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.