For many years, I have worked with people are struggling with their relationship to food and/or their bodies. Some people meet formal criteria for eating disorders, but the vast majority of my clients, whether they initially/intentionally seek me out to work on these challenges, are struggling to cope with a culture that makes it almost impossible for people at any body size to feel peace with their weight or body shape. As a clinician, I feel it is my ethical responsibility to make a clear statement on my stance and approach in helping clients who are dealing with eating disorders, disordered eating, weight concerns, or related coping strategies. I am sharing this background so that you can make an informed decision that is in line with your values.

 My approach is grounded in a movement/community of non-diet, anti-diet, body acceptance, Body Trust®, and Health at Every Size® practitioners. There have been many incredible therapists, dieticians, and activists who have laid the groundwork so that practitioners like myself can discard unethical, harmful, and discriminatory practices that are widely accepted in mainstream “health” and “wellness” movements. I use the term “diet culture” to shed light on the fact that dieting has gone underground (e.g., claiming “clean eating” or “lifestyle change” as a cover for dieting), and the diet industrial complex has had to find more insidious ways of shaping our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and attitudes about what constitutes “normal” or “healthy” bodies, eating, or exercise. Unfortunately, many well-meaning but uninformed medical and mental health professionals are complicit in perpetuating weight stigma, diet culture, body shame and blame, and outright fatphobia/anti-fat bias, all in the name of “health.”

Things that are not in line with my practice:

• Encouraging or supporting the goal of weight loss. The prescription of weight loss has been shown to elevate stigma, increase risk for disordered eating and mental health concerns, and lead to weight cycling. Research has shown that intentional weight loss fails over 95% of the time and sets people up for more health problems.

• Evaluating disordered eating solely based on the limited diagnostic criteria of the DSM. When far more people meet criteria for Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED), formerly referred to as Eating Disorders “Not Otherwise Specified” (NOS), the categorical systems we have break down are ineffective at guiding assessing and treating what the problem truly is. If you have a sense that you are engaging in thinking or behaviors related to food and your body that are perpetuating a sense of body shame or making you feel not good enough compared to others’ bodies, you deserve help. You do not need a formal diagnosis to ask for the help you need.

• Blaming health problems on individual health behaviors (or lack of behaviors). Environmental factors and social determinants of health have a far greater impact on health each person’s food choices. I also do not shame my clients for the ways they have bought into or are currently buying into the promises of diet culture; as a society, we have to work together to recognize the ways that we have been manipulated by the diet industrial complex.

Things I am committed to doing:

• Gently supporting people of all backgrounds (body sizes, racial backgrounds, genders, ages, sexualities) to reclaim a sense of freedom and trust with their bodies.

• Naming the effects of the many systems of oppression that contribute to weight bias and diet culture. Weight stigma and fatphobia are just manifestations of the same kind of thinking that that tells us certain bodies are more valuable than others, namely racism/colorism, ableism, ageism, cisgenderism, and every other system of oppression and othering. For more information about the ways in which fatphobia and racism are inextricably linked, check out this book by Sabrina Strings.

• Continually interrogating my own biases, thoughts, and assumptions about weight and bodies, especially given that I am in an average-sized body and do not encounter the kinds of institutional/systemic discrimination that people in larger bodies do. I aim to remain humble and teachable, learn from and center the experiences of fat and larger-bodied people, and make repairs when I make mistakes or fall short of these values.

• Helping people to slowly tap into a sense of body wisdom/trust that can guide them in their habits/behaviors without the goal of weight loss.

• Helping clients to access and tailor the tools and philosophies of Body Trust®, Health at Every Size®, Intuitive Eating, the fat acceptance movement, and body respect to meet their needs.

• Helping clients free up mental and emotional space so that their lives can be focused on what really matters and brings them fulfillment and purpose – not body shame, obsession, calorie counting, compulsive exercise, or comparing themselves to impossible standards.

I support you in making decisions that affect your body, health, and sense of wellbeing in a way that is kind, compassionate, and in line with your values. You don’t need to wait until you have the “perfect” body or reach a certain weight/size to live your life. I hope that I can be helpful to you in your process and healing.