“If I put all my eggs in the basket of ‘I’m gonna love the appearance of my body so hard,’ then that’s frightening. Because the appearance of my body, and my appearance in general, is going to be different in 5 years, very different in 10 years. What if I get pregnant? What about when my hair grows grey? What about when you gain weight? What about when you lose weight? … The appearance of your body is going to change…” ~ Dr. Colleen Reichmann
Dr. Colleen Reichmann is a licensed clinical psychologist, practicing in Virginia. She works at her private practice, Wildflower Therapy, and is a staff psychologist at the College of William and Mary. She is recovered from an eating disorder, and this experience sparked her passion for spreading knowledge and awareness that full recovery is possible. She is now an eating disorders specialist, and has worked at various treatment facilities including University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro Center for Eating Disorder Care, and The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt. She is an advocate for feminism, body positivity, health at every size, and FULL recovery. In this thoughtful and (super) informative conversation, we pull back the layers on body image, eating disorders, recovery, and much, much more. You don’t want to miss it.
Inside the episode we discuss:
- Finding hope
- What rock bottom really means
- Body image
- Why you don’t need to look a certain way to have an eating disorder
- How weight is such a small, small symptom of eating disorders
- How the majority of people don’t seem like they have an eating disorder
- The danger of food being a short-term coping skill
- Binge eating and numbing
- Tackling diet culture
- Genetic predispositons to eating disorders
- Colleen’s own personal story
- What full recovery really means
- The difference between body positivity and full recovery
- Breaking through food rules
- Body changes with age
- How attractiveness is not important
- Self-worth
- Self-esteem
- Eating disorder recovery
- Self-awareness
- How full recovery doesn’t mean you feel amazing about your body everyday