What if our struggles with food and body image have as much to do with our need for safety and connection as they do with food itself?
Today I'm welcoming back Dr. Vanessa Scaringi and Kate Garland, therapists, eating disorder specialists, and authors of Hungry for Connection: Heal Your Relationships with Food and People in an Insecurely Attached World.
In our first conversation, we explored attachment theory and how our relationships with other people can shape our relationships with food and our bodies. This time, we're taking that conversation further, looking at how diet culture, weight-loss messaging, and the world we're living in can make it difficult to trust ourselves and feel like we belong.
Part One: Free for everyone
In the first part of our conversation, we explore:
*How attachment theory helps us understand our relationships with food and other people
*Why fitting in and genuinely belonging are two very different things
*The connection between loneliness, disordered eating, and our need for safety
*How our relationships can influence our ability to trust ourselves
*Why so much of diet culture recovery involves more than talking about food or bodies
Part Two: For paid subscribers
In the second half, we get into:
*The GLP-1 era and how increased weight-loss pressure is impacting people trying to make peace with food and their bodies
*Why diet culture is so good at selling us belonging and acceptance
*The exhausting pressure to optimize ourselves and how that disrupts our connection with self and others
*How to learn to trust yourself again, and why it doesn’t mean always making the “right” decision
*How we can loosen our dependence on external rules and reassurance
*Why disordered eating isn’t an individual failure, and who gets let off the hook when we treat it like one.
I hope you enjoy this conversation!
Connect with today's guests:
Hungry for Connection: Heal Your Relationships with Food and People in an Insecurely Attached World book
CALM Counseling — Austin, Texas
Kate & Vanessa on Instagram
Support the Show:
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Group program:
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Social media:
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Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Administrative Support by Alexis Glaubach
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
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