Posts Tagged “For Providers”

Reviewed by Mindy Elliott, MS, Director of Education at The Emily Program.

The fear of slipping behind in school shouldn’t be a barrier to connecting with lifesaving eating disorder care. While this concern is common and valid, your child or patient’s health must come before any outside commitments or responsibilities—including their education. The good news? Prioritizing health does not have to adversely affect academic progress.

At The Emily Program, we are committed to helping our clients stay on track with school while getting the vital eating disorder support they need. The process of navigating your child’s education and treatment may feel like an impossible balancing act, but we are here to help.

Episode description:

Shena Washburn, Senior Director of Clinical Nutrition and Culinary Services at The Emily Program, joins us for a timely conversation about the newly released Food Guide Pyramid—what it says, what it doesn’t, and what it means in the context of eating disorder recovery.

Together, Shena and Jillian explore how public nutrition messaging can reinforce the kind of food hierarchies and moral judgments that make recovery harder, how eating disorder treatment approaches nutrition differently, and what the role of a dietitian in eating disorder care looks like.

Episode description:

In this episode of Peace Meal, we’re joined by two North Carolina-based Emily Program clinicians, Mem Wood and Elysse Thebner Miller, to talk all things Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, or ARFID.

Mem and Elysse unpack what makes ARFID different from ordinary food preferences, why it can emerge at any age, and how symptoms may affect nutrition, growth, medical stability, and daily life. They describe the three ARFID subtypes, share what treatment actually looks like, and highlight signs that often indicate it’s time to seek support.

This episode also introduces The Emily Program’s new specialized residential and inpatient programming for adults with ARFID in the Raleigh–Durham area—the only dedicated adult program of its kind nationwide.

Episode description:

In this episode of Between Bites, Dr. Jillian Lampert explores the topic of weight stigma and its harmful effects on health and healthcare. She defines weight stigma as judgment or discrimination based on body size, shape, or appearance—and explains how it shows up in everyday life, from jokes in the media to treatment in the doctor’s office.

Dr. Lampert highlights how weight stigma in healthcare can lead to serious consequences, including patients avoiding care altogether. She underscores the importance of separating weight from health and focusing on holistic well-being instead. With Weight Stigma Awareness Week approaching, she shares opportunities to learn more, take action, and create change through kindness, education, and advocacy.

We all live in diet culture, a society obsessed with thinness and dieting. Weight and food biases permeate the air we breathe, tingeing our thoughts and actions in ways sometimes hard to notice. Providers, patients—none of us—are immune to these biases. They’re often subtle and deeply embedded, and left unexamined and unchecked, they can manifest in interactions between patients and even the most capable, well-intentioned providers.

In this article, we define and discuss weight and food bias, including its perpetuating factors and health consequences. Learn the impact of weight stigma and how to recognize and counter implicit and explicit bias in yourself, your practice, and in our larger society.

What are weight bias and stigma?

Weight bias refers to negative attitudes, beliefs, or assumptions about others based on body weight or size. Internalized weight bias occurs when these negative weight-related beliefs are absorbed and held about oneself.

Weight bias can lead to weight stigma, or the disapproval of someone based on their weight. Stigma is seeing someone negatively because of their weight, which can in turn lead to treating someone negatively because of it. Stigma manifests in stereotyping, bullying, and discrimination on the basis of weight, as well as exclusion and marginalization in media, professional, health care, and other settings. While weight bias harms people of all sizes, those who live in bodies that do not conform to “normal” body size expectations experience the greatest weight stigmatization.

Episode description:

In this episode of Peace Meal, we hear from Jenny Beck and Sarah Bergen, two passionate leaders at The Emily Program’s Ohio treatment centers. Jenny, the Site Director, and Sarah, the Regional Medical Director, offer personal and professional insight into eating disorder recovery—what they love about their work, what makes it challenging, and what they wish more people knew about treatment.

Reflecting on the rewarding but often difficult journey of supporting people with eating disorders, while drawing from years of experience—and in Sarah’s case, a personal history with anorexia—they discuss: 

• What happens behind the scenes in treatment
• The misconceptions they frequently encounter
• The deep hope they hold for their clients 

Together, they emphasize that while recovery is never easy, it is always worth it.

Eating disorders don’t have a single cause. They develop from a mix of biological, psychological, and social factors. One important factor that often gets overlooked is food insecurity—the lack of reliable access to enough safe, nutritious food.

When food is unpredictable, eating patterns shift. People may skip meals, eat past fullness when food becomes available, or fall into long-term cycles of restriction and bingeing. These patterns can disrupt hunger and fullness cues, fuel emotional distress, and increase the risk of an eating disorder or make recovery more challenging.

Yet outdated stereotypes about who struggles with eating disorders often prevent those facing food insecurity from getting help. Eating disorders affect people of all sizes, backgrounds, and incomes. If providers don’t recognize the role of food insecurity, they may miss a critical piece of the puzzle.

Below, we’ll explore how food insecurity and eating disorders overlap, how to screen for food insecurity, and how to integrate food access support into treatment. Addressing both together can help people heal their relationship with food and find lasting recovery.

If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, you may be wondering where to turn for help. Many people start with a therapist, dietitian, or primary care doctor—but is that enough?

Eating disorders affect the body, brain, and emotions in deeply connected ways. Because of this, recovery isn’t something one provider can tackle alone. Without a coordinated team, critical aspects of treatment can be overlooked—making healing harder and increasing the risk of relapse.

A meal plan alone won’t heal the psychological roots of an eating disorder. Therapy without nutritional support may not help the body recover. And medical check-ins without mental health care can leave emotional struggles unaddressed. To fully heal, all of these elements must be treated together.

That’s where The Emily Program comes in. Unlike general mental health providers, we offer specialized, team-based care designed specifically for eating disorder recovery. Our coordinated approach ensures that every part of your healing journey receives the expert attention it deserves.