In this episode I speak with Holly Farrar, MS,LPC - owner of Dedicated Recovery, a unique health and mental wellness organization that specializes in helping athletes with many health and mental issues. We explore what it means to create a life for yourself after exercise addiction and how to challenge your relationship to movement and exercise.

You can find her at www.dedicatedrecovery.net 

In this episode I speak with eating disorder therapist and coach, Cherie Miller, owner of Food Freedom Therapy™. Cherie loves to speak on topics related to food and body freedom, which we explore at different levels in our chat. We take a look at different modalities such as CBT, DBT, ACT, and taking a gentle approach to recovery from an eating disorder.

We look at what “food freedom” looks like for Cherie specifically and how you could apply these thoughts into your own life, acknowledging that diet culture tells us that our bodies can’t be trusted, but this is not the case. Emotions are always teaching us things about ourselves, and when we can be okay with not being okay and learn to manage uncomfortable or negative thoughts and feelings, we can gently move into a space of freedom from self-punishment for perceived “imperfections”.

We also touch on the fact that spirituality has been shown to be incredibly helpful in recovery from disordered eating, body image issues, stigma around eating disorders being perceived as a mode of “vanity”, and being open in our relationships as a powerful recovery tool.

Cherie is running an Anti-Diet retreat in 2023, which will help you explore the fact that your body is not the problem, therefore dieting is not the answer! Find out more information on her website here: www.foodfreedomtherapy.com

You can also get her free intuitive eating jump start guide here: https://foodfreedomtherapy.com/intuitive-eating-jump-start-guide/

Follow her on Instagram @foodfreedomtherapist

Spirituality may be a really hard thing to navigate and explore in recovery from an eating disorder or any other addiction. Trust me, it wasn't always easy for me. I had very set views of the idea of a non-existent "God". After all - why would God put me through such pain? Fortunately, I was blessed to have started my recovery journey in a 12 Step Program, which allowed me to explore what God may or may not mean for me, in whichever way I saw fit. This was key to my spiritual journey, because I was never told my beliefs or views were wrong - I had the freedom and space to explore what a spiritual relationship meant to me.

Fast forward a few years and I can tell you, spirituality has been the core of my recovery. Without it, I don't think I would be here. I encourage you to listen with an open mind, and put whatever word you feel comfortable using in place of the word "God" if that's what resonates with you. This is by no means an attempt to inflict my opinions on you.

A great part of this spiritual journey has been the act of contemplation - an open space of infinite possibility and learning. In this episode I teach you how I spend time in contemplation in order to process any area of my life, whether its eating disorder related or not.

Contemplation doesn't even have to be spiritual if that doesn't work for you - it can simply be a space of deep thinking, reflection and openness to change. Try it for yourself, and see what happens. Please feel free to share your experience with me on any of my social platforms!

In this episode I speak with Dr Joy Zelikovsky, clinical psychologist and National Health Service Psychologist in New Haven, CT. She is also the founder of Nourish The Heart Counseling in New Haven, Connecticut.

I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion on the importance of having representation in the treatment process. So often we are riddled with the stigma around disordered eating - that it is a white, thin, female illness. This may be true in some cases, but not all! The problem is that there are so many treatment teams (for whatever reason) who comprise of exactly this description. This is not to say that there is an issue with white, thin females helping those in eating disorder recovery, but rather that it often spreads the message to those in larger bodies, of different cultures or gender identifications that recovery has to "look" a certain way. They often don't feel that they can relate to the people caring for them.

As Dr Joy quotes: ""We know representation is important. So when you don't see healthy models of fat people in recovery, it feels like that's not a possibility."

She speaks into topics such as her personal experience as an eating disorder clinician in a larger body, diet culture, intuitive eating and inclusive recovery.

Dreams may seem like a random string of symbols and situations that make no sense, but they are a way to connect with the deeper self. Our dreams are messengers that help us see ourselves clearer, process emotions or understand our fears or obstacles. They can be seen as a tool to access that which our waking mind struggles to connect with.

In this episode I take you through my personal experience with dreams and how they have played a role in my recovery from disordered eating. I look at some studies that were conducted in the 90’s that revealed common themes in anorexic and bulimic patients as well as help you get curious about dream symbolism.

I also provide you with some tools that you can start using to play with and explore your dreams.

I encourage you to work with your dreams as a tool in your recovery and in whatever life situation you are facing. You will be amazed at what comes up for you. Feel free to post about your dreams in the comments!

In this episode I speak with Tracy Brown, RD, LD/N who is a somatic nutrition therapist, registered dietitian, attuned eating coach, and embodiment teacher.  We explore the topic of attuned eating, taking a special look at the significance of trauma responses in eating disorders.

Tracy also shares some of her personal story around disordered eating and how she came to be a dietician. Since 2006, she has guided people in healing from disordered eating and chronic dieting, many of which have PCOS and other stress-related conditions. Tracy will walk you through not only how to stop dieting, binging and hating your body, but also teach you how to be compassionate with yourself through the process of living more fully, even when things are tough.

You can find Tracy here: https://www.tracybrownrd.com/about/

Being a dietician for eating disorders comes along with a load of challenges. How do you best help clients? What challenges do you face on a daily basis? What are some dieticians getting wrong? How do you promote health in an anti-diet way? How do you manage your own mental and physical health? How do you handle crushing diet culture while not feeling like the food police?

This episode forms part one of a two-part series with Dr Susan Perkins who earned her Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Hardin-Simmons University (2003) and her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech (2010).

She worked at Carolina House, a residential treatment facility for 17-year-olds and older, in a gender inclusive space for a year and a half doing family therapy. In her time there, and within her own private practise, she has been witness to many misunderstandings, frustrations, and challenges that both the suffering eating disordered individual and their families undergo. In this episode we explore what some of those are and how she approaches them in a professional sense.

So, if you or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder, this episode aims to help you gain insight into common hurdles faced, things to do/avoid, etc. and what role the family plays in eating disorder treatment.

In part two, we will take a super deep and vulnerable dive into my (Kirsten’s) personal story with an eating disorder and the role my family played.

You can find Dr Perkins at http://www.cardinalpointstherapy.com/

Keep a look out for her psycho-ed program she is developing with resources for family members so that they can better understand and equip themselves for the treatment process.

Music has always been a huge part of my life and undoubtedly has played an important role in my recovery from disordered eating. In this episode I take you through a little story about my personal history with music and why it has been so significant for me, and then I get curious about some of the science behind why music is so healing.

I look at the different brain states and how binaural beats can help regulate the nervous system and reduce anxiety, how music has been shown to affect cortisol levels as well as how learning the guitar kept me from binging and purging in early recovery.

The science of music is fascinating and I really encourage you to see how it might fit into your recovery too. Whether it's listening to your favourite song or meditative frequencies, learning a new instrument, dancing to music or even getting Safe and Sound Protocol therapy - music can work wonders and when used effectively can help reduce and or deter your mind away from mental obsession around urges to binge and purge if you are a bulimic or binge eater. 

Its important to look at your recovery holistically though - we need to nourish the soul (which music can do), and we need to rewire the brain (which music can do as well) but we also need to nourish the body - this is something music can't do, BUT it can help you feel calmer and safer when needing to eat properly. So give it a try!

Dr Kari Anderson has been an eating disorder therapist for over 30 years and has a history of binge eating disorder as a teen/young adult. Her career has been driven by her own recovery and research into what causes binge eating disorder and how can we best treat it. She has written two books on Binge Eating Disorder, her latest book is a memoir, “Food, Body, and Love, but the greatest of these is love.”

In this episode we explore topics around binge eating disorder, looking at harm reduction, heart rate variance, faith-based practice and how to holistically approach flexibility and mindfulness in eating behaviours.

Kari has an online course that follows the book content: Food, Body, and Love. A compassionate and science-based solution to Binge Eating, which you can get on her website www.myeatingdoctor.com - Use the coupon code: Hunneyball50 to get $50 off when you sign up for the course.

You can also join her Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/308901044114453

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