The Eating Disorder Therapist

Today, I have a guest on the show and I'm talking to Paula D Atkinson (all the way from Palm Springs, California) who works as a psychotherapist, professor of Body Justice, author, and supporter of people navigating eating disorders, food obsession, and internalised body stigma.

Her practice is anti-diet, Health At Every Size, and body-liberation focused, and she loves infusing humor and creativity into tough conversations. Paula recently appeared on Jubilee Media’s Surrounded series (with Jillian Michaels) to challenge conventional health narratives. Paula co-hosts her own podcast, What If Nothing’s Wrong With You?, where she unpacks how traditional therapy sometimes reinforces the very systems that create suffering.

In today's episode, Paula shares about her own recovery, her academic background in fat studies, her experience speaking to Gen X women, LGBTQIA+ focus and more. There's lots to talk about. Stay tuned for an inspiring conversation. I hope that you find it helpful.

 

To find out more about Paula's work: -

Website: www.pauladatkinson.com

https://linktr.ee/pauladatkinson

Link for individual sessions: https://doxy.me/pauladatkinson

Instagram: @pauladatkinson

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bodyjustice #pauladatkinson #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bingeeatinghelp #bingeeatingrecovery #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #fatpositive #bodyliberation #weightstigma #lgbtq

Your identity shapes who you become. Research shows that people who are successful in giving up smoking tend to identify as a non-smoker, whereas if you identify as a smoker, even when you’re not smoking you are more likely to relapse. It is not uncommon that your identity is strongly linked with your eating disorder.

This is particularly understandable if you were diagnosed at a young age or were engaged with professional services, when young and impressionable. You may have been given a diagnostic label as a young teen. And the eating disorder may feel like a part of you. It has been around for so long. It feels safe, known and predictable. You may not like it, but you don’t know who you are without it. You may be into fitness and be labelled as ‘the healthy one’.

You may be identified in your friend group as ‘the skinny one’. You may have been praised continuously for your body shape, even though you’ve been internally struggling. You may derive a great deal of comfort and safety, from your identity being interwoven with your eating disorder. You may not know who you are without it.

If you relate to this, offer yourself deep kindness and compassion. The eating disorder has likely been a saviour through difficult times, even if holding you back now. But when your identity becomes unhealthily dependent on your eating disorder diagnosis, this can keep you stuck. It can drive you to unwittingly repeat and perpetuate the destructive cycles, which feel so familiar. There is little headspace for hobbies or friendship or pleasure (apart from food). The real-world blurs into the background and the eating disorder infiltrates into every aspect of life, dominating and filling every life crevice.

 

So how can you begin to rebuild a new identity and let go of the eating disorder?

This episode explores this.

Time slots:

9:55 1. Be inspired.

10:28 Early life.

11:13 Dream big.

I hope that you find it helpful.

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #identity #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom

Today, Joanne Moscalu (Binge Eating Dietitian) is a guest on the podcast. Joanne is a specialist Eating Disorder Dietitian, researcher and writer. Her work focuses on binge eating, combining clinical practice, research and thoughtful writing to challenge misconceptions and encourage more compassionate conversations about our relationship with food.

She is the host of The Binge Eating Dietitian Podcast and recently defended her doctoral thesis exploring the lived experience of binge eating. Joanne has recently started sharing her writing on these subjects and you can subscribe to her work with this link: https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

Today, Jo is here to talk about all things binge eating and to share some of her wonderful insights from her recent thesis.

1. Her thesis is about lived experience, not treatment or prevention of EDs but what it is actually like to live with binge eating in the modern day world.

2. As a dietitian, she focuses on the dietitian role and how we can maximise it for care of BED and how this is currently wildly underutilised.

3. Talking about BED as a bio-psycho-social condition and yet the social side is underlooked. Jo's thesis explores the significance of these social elements

4. Jo has publications in the pipeline but has just started sharing her ideas on a new writing platform which you can subscribe to here https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

I hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Jo's website: https://bingeeatingdietitian.com/

Subscribe for articles https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

Instagram: @binge.eating.dietitian

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

#eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bingeeating #bingeeatingdisorder #bingeeatinghelp #bingeeatingrecovery

In this episode, I explore 5 secrets to love your looks without jabs, surgery or extreme surgery.

Time slots:

1:46 Beauty and insecurity.

3:57 Radical acceptance of the body you have.

5:11 Active self-care of the body.

6:19 Don't talk about your body insecurities.

7:29 Holding onto comments from bullies.

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

#eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #bodyimagehealing #bodyimage #bodydysmorphicdisorder #loveyourself #loveyourselffirst #appearance

This episode dives into how to heal from your eating disorder, by working on deeper roots of the problem and exploring inner child work.

Time slots: -

1.10 When change feels hard.

3:53 What does it mean to heal your inner child?

5:20 It's not about demonising parents.

6:59 What you need to emotionally thrive as a child.

8:52 How your inner child can become wounded.

13:39 How to heal your inner child.

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #innerchild #innerchildhealing #innerchildwork #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom