Therapists are becoming increasingly aware of the harm that has been/is being done to clients when healthcare settings (including counseling practices) focus on weight and weight loss as a primary goal.  Most therapists, however, have not been trained in how to have conversations with their clients about body shame, weight stigma, healthism, diet culture, and sizeism. How, then, do therapists help clients heal body shame in a weight-obsessed world when our culture is obsessed with weight being an indicator of health?   This course introduces therapists to practical resources, knowledge, empowering interventions, and the language needed to help challenge weight stigma, connect weight stigma and negative health outcomes, and support clients toward weight-neutral and compassionate self-care.

Many providers have increased their awareness of the need to adjust their practice lens and use a more weight-inclusive, fat-positive approach to addressing food and body issues. Mental health clinicians have become increasingly aware of the expanding body of research that says intentional weight loss and dieting just don’t work and find themselves no longer ethically comfortable participating in diet culture. Therapists understand that supporting clients in weight loss or lifestyle changes (even for health reasons) is frequently emotionally and metabolically damaging, is not trauma-informed, often results in eating disorders and poor health outcomes, and is rooted in weight bias and the body hierarchy.  Ethical, culturally competent mental health practitioners want to know how to help their clients have a more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.  However, even the best-intentioned clinician finds that the cultural climate of weight stigma is so prevalent in both medical and mental health fields that they don’t even know where to begin.

This course will help therapists have conversations about bodies, weight, and health without contributing to the body shaming and size bias that is commonplace in healthcare settings.  Amber Rice will introduce participants to knowledge that will help them address the impacts of weight stigma with their clients ethically and compassionately.  Workshop attendees will learn ways to help their clients reduce body shame, improve their relationship with food, and invite more satisfaction and joy in their lives in a culturally competent way so they can be more resilient and confident in their own skin.

OBJECTIVES:

•  Discuss the use of “fat” as a reclaimed term, ask for the avoidance of the “O” words (obese, overweight), the use of “numbers” to describe weight, and other guidelines to avoid microaggressions that may take place during the workshop.
•  Present research studies and lived experiences that provide evidence for the need to practice with a weight-inclusive approach.
•  Teach the core values and principles of Health at Every Size and Body Trust approaches.
•  Provide an overview of the HAES and Body Trust approaches, along with practical clinical interventions for clients seeking a more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.
•  Discuss with participants the ethical considerations and dilemmas present in the current medical and mental health models that support weight loss for health purposes.
•  Offer a pathway toward becoming more culturally competent, with an adjusted lens that actively seeks to eliminate implicit and explicit bias in assessment, treatment, and orientation.
•  List action steps that participants can employ to create a more weight-neutral practice.
•  Ask attendees to acknowledge possible body (thin) privilege.
•  Evaluate therapeutic spaces and environments to ensure it is fat-friendly and free of pathologizing magazines and stigmatizing language/media/magazines.
•  Advocate for self-examination for fatphobia and anti-fat bias.
•  Increase the visibility of fat people and scour websites and waiting rooms for diet culture.