In this episode, I’m breaking down the non-negotiables of eating disorder recovery. Not the trendy opinions, not the “take it or leave it” advice, and definitely not the stuff that sounds good on Instagram but falls apart in real life. These are the foundational pieces that every recovery needs, no matter your diagnosis, your personality, or the modality you’re using.

This episode is about that part. The part no one really warns you about. The phase where recovery doesn’t feel freeing, it feels destabilizing. Where you might quietly wonder if you made a mistake, or if maybe the eating disorder actually worked better than this. I talk about why that reaction makes total sense, what’s actually happening in your emotional world, and why feeling worse does not mean you’re failing. If anything, it usually means the eating disorder is no longer doing its job of numbing, organizing, and keeping things contained. And yeah, that job mattered, even if it hurt you.

In this episode, we slow the conversation way down and talk honestly about unmet childhood needs. Not as a way to blame parents, caregivers, or anyone else, but as a way to finally understand why your eating disorder made sense in the first place.

You’ve learned how to do therapy. You know how to build rapport, assess, diagnose, and intervene. Most days, you feel solid about your clinical work. And then there are the cases that quietly undo your confidence.

In this episode, we’re naming the thoughts no one wants to admit out loud. The “why them and not me?” The fear that recovery might be the harder path. The frustration of watching what looks like an easy fix while you’re choosing something slower, messier, and far more vulnerable.

You know when someone says, “Oh, that’s normal”, but something in your body clearly doesn’t feel right? Maybe you’ve lost your period and brushed it off because you exercise a lot. Maybe a doctor waved it away. Maybe you’ve been praised for your discipline, your control, your “healthy” lifestyle, even while your body has been quietly asking for more.

Especially if you have a complicated relationship with food, body image, or control, resolutions can feel less like hope and more like a trap dressed up as self-improvement. We talk honestly about why resolutions feel so tempting, how shame and pressure sneak into food- and body-based goals, and why that “clean slate” fantasy rarely delivers what it promises. 

Let’s be clear: nothing about this makes you weak, broken, or lacking willpower. In fact, what happens at night is almost always a signal; a physiological one, an emotional one, or both. Sometimes it’s as simple as your body saying, “Hey, I didn’t get enough today,” even if you didn’t feel hungry at the time. Sometimes it’s the residue of all the structure, pressure, and performance mode of the day finally melting away…and taking your guard down with it. And sometimes, the quiet of the evening is the only space where the loneliness, exhaustion, or unmet needs you pushed aside earlier finally surface.

In this episode, we welcome back a longtime favorite guest: Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo, a neuropsychiatrist and internationally known educator whose work sits at the intersection of brain science, mental health, and eating disorder treatment. If you've heard his previous episodes, you already know that he has a profound ability to make complex neuroscience feel not just understandable, but actionable. This time, he brings something new, something that might seem unexpected coming from a neuroscientist: the science of a bucket list. And no, not the Hollywood version. Not skydiving. Not “visit Paris.” Something far more foundational.

Whether you’re supporting others or navigating your own process, this episode offers language and perspective to help you sit with the messiness rather than fear it.

If you’ve ever wondered why PCOS feels so confusing, why the symptoms don’t line up, why the advice is contradictory, why the solutions feel like guesswork, you’re not imagining it. PCOS is one of the most misunderstood conditions out there, and the internet has not helped. Everywhere you turn, there’s another promise to “balance your hormones,” another restrictive plan, another fear-based warning about what will happen if you don’t get it “right.”

Healing isn’t supposed to be perfect or linear, and when we stumble, it doesn’t mean we’ve failed. It’s a moment, one that can actually offer us valuable information about what still needs care, attention, and compassion.

In this week’s episode, we’re unpacking what it actually means to feel “normal” around food, and why that word can be both confusing and powerful. Because when most of us say we want to feel normal, what we really mean is that we want freedom. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from rules. Freedom to trust ourselves again. We’ll talk about how to rebuild that trust, how structure can be the surprising foundation for flexibility, and why connecting with your body, and with other people, is such a vital part of the healing process.

The holidays are a time of joy, connection, and celebration. But they can also stir up difficult emotions, memories, and patterns, especially if you’ve experienced trauma or struggled with disordered eating. In this episode, we’re diving into the complex and often misunderstood relationship between eating disorders and trauma.

You’re in a meeting, at school, or out with friends, and instead of focusing on what’s in front of you, all you can think about is what you’ll eat next, what you shouldn’t have eaten, or what you’ll allow yourself later. That constant mental chatter, what many call food noise, can be exhausting.

In this episode, I break down what treatment can look like when someone is struggling in the “middle” of the spectrum. Not in a medical crisis, but still needing real support to heal their relationship with food. We’ll explore the three core pillars of treatment (what I call the “three-legged stool”), the role each professional plays, and why collaboration across the team matters so much.

In this episode of Understanding Disordered Eating, I’m joined by my good friend and colleague, Sydney Green, MS, RD, to unpack the truth about body image: what it really means, how it shows up in daily life, and why it’s so intertwined with our relationship to food. 

For decades, the conversation has been clouded by vague definitions, conflicting philosophies, and the fear that “recovery” might not even be possible. In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Carolyn Costin, a renowned therapist, author, and pioneer in the eating disorder field, to dig into what recovery actually looks like, why she believes full recovery is possible, and how to strengthen the “healthy self” rather than fight against the eating disorder voice.

If you’ve ever found yourself saying, “No, but really, my situation is different,” we’re talking about that too. Because while yes, biology and hormones play a role, a lot of us are way too quick to jump to, “I need a drastic fix” before we’ve even tried addressing our relationship with food (or, you know, feelings).

The messages we receive about food, body image, and self-worth can be overwhelming, making it difficult to break free from the patterns that keep us stuck. But real recovery isn’t just about changing behaviors; it’s about transforming the way we relate to ourselves at the deepest level.