About us

We are an international group of experts in childhood feeding and eating disorders;
we are authors and clinicians, researchers, advocates, and teachers.

Brought together by a mutual commitment to a responsive approach to feeding work, we love to collaborate both as part of this project and with other professionals with a similar ethos. We recognize that high quality training opportunities are critical to meaningful professional development. We recognize the need for training and resources that stay true to the values and principles of Responsive Feeding Therapy. Always learning ourselves, we celebrate our different perspectives on feeding work and in our varied practice settings, against a backdrop of shared values.

Jo Cormack PhD, MBACP

Jo Cormack PhD, MBACP

Jo is a feeding dynamics specialist, researcher, and registered therapist. She helps families of avoidant eaters with the relational and emotional aspects of food and feeding. Jo is also an award-winning writer on feeding and completed a PhD in psychology. Her research area is parental feeding practices in the context of avoidant eating. Jo is the author of Helping Children Develop a Positive Relationship with Food (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). She trains and supervises feeding professionals and is interested in helping clinicians from diverse disciplines draw on psychological and psychotherapeutic theory in their practice.

Katja Rowell MD

Katja Rowell MD

Katja Rowell MD is a family doctor, author and responsive childhood feeding specialist. Described as “academic, but warm and down to earth,” she is a popular speaker and blogger and has appeared in numerous publications. Katja has developed an expertise in anxious and avoidant eating (including ARFID), food preoccupation, and supporting foster and adopted children. Katja is on the SPOON medical advisory board and founder of The Feeding Doctor. Her books include: Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating: A Step-by-Step Guide to Overcoming Selective Eating, Food Aversion, and Feeding Disorders.  Learn more about Katja at The Feeding Doctor.

Heidi Liefer Moreland MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, CLC

Heidi Liefer Moreland MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, CLC

Heidi is a speech therapist and feeding specialist with Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics. Heidi, a self-proclaimed “research geek”,  has 30 years of experience working with children, 25 of them with children who have feeding challenges.  Relying on her training in communication, childhood development and feeding and swallowing, Heidi helps children develop a trusting relationship with food that allows their skills to flourish.  She loves helping children and families work together to develop happy and healthy mealtime communication and habits that will last and grow as they do.  Heidi supports families virtually and in-person through family mealtime coaching, remote responsive feeding therapy, and the Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics Feeding Tube Weaning Program

Jennifer Berry MS, OT/L

Jennifer Berry MS, OT/L

Jennifer Berry is an occupational therapist and feeding specialist with Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics. Jennifer has more than two decades of experience helping children overcome challenges they face when it comes to eating. Using her knowledge of learning, sensory processing, attachment, and motor skill development, Jennifer facilitates children’s abilities to trust, understand and relate to food now and into the future. Coaching parents into confidence around feeding their kids and family mealtimes brings her great joy and impactful results to the families she serves. Jennifer supports families virtually and in-person through family mealtime coaching, remote responsive feeding therapy, and the Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics Feeding Tube Weaning Program. 

Grace Wong MSc, RD, CEDRD-S

Grace Wong MSc, RD, CEDRD-S

Grace Wong MSc, RD, CEDRD-S is a registered dietitian specializing in feeding and eating disorders. She works with all ages, and has extensive experience in pediatrics and mental health nutrition. Grace is experienced in working with a broad range of eating challenges along with complex co-existing conditions including medical conditions, mental health concerns, addictions, developmental concerns, and trauma. Her experience in both eating disorders and pediatric feeding offers perspectives of unique feeding challenges faced by parents in eating disorder recovery. Grace is an approved supervisor recognized by the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals.  Besides her clinical practice, she provides training and supervision for health professionals working with feeding and eating disorders in Canada and overseas.

Hazel Wolstenholme PhD

Hazel Wolstenholme PhD

Dr. Hazel Wolstenholme is a Feeding Psychology Specialist with a particular interest in feeding dynamics. She completed her BA (Psychology) and PhD at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her doctoral research focused on how parents and children experience and manage “fussy eating” challenges. Hazel has extensive training in responsive, behavioral and sensory feeding interventions. She works with families globally at Child Feeding Support, coaching parents to use a responsive feeding approach for a range of feeding challenges. Hazel is passionate about bridging the gap between research and clinical practice by publishing research findings in peer-reviewed journals and providing training workshops for health professionals.

Natalia Stasenko RD

Natalia Stasenko RD

Natalia Stasenko RD is a registered dietitian, credentialed both in the US and UK. One of her main professional areas is the management of feeding difficulties in children and finding creative ways to help them meet their nutritional needs despite limited diets. She co-wrote two books on starting solids and offers support to families and professionals through her website FeedingBytes.com. We want to congratulate co-founder Natalia Stasenko RD who has been selected for an app development program for her app designed to help parents feed young children. She is moving on from RFPro to pursue this and other opportunities. We will miss Natalia, and are grateful for her help and vision in launching RFPro!

Advisor

Skye Van Zetten

Skye Van Zetten

Skye is the mother of teenaged twins and founder of Mealtime Hostage. What started as a blog to capture the isolating experience that is feeding a child diagnosed with specific food phobias has become a source of support and hope for thousands of parents worldwide. Skye tirelessly advocates for children’s rights to be free of food politics in the classroom, despite the perceived vitamin load of a celery stick. She continues to study society’s relationship with food through the critical lens of Communication Arts.

OUR ETHOS

We recognize and honor the intrinsic worth of every individual, regardless of age, disability, sex, gender identity, race, body size, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We strive to create a learning community that celebrates diversity, inclusion and embodied wellness.

We recognize that racist and patriarchal power structures profoundly impact public policy that directly and indirectly effect health and wellness. Examples include: perinatal mortality statistics for Black mothers, poverty, and food insecurity. In a US context, there are also healthcare access disparities, a lack of paid time off and parental leave, and food deserts.

We believe that access to enough food is a basic human right.

We seek to practice cultural humility and work towards social justice in food access and care of families. We reject shaming culturally meaningful foods.

We promote size-acceptance and body diversity.

We stand against the systemic oppression of (and discrimination against) women.

We celebrate neurodiversity. We do not advocate a “cure” for autism, through dietary or other means. We strive to understand and work with the unique sensory and functional experiences and abilities of all individuals. We strive to accommodate learners with varying support needs.

We support a vision of “health” as multifactorial, and reject healthism and ableism.

We are always learning and growing. We will make mistakes and we want to learn. If you have concerns, feedback or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We want to do better.