Align33 Media - Roundtable

What does it actually mean to find yourself again after life has changed you?

In this episode of the ALIGN33 Media Roundtable, host Robyn Shumer sits down with Amy Kathleen Lee, Kelly Byram, Sarina Deb, and Shanetta McDonald for an honest conversation about resilience, recovery, identity, shame, and what it means to rebuild a life after going through something difficult.

This isn’t a perfectly packaged recovery story. It’s about what happens in the middle—the parts that can feel uncomfortable, nonlinear, messy, and uncertain.

The panel explores how struggle can become familiar, why healing can feel uncomfortable, the role shame plays in how we see ourselves, and why resilience doesn’t always look like strength. Sometimes it looks like asking for help, resting, changing direction, falling apart, or admitting you cannot do everything alone.

Ultimately, it’s a conversation about the people we become on the other side.

IN THIS CONVERSATION

• What they understand now about the hardest periods of their lives
• Why healing can feel uncomfortable when struggle has become familiar
• Learning to trust a life that looks different from the one you knew
• Shame, identity, and separating what happened to you from who you are
• Redefining resilience beyond “being strong”
• Asking for help and allowing yourself to be supported
• Reconnecting with yourself after difficult experiences
• What they hope their younger selves would recognize in who they are today

And because every serious mental-health conversation clearly needs one extremely important clinical question:

What fictional character would make the absolute worst therapist?

MEET THE PANEL

Amy Kathleen Lee is a mental health educator, speaker, suicide-prevention trainer and consultant, eating-disorder recovery advocate, and founder of Dancing with ED.
Instagram: @amykathleenlee | AmyKathleenLee.com

Kelly Byram brings lived and professional experience in behavioral health. Her advocacy experience includes Project HEAL.
Instagram: @kelly_byram

Sarina Deb is a writer, advocate, and former president of Stanford’s Students Against Eating Disorders. Her work addresses eating disorders, body image, weight stigma, and recovery.
Instagram: @sarina.deb | LinkedIn: Sarina Deb

Shanetta McDonald is an intuitive living coach, storyteller, mother, longtime publicist, and host of Your Body Knows. Her work explores burnout, self-trust, identity, and major life transitions.
Instagram: @iamshanettamcdonald | ShanettaMcDonald.com

YOUR HOST — ROBYN SHUMER

Robyn Shumer is host of the ALIGN33 Media Roundtable, a TEDx speaker, mental health advocate, author of Bones: Anorexia, Anxiety and My Path to Self-Love, and Executive Producer of Storytelling & Podcasting at ALIGN33 Media.

Or, as Robyn puts it: She turns uncomfortable conversations into dinner-table appetizers.

RobynShumer.com

PRODUCED BY MOOREA FRIEDMANN

This episode is produced by Moorea Friedmann, who helps guide recording, timing, flow, and production. Moorea is also the creator of Balancing Act: Life and Struggles of a Teenage Girl, a mental-health and wellness podcast created for teens, by a teen.
Instagram: @mooreafriedmann

PRESENTED WITH BALANCING ACT

Instagram: @balancingact.podcast

SUPPORT ALIGN33 MEDIA

ALIGN33 Media is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit using media, education, storytelling, and advocacy to change the conversation around eating disorders, body image, mental health, recovery, and access to care.

Donate: align33media.org/donate/a
Substack: @align33media

Because resilience doesn’t always mean getting back to who you were.

Sometimes it means discovering who you are now.

Today’s conversation is presented in partnership with Balancing Act: Life and Struggles of a Teenage Girl, a mental health and wellness podcast made for teens, by a teen.

Recovery does not come with an instruction manual.

In this episode of the ALIGN33 Media Roundtable, we talk about what happens when recovery has to evolve alongside us—through identity shifts, relationships, parenthood, career changes, movement, aging, setbacks, and the many transitions that change how we see ourselves.

Our guests bring different lived experiences and perspectives to an honest conversation about continuing to choose recovery through different seasons of life.

Ally Rae Pesta is an author, speaker, recovery coach, and advocate whose memoir, Beyond My Body, explores eating disorder recovery, identity, movement, and learning to define worth beyond appearance.

Instagram: @allyraepesta
Website: allyrae.co
Book + more: linktr.ee/allyraepesta

Athena McDowall is a counselor, veteran, eating disorder advocate, and Program Coordinator with ANAD — the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. She brings both lived experience and professional advocacy, including a unique perspective on eating disorders in military and veteran communities.

Eric Poten joins us from a lived-experience perspective, sharing honestly about eating disorder recovery, identity, change, and what healing can look like as life continues to evolve.

Adam Pope is a mental health and eating disorder recovery advocate who has spoken openly about long-term recovery, relationships, advocacy, and parenthood. He is also co-host of Eating Disorders Off Topic.

Instagram: @adamhpope

We explore how recovery changes over time, what happens when an identity built around an eating disorder begins to fall away, navigating movement and body image, becoming a parent while protecting recovery, the pressure to feel “fully recovered,” and why healing can look different during different seasons of life.

We also talk about community, advocacy, asking for support, and allowing recovery to evolve rather than expecting ourselves to follow a perfect path.

And, of course, we start with one of our favorite Roundtable questions:

What’s something everyone seems to love that you absolutely do not understand?

Robyn Shumer is a TEDx speaker, author, storyteller, and mental health advocate whose work explores recovery, vulnerability, resilience, and learning to live beyond the expectations placed on our bodies.

Instagram: @robyn_shumer
Book: Bones: Anorexia, Anxiety and My Path to Self-Love
robynshumer.com/bones

Moorea Friedmann is a young mental health advocate, storyteller, and creator of Balancing Act: Life and Struggles of a Teenage Girl, a mental health and wellness podcast created for teens, by a teen.

Instagram: @mooreafriedmann
Balancing Act: @balancingact.podcast

ANAD — National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders provides free peer support, support groups, recovery mentorship, treatment referrals, and eating disorder resources.

anad.org
ANAD Helpline: 1-888-375-7767
Monday–Friday, 9 AM–9 PM Central Time

ALIGN33 Media is a nonprofit media and education organization working to change the conversation around eating disorders, body image, mental health, prevention, recovery, and treatment access through storytelling, education, advocacy, workshops, and conversations like this one.

Follow ALIGN33 Media on Instagram and visit Align33Media.org.

If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with someone who may need to hear it and consider supporting ALIGN33 Media so we can continue creating accessible conversations centered on education, recovery, and lived experience.

Meet the GuestsIn This ConversationExecutive Producer & HostProducerResourcesAbout ALIGN33 Media

In this episode of the ALIGN33 Media Clinical Roundtable, host Robyn Shumer is joined by Sondra Kronberg, MS, RD, CEDS-C; Ilene V. Fishman, LCSW-R, ACSW, FAED; Hayley Charles, MS, PLPC; and Tara Wells, LCSW-QS for a powerful conversation about identity, recovery, and what happens when someone has spent years being known—and knowing themselves—as a patient.

The panel explores how repeated treatment can shape identity, why recovery can feel frightening even when someone wants it deeply, and how clinicians can help people build a sense of self beyond symptoms, diagnoses, appointments, performance, and body image.

The conversation also examines treatment fatigue, the impact of labels like “chronic” or “treatment resistant,” the role of family and support systems, and the unique challenges athletes face when self-worth becomes tied to performance.

At its core, this episode asks a question that is both simple and deeply complex: If your eating disorder is no longer defining you, what do you want your life to be about?

This episode is presented in partnership with Balancing Act: Life and Struggles of a Teenage Girl, a mental health and wellness podcast made for teens, by a teen.

ABOUT OUR PANELISTS

Ilene V. Fishman, LCSW-R, ACSW, FAED is a psychotherapist with more than 40 years of experience specializing in eating disorders. A co-founder of NEDA and former Executive Board member and clinical advisor, Ilene is the author of The Deeper Fix: For Your Growth & Empowerment.

https://www.ilenevfishman.com/

Sondra Kronberg, MS, RD, CEDS-C is Founder and Executive Director of Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative and F.E.E.D. programs and host of Chats in the Living Room. A nutrition therapist with 40 years of experience, she is a founding member and spokesperson of NEDA and a nationally recognized eating disorders educator and clinician.

https://sondrakronberg.com/
https://www.chatsinthelivingroom.com/

Hayley Charles, MS, PLPC is a mental health therapist, advocate, and educator at Beacon Star Counseling and a member of the Missouri Eating Disorders Council. She brings an important perspective on identity, recovery, and building a life beyond a diagnosis.

Tara Wells, LCSW-QS is Founder of Sport Social Worker and works with athletes, teens, and adults around disordered eating, anxiety, trauma, identity, and performance. Her work helps athletes move beyond performance-based self-worth and develop identities that support them throughout their lives and careers.

https://finishlinemindset.com/

HOST

Robyn Shumer is a TEDx speaker, author, storyteller, and Executive Producer and host of the ALIGN33 Media Roundtable Series. She is the author of Bones: Anorexia, Anxiety and My Path to Self-Love and brings lived experience, curiosity, and a belief in the power of storytelling to conversations about recovery, identity, resilience, and mental health.

https://www.robynshumer.com/

PRODUCER

Moorea Friedmann is a producer with ALIGN33 Media and Balancing Act, a youth-centered platform focused on honest conversations about mental health, wellbeing, identity, and the pressures young people face today.

https://balancingact.life/

FOLLOW US

ALIGN33 Media: https://www.instagram.com/align33media/
Morgan DiPrimo: https://www.instagram.com/morgan_maxwell_diprimo/
Robyn Shumer: https://www.instagram.com/robyn_shumer/
Moorea Friedmann: https://www.instagram.com/mooreafriedmann/

Who taught you how to feel about your body?
Was it your parents? Your friends? A coach? A magazine cover? A celebrity headline? A comment someone made once that somehow stayed with you for years?
Or was it everything, all at once?
In the newest Align33 Media Roundtable, Robyn Shumer sits down with Dr. Charlotte Markey, Oona Hanson, Mallary Tenore Tarpley, and Jackie Goldschneider for a powerful conversation about the messages we absorb around bodies, food, beauty, recovery, parenting, social media, and self-worth.
This episode is not about telling everyone to simply “love your body.”
It’s about asking a harder question:
What if we started changing the messages people receive before they ever learn to hate it?
🎧 The Body Image Group Chat is OUT NOW on Align33 Media Substack.
Hosted by @robyn_shumer
Produced by @mooreafriedmann
Featuring @char_markey, @oona_hanson, @mallarytenoretarpley and @jackiegoldschneider
Listen. Share. Start a different kind of group chat.
@align33media
#BodyImage #EatingDisorderAwareness #MentalHealth 

#DietCulture #Recovery #SelfWorth #Parenting #SocialMedia #Align33Media

How did the eating disorder field become what it is today—and where does it still need to go?

In this episode of the Align33 Media Clinical Roundtable, Robyn Shumer sits down with five leaders who helped shape modern eating disorder treatment, prevention, advocacy, and recovery.

Together, they reflect on the early days of the field, the ideas that changed treatment, what clinicians understand differently today, and the gaps that still remain. The conversation also explores prevention, lived experience, family involvement, body image, culture, and why continuing to challenge old assumptions matters.

This episode is both a celebration of how far the field has come and an honest look at the work still ahead.

How did the eating disorder field become what it is today—and where does it still need to go?

In this episode of the Align33 Media Clinical Roundtable, Robyn Shumer sits down with five leaders who helped shape modern eating disorder treatment, prevention, advocacy, and recovery.

Together, they reflect on the early days of the field, the ideas that changed treatment, what clinicians understand differently today, and the gaps that still remain. The conversation also explores prevention, lived experience, family involvement, body image, culture, and why continuing to challenge old assumptions matters.

This episode is both a celebration of how far the field has come and an honest look at the work still ahead.

Meet the Panel

Beth Hartman McGilley, PhD, FAED, CEDS is a psychologist specializing in eating disorders, athletes, trauma, grief, and body image. She has worked in the field for more than three decades and has written, taught, supervised, and helped train generations of eating disorder professionals. She also co-edited Treatment of Eating Disorders: Bridging the Research-Practice Gap

Margo Maine, PhD, FAED, CEDS is a clinical psychologist, author, and longtime eating disorder advocate whose work has helped transform conversations around women, body image, aging, culture, and eating disorders. She is a founder and former adviser of NEDA and a founding fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders.
Learn more about Margo Maine

Michael P. Levine, PhD is a psychologist, researcher, author, and pioneer in eating disorder prevention whose work has helped establish prevention, media literacy, and community education as essential parts of the field. His scholarship has also examined prevention within families at elevated risk for eating disorders.

Carolyn Costin, MA, MEd, LMFT, CEDS, FAED is the founder of Monte Nido and The Carolyn Costin Institute. After recovering from anorexia herself, she devoted her career to helping others become fully recovered and created one of the first residential eating disorder treatment programs in the United States.
The Carolyn Costin Institute
Becoming Recovered Body & Soul with Carolyn Costin

Love, A Stranger provides free peer support by phone and text for people struggling with eating disorders and body image concerns, as well as support for families and loved ones. The organization describes itself as the nation’s only eating disorder helpline that can be reached by text.
Love, A Stranger

Balancing Act: Life and Struggles of a Teenage Girl, created and hosted by Moorea Friedmann, is a mental health and wellness podcast made for teens, by a teen, covering topics including anxiety, depression, body image, eating disorders, friendships, social media, and the pressures of growing up.
Listen to Balancing Act

If this conversation resonates with you, please subscribe, share the episode, and help us continue creating thoughtful conversations around eating disorders, body image, mental health, and recovery.

Align33 Media is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and donations are tax-deductible.

Learn more or make a donation

Presented in Partnership WithSupport Align33 Media4 Likes

Where Do Eating Disorders Begin?

If eating disorders aren’t simply about food, where do they begin?

In the first episode of the Align33 Media Roundtable, host Robyn Shumer brings together four experts from different disciplines to explore the forces that shape our relationships with food, our bodies, identity, and self-worth long before an eating disorder develops. The conversation follows the clues through history, culture, family, media, diet culture, perfectionism, anxiety, trauma, and our everyday experiences.

Joining the Roundtable are registered dietitian and eating disorder specialist Debra Spector; clinical psychologist and FAB Wellness founder Dr. Jennifer Nardozzi; registered dietitian and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist Tammy Beasley; and Dr. Alice Weinreb, Associate Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago, whose research explores the history of food, psychiatry, culture, and power.

Together, they look beyond eating disorder behaviors to ask deeper questions: How does history continue to influence the way we think about food and bodies? What do parents, teachers, and loved ones misunderstand about why eating disorders develop? And what do families need to hear when someone they love is struggling?

It’s an expert conversation, but it’s also a human one—with plenty of connection, laughter, and moments that remind us why honest conversations matter.

Because at Align33 Media, we believe stories can change minds, conversations can change communities, and together, we can change lives.