Welcome
There’s Help. There’s Hope! The Emily Program is a warm and welcoming place where individuals and their families can find comprehensive treatment for eating disorders and related issues. This blog is a place for us to share the latest happenings at The Emily Program, as well as helpful tidbits from the broader eating disorder community. Subscribe via RSS to receive automatic updates. We want to hear your story. Email us (blog@emilyprogram.com) and ask how you can become a contributor!
Episode 34: The Role of Yoga in Eating Disorder Recovery with Lisa Wingårdh
Episode description:
Lisa Wingårdh is a yoga teacher based in Stockholm, Sweden. Fully devoted to helping others reconnect with their body and breath, she is especially passionate about eating disorder recovery given her personal experience with anorexia and bulimia.
In this episode of Peace Meal, we discuss the role of yoga in eating disorder treatment and recovery. Lisa shares her journey to discovering yoga and describes the ways it has nurtured her body, mind, and soul. Speaking from experience and training, she explains the benefits of yoga to those healing from eating disorders as well as reasons people might find the practice intimidating or challenging. She also offers gentle advice for making sure our yoga practice remains self-compassionate and customized to our own needs and lives.
Learn more about Lisa on her website, wingardhwellness.com, and find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
Learn more about The Emily Program online or by calling 1-888-364-5977.
Episode 33: Midlife Eating Disorders with Heidi Dalzell
Episode description:
Dr. Heidi Dalzell is a licensed clinical psychologist in the greater Philadelphia area with 25 years of therapy experience. She specializes in treating eating disorders and body image concerns, especially in women at midlife.
Heidi joins us in this episode of Peace Meal to discuss midlife eating disorders. She explores the cultural, biological, and life-stage factors that make women susceptible to eating disorders at this point in life. Among them are societal appearance ideals of thinness and youthfulness, aging-related weight and shape changes, and changes in relationship roles and dynamics. Heidi explains the unique barriers midlife women face in seeking care, including shame, stigma, and lack of access to age-appropriate treatment, and then identifies how we can better serve this population. Emphasizing that recovery is possible, she encourages anyone struggling with an eating disorder to reach out for help.
Learn more about Heidi on her website, talktogrow.com, and check out her Facebook support group, Eating Disorders at Midlife.
Episode 32: Sharing Your Story for Eating Disorder Advocacy with Johanna Kandel
Episode description:
Johanna Kandel is the Founder and CEO of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, a national non-profit dedicated to eating disorders outreach, education, early intervention, and advocacy. Having recovered from an eating disorder herself, she is a passionate and prominent advocate for mental health and eating disorders legislation.
In the last of our three-part series on eating disorder advocacy and policy, Johanna joins us to talk about the personal experience of advocacy. First she opens up about her own eating disorder, recovery, and journey to advocacy. She then describes how her closeness to the issue has fueled and challenged her advocacy efforts, how her professional and personal motivation has evolved over time, and how she focuses on opportunity instead of cynicism. Underscoring the importance of personal voices and lived experiences, she concludes by encouraging others to get involved.
Episode 31: The Eating Disorders Coalition with Chase Bannister
Episode description:
Chase Bannister, MDIV, MSW, LCSW, CEDS, is the president of the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action (EDC), the federal advocacy organization that advances the recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority.
In this episode of Peace Meal, Chase describes the EDC and its members, its mission and goals, and how it engages in eating disorders education and advocacy. He emphasizes the importance of community, strategy, and persistence in advocacy, as well as the immense power we have as constituents. He then explains two of the EDC’s current policy efforts, the Nutrition CARE Act and the SERVE Act, and offers easy ways we can get involved.
Episode 30: The Basics of Eating Disorder Lawmaking with Katrina Velasquez
Episode description:
Attorney Katrina Velasquez is the Founder and Managing Principal of Center Road Solutions, a public policy firm that works with the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action (EDC) to advance eating disorders as a public health priority on Capitol Hill.
Katrina takes us through the federal legislative process in this episode of Peace Meal. She outlines how ideas are introduced as bills, discussed and amended by committees, and ultimately voted on to become laws. Describing the influence of politics, timing, and leadership, she shows how the process can be lengthy and involved. Citizen participation, however, is vital and not as intimidating as it may seem.
Episode 29: Eating Disorders in College Athletes with Cece Muskovac
Episode description:
In this episode of Peace Meal, we chat with a Division 1 soccer player, Cece Muskovac, about eating disorders in student athletes. Cece shares how sports have impacted her relationship with food and body, and how her eating disorder once held captive the personality traits that make her a strong athlete. She describes how she came to appreciate, fuel, and listen to her body and find recovery with the support of her coaches and teammates.