What is a clinician to do when patients are not responding to the health care innovation du jour that you helped create? Tell them they're wrong, or there is something wrong with them while clinging to a story that is not true because it does not support the pervading narrative? A clinician with integrity will listen to their patient. They will learn from their patient. They will continue to study to expand the knowledge base to help the patient in need instead of clinging to an idealistic dogmatic principle that has no basis in reality or utility in actual clinical practice. Enter Jessica Brown-- clinical nutritionist, author The Loving Diet, trailblazer in the field of clinical nutrition. She was there when autoimmune paleo diet came to light. She was an early adopter of these principles in her practice and helped bring the movement to life to the benefit of so many. What's not to love about AIP? This diet helped so many people that were not finding answers and the standard and alternative model. Literally adopting this diet led so many people to recovery from conditions they otherwise may have suffered from in perpetuity in the existing models. But what happens for those that it doesn't work for? What happens if they actually get worse on AIP? Well sadly the same people that were dismissed and gaslit for years by the existing dogmatic models became the gaslighters and dismissers of their fellow sufferers. In this conversation, clinician and author Jessica Brown (formerly Flanagan) discusses her evolution from being a central figure in the Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) community to developing a more compassion-centered, individualized approach to health. She reflects on her early advocacy for AIP, which initially offered hope and symptom relief for many with autoimmune diseases, but also became dogmatic and rigid in online communities. As clients began to experience worsening symptoms, eating disorders, and emotional distress, Jessica questioned the one-size-fits-all nature of restrictive diets. She faced backlash and ostracism from the AIP community for advocating nuance and patient-centered care, but maintained her integrity by focusing on compassion and believing her patients’ experiences, even when it meant professional hardship. Now, Jessica’s work centers on helping people understand the emotional drivers behind their health choices, such as whether they’re pursuing diets out of abundance or fear. She emphasizes that without addressing underlying trauma, self-judgment, and how individuals relate to their diagnosis or their bodies, no diet—AIP, carnivore, intuitive eating—will create lasting healing. Her new book focuses on emotional eating and self-compassion, using principles of reparenting and noetic field therapy to help clients regulate their nervous systems and heal from past emotional wounds. She underscores that healing must involve the heart, not just the mind, and that true transformation often comes from leaning into discomfort with compassion rather than running from it.
Find jessica: https://www.thelovingdiet.com/about-me
