Trying to be body positive can often feel like an unattainable and unrealistic goal. However, body neutrality can offer a path towards body acceptance and greater peace. In this episode, I explore the difference between body positivity and body neutrality; I look at what body neutrality means and how to become more body neutral in your daily life.
I hope that you enjoy the episode.
 

This week's sponsor - Amber Romaniuk:-
Go to https://amberapproved.ca/online-programs to sign up.
 
Or direct click here: https://amber-romaniuk.mykajabi.com/understanding-emotional-eating-masterclass
 


Harriet Frew's current offers: -


Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course with Harriet Frew 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 
Breaking Free from Bulimia Online Course with Harriet Frew 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
 

Body Image Training for Professionals
 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html
 




 



 

What is Body Neutrality? How Can You Embrace It?

Overcome disordered eating and find peace with food.

Health & Fitness

Mental Health

Today I’m talking to Brooke Carlson, an eating disorder therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counsellor, working primarily with adolescents and young adults and based in Minnesota, USA.
Brooke has worked for a nationwide eating disorder treatment centre for three years called The Emily Program. She was an outpatient therapist and partial hospitalisation program coordinator during that time,  while also running a recovery support group. Prior to this, Brooke worked at a university counselling centre, where she found her passion for working with students with eating disorders 
Brooke now works in private practice as an eating disorder expert and sees clients daily. She is also an eating disorder ambassador for the state where she helps with social media and petitioning for congress, and legislation for more resources and care for eating disorders in the state. She currently has her own business called Brooke Carlson Therapy Services PLLC. She also independently contracts at Wholehearted Healing LLC in Wayzata, Minnesota.
Brooke has never personally suffered with an eating disorder, however she has struggled with her own disordered eating and body image distress. She brings this experience with compassion and understanding to her therapy work. 
Brooke has been on the podcast twice before and her episodes have proved to be extremely popular. She previously talked about over-exercise and eating disorders in athletes. Also, she last talked about the relationship between social media and eating disorders. The links to those episodes are below if you want to listen.
Today, Brooke is going to discuss how grief can be a function in eating disorders. She is going to name the different types of grief and the different types of losses you can experience; as grief is a type of trauma. 
She is going to explain how eating disorders are a form of coping and how a focus on food and body can be soothing or numbing from grief,  or even a way to express pain from grief. Brooke explains how an eating disorder can even be a way to not feel as lonely or alone through your own grief
She then goes on to talk about the different griefs we might notice in recovery.
For example: -
. The grief of accepting that you can't do treatment alone and need a community.
. The grief of "pausing" on life (school, work, etc) to go to treatment to get your life back.
. The grief of realising that your eating disorder doesn’t serve you anymore, even if it did at some point in the past'
. The grief of life without the eating disorder.
. The grief of your past self when maybe you have lost your authentic self to the ED.
. The grief of losing your past body or your pre/post recovery body.
I know you’re going to really enjoy this thought provoking episode, as Brooke really dives into the deeper issues and gives wholehearted permission to grieve along the healing road. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.
 
 
To find out more about Brooke: -
Website: brookecarlsontherapyservices.com
Wholehearted Healing Clinic website:  https://www.wholeheartedhealingllc.com/brookecarlson-ma-lpcc-1
Email: bcarlson@therapyservicesmn.com
Phone: 612-470-8626 (USA)
 
Previous episodes with Brooke: -
 
Social media and eating disorders
https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/social-media-and-eating-disorders-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-with-returning-guest-brooke-carlson/
 
Eating disorders in athletes, sports person and in fitness
https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/healing-eating-disorders-and-problems-with-over-exercise-in-athletes-sports-persons-and-in-fitness-with-brooke-carlson/
 
 
 
This week's sponsor - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer:
 

https://thefreedompromise.com
            
Schedule your complimentary call with Mindy - https://p.bttr.to/36nzVUu

 


 
Harriet Frew's current offers: -

Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Understanding Grief in Eating Disorder Recovery with Brooke Carlson

Today, I’m re-releasing an old episode from 2021 when I spoke with Emma Reed Turrell – psychotherapist, author, speaker and podcaster. Emma grew up near Portsmouth and went on to read English at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Following ten years working in business, she returned to her earlier passion for psychology and retrained as a psychotherapist. Emma runs a thriving therapy practice alongside training and consulting. 
Emma guested on the podcast three years ago, to talk about her book 'Please Yourself', which was launched to the world in 2021. Since then, Emma and her best friend, Elizabeth Day had the podcast Best Friend Therapy, which has now ceased but there is a whole backlog of episodes if you want to go and listen. Emma is also launching her own podcast about Friendship and has also released another book called 'What Am I Missing?' in recent weeks.
In this episode, Emma talks all about people pleasing. As a recovering people pleaser myself, and having worked with many people with eating disorders who struggle in this area, I was very keen to get Emma on the show. Emma talks about the 4 different types of pleaser that she has identified; gives tips and strategies for overcoming people pleasing; explores eating disorders and pleasing; dealing with social media and lots more. I hope that you enjoy this conversation.
To find out more about Emma: -
Instagram: @emmareedturrell
Twitter: @etcounselling
Information about Emma's books can be found on her website: https://emmareedturrell.com/
Best Friend Therapy Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/friendship-therapy/id1614793299
 

Harriet Frew's current offers: -

Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html



 

How to Overcome People Pleasing with Psychotherapist, Emma Reed-Turrell

Today I’m talking to Dr. Anita Johnston Ph.D., Depth Psychologist, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, and author of Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through Myth, Metaphor and Storytelling, which has been published in seven languages. Dr. Anita was a pioneer in eating disorders therapy and has been treating eating difficulties and body image distress for over 35 years. She has developed eating disorder programs nationally and internationally and currently serves as Founder and Executive Director or Ai Pono Hawaii Eating Disorders Programs which has a residential program in Maui.
Dr. Anita is very aware that as humans, we can understand complex concepts using metaphor in memorable ways – we love stories and relating this to real life. In society and in eating disorder recovery in general, we often use left brain, logical ways of healing, whereas engaging with our creativity and imagination engages the right brain, and for many people, this is where change actively occurs.  Dr, Anita is passionate about this.
In this episode today, Dr. Anita does a deep dive into cracking the code of disordered eating using metaphor and storytelling. She opens her treasure chest of metaphors for us today. She also shares about the neuroscience and brain chemistry changes that occur when we suddenly make a powerful recovery shift. This is a fascinating conversation and I hope that you enjoy it.
To find out more about Dr. Anita Johnston: -
http://www.dranitajohnston.com/
http://www.lightofthemooncafe.com/
http://www.aipono.com/
Instagram and Facebook: @dranitajohnston
 
Harriet Frew's current offers: -

Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

The Use of Storytelling and Metaphor in Eating Disorder Recovery, with Dr. Anita Johnston

Today, I’m talking to Anna Schmidt who is a Food Freedom and Body Image Psychologist.
Anna has been on her own eating disorder recovery journey. She started dieting as a teenager, initially just wanting to lose a few kilos and going on a very restrictive and low calorie diet. Little did she know at the time that this would be the beginning of a 15 year struggle with weight, food and confidence. Anna never believed that she would be able to eat normally and to accept her body.
Fast forward to today, Anna has recovered from bulimia, binge eating and emotional eating and has found peace with food and her body. She became a psychologist and a nutritionist to better understand why and how we can end up in this disordered eating nightmare and how to get out of it.
Anna uses her personal experience and training to guide people through a life changing healing process providing her clients with evidence-based resources to use along the way. Anna is mindful that every healing journey is unique, and no one size approach fits all solutions.
In the episode today, you'll hear about Anna’s healing journey and what really helped her to recover from bulimia, binge eating and emotional eating. I hope that you find it helpful.
To find out more about Anna: -
Website: https://healthymindclub.eu/
Instagram: @healthy.mindclub 
 
Harriet Frew's current offers: -

Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

What REALLY helped in Eating Disorder Recovery, with Food Freedom Psychologist, Anna Schmidt

Today I’m talking with Julia Trehane (a returning guest to the podcast) who is an anorexia, orthorexia and compulsive exercise recovery coach. Julia has overcome 40 years gripped by eating disorders and is now passionate about instilling hope for change in others. Julia Trehane is a podcast host, eating disorder coach, food freedom advocate and anti-diet culture campaigner. 
Julia uses her wealth of scientific understanding, applied with a huge amount of love to help people all around the world to break free from eating disorders and love themselves once more.
Having survived 40 years of anorexia, orthorexia and exercise addiction, Julia has a deep understanding of how it feels to be gripped by food prison, how the mind processes information in an eating disorder and how to re-wire our thoughts to break free and return to freedom for ever. 
If you’re feeling lost, stuck and hopeless, living in the depths of an eating disorder, this is definitely an episode for you. Julia shares about her long and arduous battle with eating disorders, talking candidly about the reality of recovery. She explains the challenges of eating more and the body changes accompanying this. She talks about how she navigated this challenging process, not only managing food and body image but the tumultuous journey of engaging with emotions, finding identity and the impact on her closest relationships. You will be encouraged, supported and inspired by what is possible. I hope that you enjoy the episode.
 
To find out more about Julia: -
Website:             https://juliatrehane.com/
Email:                  julia@juliatrehane.com
Instagram:          https://www.instagram.com/juliatrehane/
                             @juliatrehane
Facebook:          https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090553513117
YouTube:           https://youtube.com/@juliatrehane
Podcast:             https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/julia-trehane
 

Harriet Frew's current offers: -

Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia 
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
 Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

What is Body Neutrality? How Can You Embrace It?

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