Leanne Mitchell did not set out to work as a dietitian when she started her career. In fact, she started in banking, lending and small business account management. Yet she never felt fulfilled.

“I really felt driven to help people, and for a while contemplated medicine,” she said.

However, having her first child was the turning point that drove her toward her current career. She explained that her first child – a beautiful boy – was diagnosed with autism, leading her toward further investigation.

“I saw a connection between his diet, his gastrointestinal symptoms and his behaviour. This started a career-long interest in how food could impact behaviour – known as the gut-brain connection.”

At this time, the gut-brain connection was not widely known or coined. Leanne decided to go back to University to study dietetics. This became a mixed passion of helping others and helping her own family.

As one can imagine, Leanne’s focus has remained gut-brain associated conditions. She is passionate about the dietary management of gut-brain associated conditions and spends a lot of time working in depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder and functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome. She also focuses on children with functional abdominal pain and constipation.

Working as a Microbiome Coach at Brisbane gut health analysis company, Microba, she also looks at the role the gut microbiome plays in health. As part of this particular role, she takes people through their analysis reports and provides guidance on next steps such as dietary interventions or connecting with a healthcare professional.

Leanne is also carrying out her PhD with The University of Queensland, looking at the gut-brain connection in children with autism spectrum.

“Children with autism often suffer from gastrointestinal (GI) issues and these issues are associated with worsening of behaviours and anxiety levels,” she explained.

“Disruptions of the bi-directional gut-brain axis are often noted in autism, and so my hypothesis is that a combined gut-brain treatment will be more effective at reducing GI symptom severity in these children than either a gut-based or brain-based approach alone.”

As part of Leanne’s research – under the primary supervision of Professor Peter Davies – participants will be randomly allocated to one of three treatment arms:

1. an oral synbiotic (a pre- and probiotic mixture)
2. gut-directed hypnotherapy
3. oral synbiotic and gut-directed hypnotherapy

Secondary measures of changes to the gut microbiome, cortisol levels, autism-associated behaviours and anxiety levels will also be investigated, although some of these are dependent on funding.

With all these balls in the air, Leanne explains that she still takes pleasure in helping a client improve their health. She says that the key drivers she lives by are listen, empathise and personalise.

“Listen to them. Yes, we are the experts in medical nutrition therapy and providing nutritional interventions to improve health. But these approaches always need to be personalised and to do this effectively, you must hear and acknowledge what they are saying and what they believe”.

“Sometimes, this means we need to adapt our approach, and other times you will need to gently educate and guide them to an evidence-based approach. And, always show empathy.”

In her current role, she sees educating people about the importance of gut health and diet as key to their overall health. She chose to work with Microba as it was the perfect fit for her personally and professionally. It also assists in her study area where she is able to learn more about the latest research in the gut microbiome and analysis techniques.

“It was, and is, so exciting to be able to work for this world-leading company with an amazing, talented pool of staff. It gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in the evolving landscape of the gut microbiome and its connections to health”.

“I also thought it was really important to build the profile of dietitians in this space. After all, we are the experts at personalising dietary interventions and the best way to support and optimise the beneficial gut bacteria is through diet.”

Leanne finds microbiome analysis intriguing and insightful, as she sees many different gut microbiomes in her day-to-day role.

“As a Microbiome Coach I often see gut microbiomes that are geared towards using protein as a fuel source or that have an increased inflammatory potential,” she shared.

“This is nearly always accompanied by suboptimal dietary intake of fibre. Research shows that a diverse, fibre-fuelled gut microbiome is associated with health because the beneficial bacteria this supports are associated with anti-inflammatory and health promoting metabolites”.

“When it comes to fibre intake, our results support the research that most Australians do not eat enough vegetables and fruit, but we also see a lot of clients with very low intake of grains and cereals. Reduced intake of these plant-based food sources reduces fibre intake, for some this can be due to food intolerances which then requires a personalised approach to find adequate fibre alternatives/swaps.”

Leanne would give some unique advice to aspiring dietitians or early-career dietitians as she knows that a career in nutrition can grow and evolve – particularly with the advancements in technology and medicine over the last several years.

She explained that there were many diverse roles for dietitians but often not many official graduate positions after leaving University.

“Find a niche. Choose an area that you love and just dive-in and specialise. Set yourself apart and be sure to include client counselling skills and targeted professional development courses throughout your career”.

“Always remember that the client in front of you, is a person, with their own history and story around their health condition/s. To really make a difference, you need to LISTEN to their story to be effective at helping them improve their health.”
Her ultimate career goal? She laughs and says “to become Joanna McMillan” who is an inspiration to her.

“But really, to work clinically as a specialist in gut-brain associated health conditions.”

You can find out more about the team at Microba at www.microba.com.