Pivoting to HAES When Weight Loss is the Goal

The video of the meeting is HERE

Health at Every Size is the promised land and everyone needs time to get there, including us. We want our clients to respect their bodies, so we need to respect them in the goal setting. And we really need to respect each other in our various journeys toward HAES. Those are some Sept VFED Table Talk takeaways.

Anna Kowalski,LMFT,CEDS guest hosted a wide range of expertise in the room as people zoomed in from as far away as New Jersey and New Zealand and Rhonda Krick,MA,RD and Chris Loeb,LMFT,RD teamed up to tackle “Getting to HAES When Weight Loss is Their Goal”. We examined the major pitfalls of not working together as professionals and when setting goals FOR a patient rather than WITH a patient. As tempting as it is to tell clients to just give up their wt loss plans, we know that doesn’t work.

To remove a weight and food agenda means to focus instead on the eating, the thoughts, and the feelings that have previously gone unfelt or unexamined. When an ED is working, there are few unpleasant feelings. The support of a dietitian and medical professional can push back on behaviors and exposes those feelings. If all goes as planned in the therapy room, what we are really trying to fix by controlling food and weight becomes more conscious, tolerance for distress goes up, and behaviors are reduced. This is a delicate holding environment for the whole team. And in truth, all of it happens in all of the rooms, so don’t skimp on team referrals, err on overcommunicating, and be flexible in your scope of practice.

This delicate and nuanced process of recovery requires the exact skills we hold as professionals- knowledge, creativity, empathy, and above all PATIENCE. Reflecting and validating, our best tools.

Serving our clients by sitting with their pain will continue to challenge us but we stand reassured knowing that recovery is not supposed to feel simple or easy. Thank you to all who contributed to a great discussion.