Can’t Horseback Ride Because of Your Size? That Might Just Be a Load of “Horse Shit.”

Horseback riding when fat [Image description: back of a fat person with long flowing blonde hair and a purple shirt, riding a horse]

  By Carolyn Comas, LCSW, CEDS-S, Clinical Supervisor Can you horseback ride if you are fat? Navigating the world in a fat body can be frustrating and may feel disheartening. There are, unfortunately, some activities and spaces that do not accommodate people in large bodies. When someone in a big body encounters spaces that do …

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Your Body’s Setpoint Weight

Accepting your body's setpoint [Image description: red hammer on a bathroom scale] represents the rejection of diet culture by a person in eating disorder recovery in Los Angeles, California

What is Setpoint? Setpoint refers to the weight at which your body functions optimally. Think of it like the weight at which your body wants to be—and if your body falls below this weight, your body gets messages to return you to a higher weight. This weight range is primarily genetically determined and will be …

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CBT-WI: Weight-Inclusive CBT for Eating Disorders

CBT plus HAES for Eating Disorders [Image description: large bodied gender neutral person seated and facing a therapist whose back is to the camera] represents a potential client with an eating disorder receiving CBT plus HAES in Los Angeles, California

“What is Weight-Inclusive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT-WI? Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the most effective approach for treating adults with eating disorders, including bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The most recent, commonly taught, and implemented version is an “enhanced” protocol, CBT-E (Fairburn, Christopher G., 2008). Unfortunately, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for eating disorders is not always …

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Lactose, Dairy, and Eating Disorder Recovery

Dairy and Eating Disorder Recovery in Los Angeles, California [Image description: a person driving a bottle of milk through a straw] Illustrating a potential person in eating disorder recovery incorporating milk

The Milky Way: Why We Encourage Inclusion of Dairy in Eating Disorder Recovery by Shelly Bar, MD, KatieGrubiak, RDN, and Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D. Dairy is tasty and good for you. Despite this, there are a lot of folks who are scared of it. You may have eliminated dairy from your diet in pursuit of better …

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How Diet Culture Can Harm Your Recovery from ARFID

ARFID and Diet Culture in Los Angeles, California [Image desciption: photo of a woman buying bread] Represents a potential eating disorder client in Los Angeles, California standing up to diet culture

by Carolyn Comas, LCSW, CEDS-S, Clinical Supervisor People diagnosed with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) struggle with consuming adequate nutritional intake due to either 1) fear of aversive consequences (i.e choking), 2) low interest in food altogether, or 3) sensory sensitivity to food textures, smells, or appearance. Usually, people with ARFID do not report …

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How a Health at Every Size(R) (HAES) Approach Can Help With Eating Disorder Recovery

Health at Every Size and Eating Disorder [Image description: black larger bodied woman eating a donut] represents a potential client receiving Health at Every Size Counseling at Eating Disorder Therapy in Los Angeles, California

Eating disorders are not only about body image. Nor have they only recently arisen in response to societal pressures to be thin. In fact, eating disorders date back to at least the 13th and 14th centuries, when it was observed that women were fasting to demonstrate religious devotion. However, today eating disorders do occur in …

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What Parents of Teens with Eating Disorders Need to Understand About Diet Culture

What Parents Need to Know About Diet Culture [Image description: a larger woman smashing a scale] Represents a potential parent of a teen receiving eating disorder counseling in Los Angeles, California

Parents and Diet Culture Many parents experience guilt when their teen is diagnosed with an eating disorder. Nearly every parent can point to a time they themselves dieted, opted not to have a dessert they really wanted, expressed a preference toward thinness, or discouraged their child from keeping eating. You may have done things to …

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When Eating Disorder Providers Are Steeped in Diet Culture

A woman’s hand holding a triple-scoop ice cream cone. Are you stuck in a cycle of bingeing, purging, and restricting? An eating disorder therapist in Los Angeles, CA, can help you break the cycle and create new healthy habits for long-term recovery.

Providers With Weight Stigma “People are concerned about the fact that I’m a therapist and have an eating disorder, and I’m like, ‘You’re concerned about me? I’m concerned about our entire fucking field.’” — Shira Rose, FoodPsych with Christy Harrison This quote has generated a lot of reactions. In this podcast, Shira—who lives in a …

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Instagram to make Diet Ads viewable for ages 18 and over—Why They should Remove Them Altogether

Instagram to make Diet Ads viewable for ages 18 and over—Why They should Remove Them Altogether - Dangerous of Diet Products on Instagram and Other social media [Image description: photo of a mobile phone with instagram app open]

by Carolyn Comas, LCSW, CEDS-S On September 18th, 2019 Instagram instituted an official policy that all ads promoting diet and weight loss products would only be able to be viewed by users 18 and over. Under this policy, once reported they can remove false ads. This is a huge victory in the world of challenging …

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