I straight up asked her if she even thought I had an eating disorder and she said NO! (My psychiatrist, MD, and therapist would beg to differ!). So why did I just spend all this time and money seeing her if she didn’t even think I had an eating disorder?!
It was a total waste. She’s just not helpful. She says triggering things to people with eating disorders. She doesn’t really motivate you to really find recovery and work on it. I would have felt bad only giving her one star because she is very nice and I think she means well. She’s just not effective.