Nourishing Differently: Eating disorder nutrition care for autistic, ADHD, and neurodivergent clients (Eating Disorder Education Series)

Recovery does not require spontaneous, flexible eating with broad variety — and treating it as though it does can quietly work against neurodivergent clients instead of helping them.

Nourishing Differently is a clinical reference for dietitians, therapists, and treatment teams working with autistic, ADHD, and otherwise neurodivergent clients in eating disorder care. It builds a central argument the field hasn't fully caught up to: external structure — same foods, same routines, clocks instead of hunger cues — is not failed intuition and not incomplete recovery. For many neurodivergent clients, it's simply what nourishment looks like.

This is not another intuitive-eating book asking neurodivergent clients to override how they actually function. It's a framework for telling a stable, adequate accommodation apart from a narrowing one — and for recognizing when an eating disorder has learned to use a genuine sensory or executive trait without ever changing its outward form.

Inside:

- A seven-question clinical framework for assessment, prioritizing medical safety first and diagnostic certainty never
- A client-facing assessment tool with a full clinician interpretation guide
- A six-session group curriculum for neurodivergence-affirming treatment
- Five clinical tools, including a mechanism-based decision tree and a care-coordination matrix
- Twelve copy-ready client handouts — covering sensory profiles, executive function, masking in treatment, medication and appetite, burnout, binge-spectrum and loss-of-control eating, and a one-page communication passport clients can hand to any new provider
- A full caregiver and support-person guide
- An extensively verified bibliography spanning the current autism, ADHD, and eating-disorder research

Nourishing Differently also tackles what's usually left out: the difference between accommodation and reinforcement, why capacity before compliance isn't permission to under-treat malnutrition, how shame shapes what clients disclose, and why a client's autonomy is not the same as their independence.

Part of The Eating Disorder Education Series, alongside Gender-Affirming Nourishment .

Written for: registered dietitians, therapists, treatment teams, and higher-level-of-care programs working with neurodivergent clients in eating disorder treatment.