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What We Believe
Who We Are
We are a group of highly sensitive, burden-bearing dietitians, biblical counseling and Holy Spirit led prayer leaders who desire the fruit of the spirit to be lived out in all believers lives who come to have freedom from oppression from food and body image worries, health concerns and deliverance from trauma and emotional and mental overwhelm.
We practice from a ‘Health at Every Size Approach’, encourage non-diet eating and not following the CULTure’s mandates that worth is dependent on looks or size but on the content of one’s heart. We understand that not all trauma is obvious and that a spirt of rejection and fear is at the heart of it making us all vulnerable to disordered eating, chronic dieting and compulsive eating as well as chronic shame, anxiety, depression, phobias, people pleasing, workaholism and other overwhelming circumstances – these circumstances the enemy uses to kill, steal and destroy our destinies in Christ and we are here to stand in the gap for your healing and reconciliation to God.
We believe healthy support from professionals aims to work towards independence for clients; we know that efficient counseling requires emotional maturity on the part of the practitioner and willingness on the part of the client to be vulnerable and persist through the challenges of healing, trusting God to do the heavy lifting with our participation in the process.
If you have been in nutrition or other counseling to help with disordered eating of any kind or trauma, we understand that sometimes we have “overridden” to get it “over with”, not known the conditions for healing from God and lost hope, leaving the process too soon or not have been ready for to let go of the things of this world to move forward to the gifts that await.
We understand how the physiology of trauma work (fight, flight, freeze and please) and know in our pasts we have had experiences of “too much or not enough” and will dutifully guide you to go at the pace you can go while bringing our experiences of being overcomers ourselves to the process so that you know you are not alone as the Holy Spirt leads and transforms.
Meet the Team
Tracy Brown
Founder, RD, LD / N
The reason this healing, encouragement, deliverance and teaching center exits will make more sense once we take a stroll down memory lane into what God has done to redeem me, and I pray by extension, you.
I grew up on the outside looking in like everything was “fine” but that is the deception of the enemy correct? Make you believe that he doesn’t exist in the shiny veneer. He certainly did in my growing up.
As a highly-sensitive kid made even more sensitive and hypervigilant by developmental, relational and exposure to ritual, physical and sexual abuse, it made me almost clairvoyant and I thought everyone was like this.
What was encouraged as good work ethic, thinking of others before yourself and being “in control” really became pride, workaholism, perfectionism, inability to have fun, repressing emotions (not taking up too much space), constant body and mental fatigue bordering on autoimmune issues and tolerating manipulation and codependence in most relationships in my life.
So course, being “good” at everything and to everyone caused me to implode into OCD by time I was 8, near death anorexia at 16 and insidious restrictive and binge cycle of eating, exercise compulsion and abusive relationship from 18-22.
Why are all these details important to you? Because God had me even though I didn’t really know it and brought me support to heal from crushing eating disorders, OCD, new age practices and each year he softens the need to be a part of the rat race of this world.
Let me tell you a little of the when and how.
I always had a relationship with God but I grew up in a denomination that focused more on ritual, leadership obedience and guilt than the resurrecting power and relationship with Jesus Christ. Another side of my family had been in secret society as far back as I can find obituaries for seeking power and influence. Because of that, my reaching for Him in fear, shame and alone-ness didn’t cross my mind and I lived a life of self-reliance. The other factors, of course, were my family’s emphasis on fat is bad or an indicator of laziness and the world’s emphasis on being successful and controlling your body and appearance to earn worth, acceptance and love, or at the very least less criticism, led me into diet culture.
But we all know where food obsession, earning man’s approval and idolizing our own abilities leads….. in an endless loop of only feeling “okay” once we have performed and there is little room for care, maturing spiritually or the ability to take in what is good from God or the world.
How did God reach me and allow me to choose?
I will let you watch the videos below for the blow by blow of the process but both recovery and trauma healing and giving my life to Christ started at two separate times in my life where I had deep and genuine sorrow and repentance for what the eating disorder was doing to my life and to God and I humbled myself to do what was necessary to have victory.
I fully believe “Your tears will heal you’ (Psalms. 56:8, Revelation 7:17, 21:4)
Trauma and New Age Healing and Testimony
Testimony of Freedom from Domestic Abuse and the Fitness Industry
We welcome you here to this space where strengthening your spirit is all in service to more discernment to a right relationship with your soul (mind, will and emotions) and body (healthy relationship to size, health and movement)
Amy Ozier
PhD, RD, LD / N
Oh how God uses our mess for His message. Which is why I sit here writing this bio as a trauma informed nutrition therapist for eating disorders and one who has recovered from about every eating disorder known to mankind.
My bio used to begin with a bunch of credentials and work experience, but this one starts out with the most important fact about Amy Ozier….she is a child of God. Without that, the foundation dissolves. She is gigantically blessed with a hot hubby of 16 years (24 including courting) and 3 children (2 teens….ahhhh). Amy loves coffee and Jesus in the morning while sitting on the patio listening to the birds and reading the Word. Walking is her favorite movement as it is time to pray, catch up on Marco Polos, and on a really good day, serves as a quick date with her hubby. She has recently discovered her love of catching a wave (on a boogie board) in God’s vast ocean creation. She enjoys serving on the board of BodyBloved, which is an organization that claims food freedom for so many stuck with strongholds related to food, body and movement.
She has been blessed with a variety of work experiences including clinical dietitian, Associate Professor, research consultant, wellness dietitian, but God has saved the best for last (at least for now)….a trauma informed nutrition therapist for eating disorders. This is such a testament to the fact that when we are IN the fire, we are being refined for something better ahead and to grow the Kingdom. At the tender age of 7, I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Without recovery, I struggled with various eating disorders until the mid 30’s. There is no way I would have empathy and compassion for my clients in the way I do today had it not been for these decades. I don’t like to wish because our God is not a genie, but if I may, I wish I had access to trauma informed dietitians during my recovery over those decades. Someone to move beyond the surface issues of a meal plan and truly see me. And to see the trauma my nervous system had endured, and see how I was wired in fear, and see how prevention was worth a pound of cure. Satan indeed used my mind as the battlefield and gladly chose the eating disorder voice as his cocktail of choice. I did not have tools in my toolbox to cope with the stressors of life on top of being a people pleaser and perfectionist. But God did an amazing work by putting people in my life that helped me take every thought captive according to Christ.
I was never admitted to residential treatment. But a cornerstone of my healing was observing a friend/officemate for years who engaged in normal eating. She enjoyed mixed meals, loved all types of food, and ate what at that time would have been fear foods for me. It was her modeling that allowed me to start trusting my own body. And as the years went on and marriage and kids happened and my energies became less, I had no capacity to fight food any longer. When I was weak, He was strong! God blessed me with learning my hunger and satiation cues again. PRAISE HIM! I now love food, I love the experiences with food and I especially love a date with my hubby where we enjoy food together!
For those of you who feel stuck in the diet mentality and fear you will never be released from this battle, take heart, He has overcome the world. Freedom is possible. Praying right now you take the first step to peace with food and body….perhaps it is reaching out to Tracy in this venue. Perhaps this is the moment you were made for! She/he believed she could and so she did!
McKenzie Brown
RD, LD / N
McKenzie is a registered and licensed dietitian nutritionist. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics and her Master’s in Public Health from Samford University in Birmingham, AL. McKenzie’s relationship with Jesus Christ fuels her passion to study how faith and food intersect. Knowing that God’s Word is intentional in naming Jesus the Bread of Life and Living Water, she desires to share how scripture reveals God’s design for individuals’ relationships with food and their bodies.
McKenzie has experience working in both eating disorder treatment and mental health treatment centers. She believes that ultimate food and body freedom can only be found through understanding the truths explained in the Gospel. Being a certified intuitive eating counselor, she cares deeply about restoring people’s relationships with food and body image to the way that God intended. Her desire is to help individuals connect with their food, body, and mind in a soulful way – to be consumed by love for Jesus and focused on the way He sees them. McKenzie feels called to help those she works with understand this Biblical truth so they can reach ultimate physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
McKenzie enjoys the outdoors and loves activities like hiking, walking at the beach, picnics, and riding bikes around the neighborhood. These things give her peace and calm her heart as they point to the loving God who created them. She loves traveling to new places, seeing different cultures, and observing how different people carry on their lives. While these things bring her deep joy, she finds ultimate fulfillment in guiding others to a place of healing – where they no longer experience fear or guilt around food and can live out God’s call on their own lives in freedom.
Char-Lee
Cassel
RD, LD / N
Char-Lee Cassel is a registered and licensed dietitian nutritionist and a clinical exercise physiologist. She received her Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from Washington State University in 2016. She practices nutrition therapy for eating disorders in Elverson, PA, has developed intuitive eating courses and is a co-host of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women Podcast.
Char-Lee has personal experience recovering from disordered eating and professional experience walking alongside others to do the same. She celebrates body diversity and values peoples lived experiences. She takes a gentle approach to nutrition and believes there is room for all foods in a healthy eating pattern.
Char-Lee is a wife and a mom of two boys, a big dog, and a flock of chickens. She’s a huge fan of donuts, mountains, and gardening. Her favorite place is out on the lake in her kayak or anywhere she can explore the world with her kiddos.
Karis
Jentink
RD, LD / N
Karis is a registered dietitian nutritionist. She received her Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from the University of Northern Colorado and her Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Wisconsin Stout.
Having walked through her own struggles with food and body image, she found a passion for helping others heal their relationships with food and their bodies and strives to proclaim truth in a culture that teaches image-based value.
Karis has a special heart for adolescent, college-age, and pregnant women who wrestle with the lies fed to them about food and body. She believes that food is and should be an enjoyable part of life that connects us to others, our own bodies, and our culture.
Karis seeks to walk alongside each individual as they discover and explore their own story regarding food and their body. These narratives are powerful lenses through which we see ourselves, and they desperately need
compassion.
Karis is a lover of mountains, coffee, good books, and good company. She enjoys learning about different cultures and their traditions (check out the Swedish word “Fika”).
You can find her enjoying the morning sun and laughing at most dad jokes and puns. Passionate about emotional and relational connection, Karis enjoys studying the science of interpersonal relationships, including attachment theory, love styles, etc.
Lydia Saylor
Ministry Assistant