This is the most frequent question that comes up when talking with potential clients. And rightly so; if you are going to part with those hard-earned dollars you need to have a clear picture of the cost. While I can give you a breakdown of the costs, it is important to note that since every person needs an individual approach, those costs vary. I’ll explain all that here.
Appointments:
Let’s dive in. Your Initial Assessment is $200. This appointment takes 75 minutes and is an in-depth conversation about your history with food, medical history, medications, and supplements you are on, and anything else that may clue us in on what needs to be involved in your plan (hint: we will definitely be talking about poop). Your part is over after that 75 minutes, but Melanee takes that information and will research your conditions, medications, supplements, blood work, and everything else. This takes several hours just to get going on your plan…before we really start working. We are able to keep this cost fairly low, because the typical client will need at least 12 appointments, so working together over time helps to offset the upfront time involved.
After your initial assessment, you will have follow-up appointments. Each follow-up costs $130. 50 minutes are set aside for your follow-ups – we will use up as much of that time as you need for what we are working on during that appointment. You will be seen every other week for the first 3-6 months of care – although there can be some exceptions that spread out appointments or make them closer together depending on how much support you need.
Nutrition is not a quick fix. It takes time. Therefore, when you are deciding if you want to initiate care keep in mind that clients, on average, will be working with IFN for a minimum of 6 months. During your first appointment, we will schedule you for at least your next 10 appointments to secure a good time slot for you.
Your appointments are set up this way for a few reasons:
- We believe that if you can get the results you want by changing 1 thing why change 10? Using a slower approach to dietary and lifestyle change helps to pinpoint the things that actually help and the things that are less helpful. That way you keep what works and discard the rest.
- Speaking of dietary and lifestyle change, these things take time and often you need a good support system in place to reinforce those new patterns of thinking, so we have built-in, regular check-ins.
- We have yet to meet a client who doesn’t have some food “issues” who needs some support to unpack those. We spend time in your sessions talking about more than your symptoms. We want to understand where you struggle with listening to your body and feeding yourself in an intuitive way, so you can heal that relationship and enjoy nourishing your body your whole life.
- Lastly, if we are trying a new food or supplement to help address some symptoms, we need to check in regularly to ensure that the intervention is having the intended outcome.
Other costs:
Now we get into the more unknown portions of the costs. Some clients really need further lab work. This can be done through your medical provider for basic tests, but for some functional tests you need to go through a functional provider – we help with that. IFN does not charge for these labs, but we do charge a $50 lab interpretation fee when we get a set of results. It takes your provider time to analyze these lab markers and what they mean for your nutrition. All other expenses associated with lab work is paid directly to your doctor or to the lab that runs the panels.
Another area of expense is in supplementation. IFN only uses and recommends the highest quality of supplements. Every client will have different supplement expenses and needs. Some clients use little to no supplements. Other clients are on a lot for a time. It is our goal to help our clients use mostly food to nourish their bodies. That being said, a supplement regimen can get the body back on track and make all the difference in your health journey. The cost will obviously vary depending on your needs. IFN uses 2 online dispensaries: Fullscript and Wellevate. Through these companies, you will have access to all the recommendations of your nutritionist. IFN does not contract with a single company, but many, we pick the best product for your individual needs. IFN gets a small percentage of the cost of your supplements. This cost is used to pay for the time it takes to meet with supplement companies, learn about new products, and research ingredients.
While the total of each person’s time with IFN will vary depending on your needs, we hope that this little breakdown helps to explain what you can expect from your wallet. Our hope is that when you are done working with us you will never need a nutritionist again. You will know your body and will understand what does and doesn’t work for you without needing someone to tell you how to eat.
Warmly,
Melanee
she/her/hers
