All in the Family with Anna Kowalski, MA, LMFT, CEDS

 
Anna Kowalski Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 19 - All in the Family with Anna Kowalski, MA, LMFT, CEDS

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Anna Kowalski, MA, LMFT, CEDS. With over 18 years of experience in treating eating disorders and a true passion for family therapy, Anna has supported countless clients to successful recovery. She has provided training and mentoring in several eating disorder treatment centers across the United States and firmly holds the belief that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. Direct, authentic, and with a big heart, Anna is a powerful match for any eating disorder. Anna’s extensive experience and knowledge of the importance of family integration allows her to help families reconnect with one another and open the lines of communication during what is often a long and difficult journey to recovery. Recovered clients report that successful family relationships were often the key ingredient for success. 

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • Family work is necessary for recovery.

  • The "fight" between the eating disorder and the family.

  • Families are not to blame, though they can be part of the problem…and part of the solution!

  • How one family session can feel like 500 individual sessions!

  • Biological and chosen families. 

  • Talking through anger.

  • Historical narratives and perceptions.

  • The need for family members to practice self-care.


ABOUT ANNA KOWALSKI:

Anna Kowalski received her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has been licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 2001. Anna was honored to have an 18-year career at Monte Nido & Affiliates: Residential Treatment for Eating Disorders, and left her position as Chief Experience Office at the end of 2017.

Anna has provided training and mentoring in several eating disorder treatment centers across the United States and firmly holds the belief that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible.

Anna is a person first, therapist second practitioner. She is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who also loves to work with individuals, couples, and all configurations of families. In working with families, Anna’s help to restore/teach communication skills, while working through the discord to create a sense of wholeness.

With fierce protection, uncanny humor, and insightful honesty, Anna's unique gift of bringing out each client's healthy self. Her bold authenticity and use of positive psychology have endeared her to clients through the years. Supporting clients and their families as they navigate their way from eating disordered to fully recovered, Anna's clinical expertise, strength, and insight have made her a sought after therapist in the realm of family therapy and eating disorders. She inspires clients with her zest for life, sense-of-humor, and ability to make every person that crosses her path feel special. Anna is also a dynamic, engaging speaker and has presented nationally on eating disorders and recovery.

While Anna has had a private practice in the Calabasas CA area for the past 20 years, she currently has a cherished private practice in Agoura Hills, California. 

SPECIAL LISTENER QUESTION FEATURE:

  • Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered when Anna returns to the podcast!

  • You can email questions to Karin directly, comment on the episode webpage, and/or send them via Instagram and Facebook.

  • All questions will be anonymous to protect our listeners.

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

If you enjoyed the podcast, we would be so grateful if you would please take a minute to leave us a rating/review on Apple Podcasts.

Are you interested in becoming a guest on the Recovery Bites podcast? If so, please fill out our brief application form to start the process.

 

Hungry for Freedom with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP, CEPC, CHC, AADP

 
Mindy Gorman Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 18 - Hungry for Freedom with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP, CEPC, CHC, AADP

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, a nutrition consultant, certified holistic health coach, eating psychology coach, and founder of The Freedom Promise, a private coaching practice in Manhattan. Mindy’s experience with her own recovery, her education in Functional Nutrition and Holistic Health, training in Transformational Coaching, and Eating Psychology inspired her to write The Freedom Promise: 7 Steps to Stop Fearing What Food Will Do to You and Start Embracing What It Can Do for You.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • “I was doing recovery, but I didn’t know what I was hungry for”

  • Defining your personal, non-linear recovery journey.

  • Turning pain into purpose.

  • Challenging the fear of what food will do TO you and embracing what food can do FOR you.

  • The difficulties with battling disordered eating and substance abuse.

  • How “Higher Powers” can look different for everyone.

  • Learning how to live in “the middle.”

  • Stomach, head, and heart hunger and listening to what you are hungry for.

  • Finding freedom from your eating disorder and reclaiming your best self.

  • Viewing transformation as less about what you want to do and more of what you want to let go of.

Being recovered means being able to rely on myself to have the confidence to go forward, no matter what obstacle I’m going to meet, and that I can rise up.


ABOUT MINDY GORMAN-PLUTZER:

Mindy Gorman-Plutzer is a nutrition consultant, certified holistic health coach, and eating psychology coach. Working in the weight management industry for 19 years, she has combined her background, trainings in holistic health, transformational coaching, and eating psychology with her extensive life experience to create The Freedom Promise, a Functional Nutrition and Eating Psychology coaching practice dedicated to guiding clients on the most valuable journey of their lives – the one where they get to realize and re-claim the most vibrant version of themselves.

Mindy has worked with hundreds of clients to transform their relationship with food from one mired in toxic and limiting beliefs to one that is joyous, loving, and free. She introduces strategies that are a combination of practical coaching techniques, results-oriented psychology, clinical nutrition, body-centered practices, mind-body science, and a positive and compassionate approach to challenges with food, weight, and health. Clients experience results that are nourishing, doable, and sustainable.

Mindy’s new book, The Freedom Promise: 7 Steps to Stop Fearing What Food Will Do to You and Start Embracing What It Can Do for You, shares powerful insight and strategies related to letting go of disordered eating behaviors and limiting beliefs that keep the reader tied to a toxic relationship with food, The Freedom Promise offers personal stories to inspire, practical steps, and affirmations. You will be motivated to examine your behavior with food, explore your hunger, and be guided to reframe the stories you have been telling yourself about food and your relationship to it.

Join Mindy alongside 38 global experts from August 24th-30th for the “Recovery Revealed: What's Feeding Your Disordered Eating?” Virtual Online Summit to “offer solutions to the challenging behavior and beliefs about food and your body.” Mindy has brought together dozens of leaders to share new information and protocols to support a special unique journey toward healing one's broken relationship with food. These experts come from the fields of functional medicine, psychology, psychiatry, mindset, nutrition, and healing. Please click here to register.

I invite you to join us so together we can continue to share the message of hope, healing and full recovery. — Mindy Gorman-Plutzer


Mindy currently resides in New York with her husband, is a mother, mother in law, and grandmother. She enjoys golf, Pilates, exploring the city, and after leaving her own disordered relationship with food behind, loves to cook and experience the wonder and complexity of food.

CONNECT WITH MINDY GORMAN-PLUTZER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

If you enjoyed the podcast, we would be so grateful if you would please take a minute to leave us a rating/review on Apple Podcasts.

Are you interested in becoming a guest on the Recovery Bites podcast? If so, please fill out our brief application form to start the process.

 

Challenging the Narrative of Weight Stigma with Chevese Turner

 
Chevese Turner Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 17 - Challenging the Narrative of Weight Stigma with Chevese Turner

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Chevese Turner, leader in the Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Health at Every Size® communities and co-author of Binge Eating Disorder: Recovery and Beyond. Chevese is the founder and former CEO of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), and currently holds the position of Chief Policy & Strategy Officer at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), after the 2018 merger of the two organizations. Chevese is a nationally recognized activist who passionately shares her journey with an eating disorder, body dissatisfaction, and the insidious effects of bullying & weight stigma on those living in larger bodies. With extensive experience in the field of eating disorders, Turner’s areas of advocacy include higher weight eating disorders, BED, weight bias and stigma, body image, Health at Every Size®, and body-based bullying.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • Dealing with personal weight biases.

  • The cycle of restriction in binge eating disorder.

  • Medical harm created by the “lose weight” mentality.

  • Access and barriers to treatment for those in larger bodies.

  • Finding community for those who are typically “unseen.”

  • The steps to provide informed care for people struggling with BED.


ABOUT CHEVESE TURNER:

Chevese Turner is the founder and former CEO of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), which merged with the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) in 2018. As part of NEDA’s executive leadership team, she develops the organization’s key policy initiatives and strategy and directs its partnerships, programming, and communications programs.

Turner has extensive experience in the eating disorders community as an advocate for those with binge eating disorder (BED) and issues around higher weight eating disorders. She is passionate about changing the conversation around weight and body size and is dedicated to moving beyond the current dominant weight-focused paradigm to one that is weight inclusive and promotes well-being free from weight stigma and body discrimination. Turner carries these messages to audiences around the US and abroad in schools, healthcare settings, trade organizations, associations, professional conferences, corporations, and governmental agencies. She is the co-author of the recently published book: Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery & Beyond and contributes regularly to podcasts and the media.

Turner attended Temple University in Philadelphia where she received a BA in Political Science. Her professional background includes public policy and government relations, non-profit management, programming, strategy, and communications.

Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond, co-written by a clinician and an advocate who have personally struggled with BED, illuminates the experience of BED from the patient perspective while also exploring the disorder’s etiological roots and addressing the components of treatment that are necessary for long-term recovery. Accessible for both treatment providers and patients alike, this unique volume aims to explore BED treatment and recovery from both sides of the process while also providing a resource for structuring treatment and building effective interventions. This practical roadmap to understanding, resilience, and lasting change will be useful for anyone working clinically with or close to individuals suffering from BED, as well as those on the recovery journey.

CONNECT WITH CHEVESE TURNER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

If you enjoyed the podcast, we would be so grateful if you would please take a minute to leave us a rating/review on Apple Podcasts.

Are you interested in becoming a guest on the Recovery Bites podcast? If so, please fill out our brief application form to start the process.

 

Living in Your Element with Michele Gardiner, MC, CCC

 
Michele Gardiner Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 16 - Living in Your Element with Michele Gardiner, MC, CCC

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Michele Gardiner MC, CCC, a Registered Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) and Psychotherapist and the founder of ELEMENTAL Psychotherapy & Support Services. A passion born of both personal and professional experience, Michele has dedicated twenty years to supporting people and communities on the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and mental health issues. Recovered for more than 21 years, Michele’s personal recovery from anorexia and compulsive over-exercise has provided her with a greater understanding, compassion, and coping skills to uniquely support and promote healthy, sustainable recovery.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The benefits of grounding oneself.

  • Ecotherapy and healing in nature.

  • The impact of changing our relationship to our stressors.

  • Decreasing impulsivity of behaviors and opening up options for recovery

  • Embracing the feeling of your body.

  • How the eating disorder serves as an umbrella over other issues and feeling states.

ABOUT MICHELE GARDINER:

​​Michele Gardiner is a humanistic, client-centered therapist who works from an attachment and trauma-informed lens and focuses on working collaboratively to create a therapy experience that feels safe and inclusive, builds on your personal strengths and capacities, and allows you to develop new meanings, resources and an awareness that fosters healthier coping, connection and confidence in your ability to manage problems in ways that align with your values and achieve your therapy goals.

Michele’s perspective comes from 15-years' of direct experience counseling individuals, couples, families, and groups within the public, private and not-for-profit sectors around general and complex mental health including behavioral and substance addictions, eating disorders, personality disorders, domestic violence/abuse, suicide and trauma in children, youth, adults.

Michele’s experience is further informed through her own personal recovery from anorexia and compulsive over-exercise, which resulted from the collision of two traumatizing events in her 20s, as a way of coping with intense emotions of loss, anger, and fear - pains that she was unable to express at the time. Recovery gave Michele tools for self-expression and compassion and coping skills and with these more empowering and freeing perspectives in life.

Recovery led Michele to volunteer experiences with organizations dedicated to promoting awareness and prevention around eating disorders and mental health and fueled a desire to give back by taking on community roles around the education, prevention, and treatment of these lonely, generally misunderstood and sometimes deadly issues. These valued volunteer roles include acting as a peer counselor with the BCEDA, community prevention educator with ANAD, as a member of the Board of Directors with ANAD and Jessie's Hope, a consultancy role with MCFD's eating disorder team, as an external editor with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s esteemed BC Mental Health Journal, Visions, as a member of the National Review Committee for the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, and as a public speaker and community educator on the topic of eating disorders, disordered eating and body image for more since 2005.

In addition to volunteer roles, Michele’s education includes a Masters Degree in counseling, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in (SS) psychology from the University of Victoria with a focus on Behavioral Neuroscience and Para-Linguistics, with post-graduate training and certifications directed to her areas of professional practice (you can view her training and education here).

Michele’s training in the assessment and treatment of Eating Disorders extends to working with children, youth, adults, families and athletes and encompasses completion of the Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy Certification (EDIT)™ and the CEDS Curriculum (2015 and 2017) with the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp)™.

As a Certified Therapist (CCC), Michele participates in on-going Consultation and Professional Supervision and hold Professional Certifications and Memberships in "good standing" with: The Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp™), the Academy of Eating Disorders (AED), the Eating Disorders Association of Canada (EDAC), the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP), and the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH).

Michele is the founder of ELEMENTAL Psychotherapy & Support Services , a private practice located in Summerland, BC, Canada. Honoring each client as a unique and capable individual is a core principle reflected in Michele’s work at ELEMENTAL through the perspective that, as human beings, their unique thoughts, feelings, beliefs and life experiences provide them with a wisdom that is empowering and elemental ​to their process of creating new hopes and change.

Michele’s love of counseling and psychology is enhanced by the belief that a solid foundation of education, training, and supervision provides the knowledge and skills to guide safe, informed practices and promote healthy, sustainable recovery for each individual, couple, and family that she works with.

Outside of counseling, Michele enjoys reading, photography, and being in the beautiful outdoors. Wind, rain, snow, and shine, she feels most inspired, centered, and authentic when she is in Nature and takes it in by hiking, skiing, snow-shoeing, and paddling with her family and Canine Co-therapist, Ash. Whenever possible, Michele encourages clients to develop a relationship with nature to improve coping, confidence and to develop a healthier, more holistic connection to their bodies and sense of self.
​

CONNECT WITH MICHELE GARDINER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Mindsight Discovery with Beth Hartman McGilley, Ph.D, FAED, CEDS

 
Beth Hartman McGilley Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 15 - Mindsight Discovery with Beth Hartman McGilley, Ph.D, FAED, CEDS

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Beth Hartman McGilley, Ph.D., FAED, CEDS-S recovered psychologist in private practice at Path Clinic, specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, athletes, trauma, and grief. Her practice is informed by feminist, HAES, and social justice perspectives. A Fellow of the AED, and a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist/Supervisor, Beth has practiced psychotherapy for over 35 years, in addition to writing, lecturing, and supervising. She is the co-editor of the book: Treatment of Eating Disorders: Bridging the Research/Practice Gap.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • Coping with the “messiness” of recovery.

  • Living in ambiguity.

  • Addressing fear surrounding treatment for athletes with eating disorders.

  • Finding ways to physically move that moves you.

  • The clinical need to “show up” for clients by honoring the uniqueness of each person's recovery.

  • Tolerating competing emotions and feeling states.

  • How recovery offers an entirely different way of relating to tragic events.

  • Mindsight...getting out of the rabbit hole!


ABOUT BETH MCGILLEY:

Beth Hartman McGilley, Ph.D., FAED, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Kansas School of Medicine--Wichita is a psychologist in private practice, specializing in the treatment of eating and related disorders, body image, athletes, trauma, and grief. A Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), and a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, she has practiced for over 30 years, writing, lecturing, supervising, directing an inpatient eating disorders program, and providing individual, family and group therapy.  She has published in academic journals and the popular media, as well as contributing chapters to several books. She is a journal editor for Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, and co-editor for the book: Treatment of Eating Disorders: Bridging the Research/Practice Gap. She has presented extensively to national and international, lay and professional audiences, as well as appeared on a variety of local and national news and radio outlets.

In addition to her clinical work, Beth has been a chair or member of numerous committees for the AED since its inception. These include Health Club Taskforce (Chair, 2009-2015), Medical Management Taskforce (Member, 2009-present), Public Relations Committee (Chair, Advocacy Subcommittee, 2002-04), Membership Recruitment/Retention Committee (Co-Chair.1999-03), Fundraising Committee (Member, 2001-02), Managed Care Task Force Committee (Member, 1997-01). Beth previously served as the co-founder and Co-Chair of the AED Professionals and Recovery Special Interest Group, and is currently a member of the AED Somatic Therapies SIG.

Beth also specializes in applications of sports psychology and performance enhancement techniques with athletes at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. She was the sports psychology consultant for the Wichita State University Women’s Basketball team from 2005-2008. She was the co-founder and co-chair of the Association for Applied Sports Psychology (AASP) Eating Disorders Special Interest Group from 2007-2012.

Beth co-founded and for 12 years served as the President of the Healing Path Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eating disorders in Kansas. She is a longstanding member of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the Kansas Psychological Association (KPA).  She was a 2008 graduate of the Kansas Health Foundation Leadership Fellows Training program. Her hobbies include competitive cycling, hiking, writing, and time with her therapy dog, Wheeler the Healer.

CONNECT WITH BETH MCGILLEY:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Finding Freedom in Recovery with Beth McMurray LMFT, CEDS

 
EDIT Beth McMurray Podcast Cover Art KLEDC.jpg

Episode 14 - Finding Freedom in Recovery with Beth McMurray LMFT, CEDS

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Beth McMurray, LMFT, CEDS. Beth is a Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, specializing in working with clients with eating disorders, as well as the underlying issues that can drive eating disorders, such as anxiety, depression, loss, and trauma.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • Eating disorders and the entertainment industry.

  • How your relationship with food is like your relationship with people.

  • Setting healthy boundaries in relationships.

  • Body dissatisfaction when deeper in an eating disorder.

  • Loss of self.

  • Losing touch with what you value while in an eating disorder.

BEGIN YOUR HEALING JOURNEY WITH KARIN AND HER TEAM NOW!