Dietitians’ Own Emotions as Allies in Working with Clients Who Have Eating Disorders

How a person frames emotions is a crucial component in navigating eating disorders. While most people see emotions as the problem they are trying to control via eating disorder symptoms, the truth is that emotions are often a genius response to the problems they are facing, pointing them in the direction of the exact solution required.

In Part 1 of this webinar, Sarah Alexander, LCSW reviewed 3 emotions (anger, fear, and panic) that dietitians commonly encounter in working with clients who present with eating disorder thoughts and behaviors. 

In Part 2 of this webinar, Sarah takes a closer look at how dietitians might work with their own emotions to help them navigate challenging situations with these clients.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this webinar, attendees will gain an understanding of:

1. How dietitians might apply the skills called forth by their own anger (which keeps an eye on values and boundaries) in their work with people who are addressing body weight/shape/size and food issues.
2. How dietitians might apply the skills called forth by their own of fear (which helps a person orient to novelty and change) in their work with people who are navigating recovery.
3. How dietitians might apply the skills called forth by their own panic (which is helping a person to move in the direction of healing actions) in their work with people who are engaging in risky behaviors.

Sarah Alexander, LCSW (she/her) Bio:

Sarah has been working as a therapist in the eating disorder field since 2006. She is a former president of the Columbia River Eating Disorder Network, teaches classes to graduate counseling students in the eating disorder certificate program at Lewis and Clark College, and has been a certified Dynamic Emotional Integration trainer since 2018 (in addition to being trained in EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy). She currently runs Brave Acorn (a group practice in Portland, Oregon) where she teaches other therapists to work from a Health at Every Size and Language of Emotions lens. Several dietitians have taken her 30-hour Attending to Emotions course and report that learning to collaborate with emotions as allies has been game-changing in their work with clients.