Many people face discrimination and stigma based on their body size and appearance. Eating disorders are on the rise and treatment services are struggling to accommodate the demand, and many people don’t fit the diagnostic criteria, leaving those struggling with eating and body image to seek out counsellors elsewhere. The inherent nature of weight bias and fatphobia in our society means that this is likely to be a dominant factor in the counselling room, potentially causing harm by exacerbating eating and body distress. In this workshop, I’ll explore the impact of weight stigma and fatphobia, eating distress, intersecting with other forms of discrimination such as classism and ableism.
Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own relationship with food and their bodies, and consider their own implicit biases around weight. The aim of this workshop is to help practitioners consider the impact of weight discrimination and the harm caused by fatphobia, in order to work in an inclusive, collaborative and Pluralistic way, to help support clients and reduce the risk of further harm in the counselling room.
Course Content
Presenter
Mel Ciavucco is a writer, trainer and group facilitator, and has just qualified as an Integrative Pluralistic counsellor. Mel’s passions and experiences lie in eating disorders, body image and weight stigma, as well as in her group work with perpetrators of domestic abuse. She was published in Therapy Today with an article about fatphobia (June 2021 edition) and she writes about disordered eating, weight stigma, class, and more on her website.
