Our partners

About us

SHiFT — Recovery by Acorn

A leader in the groundbreaking field of food addiction treatment, SHiFT – Recovery by Acorn is committed to supporting people to lift themselves out of the depths of food obsession. SHiFT provides successful treatment for food addiction using cutting-edge solutions modeled after drug and alcohol addiction recovery.

Spanning three decades, we have worked with thousands of people struggling with binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, bulimia, anorexia, and other eating disorders. The transformations are awe-inspiring. We are passionate about guiding you out of the shackles of food addiction and into a productive life that you never imagined possible.

Whether you are just beginning your recovery journey, have long-term recovery, or are in relapse, we have several ways to help. SHiFT Recovery programs include our signature SHiFT Intensive Treatment Program, the Acorn Intensive, Alumni Weekend programs, and 1:1 Accountability Coaching and Counseling. We also offer free online support meetings four times a week click here for more information.

At SHiFT, we understand the struggle of food addiction, both personally and professionally. There is hope. We are committed to bringing you a life of freedom from food obsession. Join us to discover a whole new way of living. Join us to discover the SHiFT: Sobriety, Hope, Freedom, and Transformation.

Free 30 Minute Consultation! Take the next step on your recovery journey and schedule an appointment today with one of our compassionate and highly skilled counsellors.

Bittens Addiction Corp

Bitten Jonsson is an educator, trainer, and coach with a long and storied role in the development of Food Addiction diagnosis and treatment. She offers two educational programs:

SUGAR® SUGAR® diagnostic assessment is the most powerful tool available to aid clients worldwide in understanding and accepting the complex condition of sugar/carb addiction. It helps overcome denial, shame, and stigma and significantly increases motivation and compliance among those who assess as sugar/carb addicted.

SUGAR® is a valuable certification, now available for healthcare professionals of all types – doctors, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, physical therapists, addiction counselors, health educators, naturopaths, personal trainers, coaches, social workers, obesity and mental health specialists, etc.

HMA® Join Bitten Jonsson, world-renowned trainer of sugar/carb addiction professionals, for an evidence-based certification course on Holistic Medicine for Addiction (HMA®).

Learn to successfully guide clients in:

Nutrition for the addicted brain (LCHF/keto)
Adaptation of food plans
DSM-5, ICD-10/11
Screening, assessment evaluation, and diagnosis (SUGAR®, ADDIS®, GAMES®)
The role of integrative and orthomolecular medicine in modern addiction treatment
Relapse prevention, protocol, and treatment
De-shaming
Solution-oriented, brief intervention protocols
The importance of self-help groups
Lifelong maintenance protocol
Extensive recovery skills and more

Renaissance Nutrition

Many years ago, I was applying to my first university. I was interested in electronics; my parents said that girls could not be electronic engineers. So I chose nutrition as a “girl’s” curriculum, planning to change majors when I could.

In one of my first nutrition classes, I found myself interrupting the teacher with questions. “Do you really mean that the chicken I ate for dinner will soon become my heart, lungs, liver, or eyeballs? How can that happen?”

“Yes, my dear,” said the teacher, “And I am here to teach you just how the body does that.”

The very idea that food could be literally transformed into my brain or lungs or other body parts was just amazing to me. Since that first nutrition class, I have been fascinated by learning how the body does this; how food is the substrate that the body changes into our very beings, and how the body uses food to grow, repair, and heal itself.

During 15 years in hospital dietetics, I encountered some clients who had a set of issues which made them uniquely ill and unable to make good decisions. As I began to work with them, I came to understand that, in some people, the body’s response to certain foods is uniquely different and very much like an alcoholic or other substance addict’s response.

In 2005 I found the Food Addiction Institute, which was just establishing itself. These were the people who understood me when other dietitians often did not. These people helped me without laughter or denial or condescension. We worked together to find solutions that worked for the client.

People can have physical reactions to many different foods, but always the overprocessed and man-made foods, and many of the not-food nutrient-free additives are part of the substance abuse.

Not everyone is a food addict, and not all addictions are the same, but in more than 30 years of practice, I am grateful to have been given the empathy, wisdom, and intelligence to help thousands of people get free of this painful, harmful addiction.

This is done by eating healthy nutrient-rich foods to which the body is not addicted and learning to create a much more satisfying life for themselves. ~ H. Theresa Wright, founder

Bonnie Nolan

+01-732-221-6059
61 Green St., Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Lic. 37LC00351600

Dr. Nolan is a Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor and a Certified Food Addiction Specialist. She treats various addictions and problematic behaviors individually and in groups to help clients achieve a balanced life.

She uses techniques based on client readiness and receptivity, often incorporating trauma therapies like CPT and EMDR due to the prevalence of trauma backgrounds among her clients. Additionally, Dr. Nolan employs REBT and CBT, both aimed at reframing perceptions to manage emotions. REBT particularly emphasizes behavior as therapy, asserting that mood follows action.

Dr. Nolan is certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and uses it to treat clients in challenging situations such as unemployment, problematic relationships, or coping with illness. DBT focuses on mindfulness and self-regulation, which are key concepts for managing cravings and urges, and learning to respond calmly rather than react emotionally.

In therapy with Dr. Nolan, clients will focus on identifying beliefs that cause distress, many of which were formed during traumatic experiences, often before they had the verbal skills to understand or articulate them. These are often old beliefs that are no longer rational or beneficial.

Additionally, some clients participate in 12-step programs and use the steps to recognize unhelpful thought patterns. Clients learn to identify and actively challenge irrational beliefs while acquiring coping and self-soothing skills to avoid self-destructive behaviors.

If you want to know about becoming an institute partner, here’s the full rundown:

Food Junkies

Dr. Vera Ingrid Tarman, who has been working in addiction medicine since 1994, pioneered the first inpatient and outpatient programs for Food Addiction in Canada at Renascent, one of Canada’s largest treatment centers for substance abuse. A world-renowned figure in Food Addiction, she holds an MD, MSc, FCFP, and is accredited by the Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM).

Dr. Tarman is the author of Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction (soon to be in its third edition) a standard text used in the field of Food Addiction. She cohosts the Food Junkies Podcast with Clarissa Kennedy and Molly Painshab, interviewing experts and keeping up with the latest issues. Dr. Tarman has been featured on national media including CBC and shows like The Agenda, co-hosted two TV addiction call-in series (Addictions Unplugged and Toronto Speaks: Addiction), and maintains a website on addictions called addictionsunplugged.com. You can find her now at her YouTube channel veratarmanmd, and on her Facebook group: “I’m Sweet Enough: Sugar Free for Life.”

As a recovering Food Addict herself who has maintained a 100-pound weight loss for over 17 years, Dr. Tarman brings personal experience to her professional work. Her passion is to put Food Addiction “on the table” of services offered to people suffering from addictions, as it is often dismissed or neglected. Dr. Tarman believes that freedom from Food Addiction IS food serenity. She is a firm believer in the power of education and community to facilitate recovery, and likes to say her tagline “the power is ours,”

If you want to know about becoming an institute partner, here’s the full rundown:

The institute’s Partnership Program, which is free for the first year and then carries an annual fee to help support the institute’s public and professional outreach, provides that listing and quite a bit more:

You’ll get an expanded listing in a second location on our site, offering a chance to explain your history, your approach, and other material you choose. If you’ve been featured in someone’s video cast, we’ll include them so people can see you in action.
Every time you write a blog post, release a video, are interviewed by someone else, or are a part of other content, we’ll post a headline with a link to it, both on our home page and in our newsletter.
We’ll do the same for you if you offer free content to alumni, prospective clients, or others.
If you start a paid program, we’ll write a couple of paragraphs for the newsletter, with a link.
A partner will be featured in each issue of our newsletter.
Half-price advertisements for your services in our newsletter.
A direct link to the Food Addiction Institute board, to comment on and help guide the institute’s future. We can talk about your joining the board as well, if that’s attractive to you..

In addition to all the perks, the institute is making the world safer for Food Addicts – and broader for Food Addiction professionals – every day through its advocacy, educational efforts, and community building. Supporting that mission, through partnership and/or donations, achieves a goal we’re all working toward.

The institute’s social media platforms have more than 7,500 followers and our mailing list stands a little shy of 2,500 (and growing).

For a limited time, partnership is free in the first year, so the institute can prove the value of this opportunity. Please write to us for a cost schedule.

About us

Our Partners

SHiFT — Recovery by Acorn

Bittens Addiction Corp

Renaissance Nutrition

Bonnie Nolan

Food Junkies

If you want to know about becoming an institute partner, here’s the full rundown:

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