HI! I'M BETHANY

The creator behind this training - a passion project multiple years in the making. I'm genuinely happy you are here.

I understand firsthand the experience of feeling consumed by thoughts about body, size, and weight.

And of feeling stuck in the grips of an eating disorder. Or more accurately, eating disorders. Eating disorders often evolve to be transdiagnostic if left untreated, and I can relate to being caught up in seemingly endless binge-restriction cycles in the past. .

I also know the joy of being fully recovered from disordered eating for years. Working in the eating disorder treatment field now to help others heal, I feel so grateful to be connected with amazing colleagues who are informed, effective, compassionate providers.

I work with so many clients who experience weight bias

Many people in larger bodies receive direct and indirect communication from medical providers that they can and should “control” their weight. One of the most harmful aspects of bias related to weight in particular, is an insinuation that if weight is within one’s control, then being “overweight” must result from overeating, not trying hard enough, lack of willpower, or being lazy. Those may sound extreme, but those are messages commonly conveyed in medical settings. Many clients I work with have internalized these negative beliefs about themselves. They often feel shame, as well as defeated from repeated “failed” attempts at weight loss. The mental health toll this takes on people and their self-concept is significant.

The physical impact can also be extremely negative. Those in larger bodies often feel that they are seen primarily as their weight, and that client medical concerns expressed to providers are overly attributed to weight. Or if someone loses weight, they are often automatically praised for their weight loss, without gathering further information. I’ve also had clients in smaller bodies experience bias based on size, such as erroneously assuming that someone has healthy relationships with food and exercise if they are in “normal” BMI ranges.

We need a different approach. This training was created to show you these different approaches. To reduce erroneous assumptions based on weight. To help all clients in all sizes feel seen and heard. To give ideas for how to provide more equitable and effective care.

Michigan... Alaska... Idaho... back to Michigan

I’m from southeast Michigan and the U.P. is one of my favorite places in the world (well, in the summer). After grad school we moved to southeast Alaska for 10 years (photos of me on this page were taken in our "front yard" in Alaska). One of our jobs there was working as therapists for a wilderness therapy Medicaid funded program for teens. Youth flew in from all over the state of Alaska and went out on 60 day wilderness canoe expeditions. Our Alaska days included lots of quiet beauty, thousands of acres of remote wilderness, and the occasional soul igniting whales and northern lights. We then moved to Boise, Idaho, where my husband and I began to work full time in our private practice. A few years ago we migrated back to Michigan and now live in the Lansing area.

Professional life

I am a licensed clinical social worker and I provide outpatient mental health psychotherapy in a private practice with my husband, who is also a mental health therapist. I attended Michigan State for my undergrad (Go green!) and University of Michigan for grad school.

"Our time is too valuable to spend it uninspired"

I'm all about

crocs, attending less popular MSU sporting events, organizing and decluttering, romping around outside (summer), hygge & yoga (winter)

I'm not about

fluorescent overhead lights, middle age insomnia, yard work (leaves & snow), tech glitches, my likely haunted 124-year-old basement

How is this training not boring?

Here's what you can expect

Extensive information about... common erroneous assumptions made by medical providers about a patient's food intake and movement; History of BMI; Over attribution of health issues to weight; Unintentional harm commonly caused by some standard medical approaches to weight, Systemic barriers to providing more weight inclusive care; Eating disorder presentations including Atypical Anorexia; Theories related to weighing patients; Terminology to consider using; Weight inclusive office practices; Approaches to discussing food and movement with clients...

... and more. Thank you for being here!