Counseling is a general process of help, whose basic structure is not dependent on the area of knowledge; when it supports the nutritional attendance to groups and/or individuals, it is named dietary counseling. The goal of this work is to rescue the concepts and fundamentals of counseling as a theoretical reference to the activity of nutritional attendance, which involves education and nutritional orientation. The review of the theoretical requirements, which have allowed the design of the basic counseling model, reveals the influence and the relative contribution of several lines of psychology. In addition, there is the possibility of incorporating the rationale of educators, related to the social and ethic education issues in health. The stages comprising the counseling process include: initial disclosure, in-depth exploration and preparation for action. Along the years, the focus of counseling work has shifted, from the specific technical contents to the interaction of help,. Such interaction has demanded the development of the counselor's qualifications and ability, in order to understand people and to help them carry out those changes found ,necessary in the everyday life and people constructs. Reviewing the theoretical scenario, one concludes that dietary counseling can supply nutritionists with a theoretical tool to improve their skills and qualifications, in order to interfere with the client's feeding behavior, taking their autonomy into account and recognizing their potential as historic subjects.
dietary counseling; health education; nutrition education; nutritionist