The philosophies we use at The Center For Every Body
What is the Health At Every Size (HAES®) approach?
The treatment that we provide at our practice is completely geared toward body acceptance in every way. The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) believes in a holistic definition of health, which cannot be characterized as simply the absence of physical or mental illness, limitation, or disease. This means that health can actually come in different shapes and sizes. HAES is an evidence-based treatment and is necessary in treating eating disorders. The HAES model addresses broad forces that support health, such as safe and affordable access. It also helps people find sustainable practices that support individual and community wellbeing.
In our work together, we will never encourage weight loss or assume that your body shape or size is the cause for disease. We will support you in advocating for justice when working with medical providers. We will also guide you in your journey as you unlearn unhelpful societal messages that suggest our bodies are “bad” because they may not look like the ideal body. We will support you with compassion and empathy as you navigate your own relationship with your body even if it means grieving the way you thought your body would be.
The Health at Every Size Principles are:
Weight Inclusivity: Accept and respect the inherent diversity of body shapes and sizes and reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights.
Health Enhancement: Support health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services, and personal practices that improve human well being, including attention to individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs.
Respectful Care: Acknowledge our biases, and work to end weight discrimination, weight stigma, and weight bias. Provide information and services from an understanding that socioeconomic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other identities impact weight stigma, and support environments that address these inequities.
Eating for Well Being: Promote flexible, individualized eating based on hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure, rather than any externally regulated eating plan focused on weight control.
Please know that access to HAES aligned therapists is what our practice is about. This work will most likely be intertwined in your treatment and the above is simply a brief introduction.
Intuitive Eating
In addition to incorporating a HAES approach, we may draw on principles from Intuitive Eating (IE) as you unpack your relationship with food and body image. IE provides a solution to chronic dieting and disordered eating. In our work together, we will explore food rules and thoughts that have impacted your relationship with food. We will also start to rebuild trust with your body so that you feel confident about fueling yourself when you feel hungry. I believe that our bodies know when and how much to eat when we are nourished. There are times where we need to work on nourishment in a non-restrictive way before we can dive into IE. I often refer to non-diet dietitians that I trust to provide you with size inclusive care that doesn’t involve restriction.
This approach will not be for everyone right away. Sometimes when folks are early in recovery from an eating disorder or have an active eating disorder, we might discuss these principles, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to eat when hungry when your body is still re-learning the hunger/fullness cues.