Embodiment and Eating Disorders

This is an insightful and essential new volume for academics and professionals interested in the lived experience of those who struggle with disordered eating. Embodiment and Eating Disorders situates the complicated – and increasingly prevalent – topic of disordered eating at the crossroads of many academic disciplines, articulating a notion of embodied selfhood that rejects the separation of mind and body and calls for a feminist, existential, and sociopolitically aware approach to eating disorder treatment. Experts from a variety of backgrounds and specializations examine theories of embodiment, current empirical research, and practical examples and strategies for prevention and treatment.

"Embodiment and Eating Disorders brings together diverse scholar-clinician-advocates whose chapters connect provocative 19th- and 20th-century existential and/or feminist philosophies with a stunning array of topics, including how to do embodying research about embodiment, clinical neuroscience, family therapies, yoga, blogging as resistance to colonizing white beauty ideals, the meanings of recovery, and the limits of ‘positive body image.’ This informative, jargon-free book should become a go-to bridge between embodiment’s rich past and exciting future."—Michael P. Levine, PhD, FAED, emeritus professor of psychology at Kenyon College"Embodiment and Eating Disorders expands the current discourse of conceptualizing, preventing, and treating eating disorders from an intra-individual model to a much-needed embodied model that honors the dynamic interplay between the individual and the world. Qualitative studies, case studies, sample transcripts, and practice recommendations are intertwined within the chapters to illustrate how to promote embodiment in girls and women. This book should prove an invaluable resource for clinicians, researchers, and the general reader alike."—Tracy L. Tylka, PhD, professor of psychology at The Ohio State University and editor-in-chief of Body Image: An International Journal of Research"A wonderful book that adds an understanding of the self as an integrated embodied whole. It offers a novel and much needed existential and phenomenological perspective on eating disorders. A must-read for clinicians and students who want to learn how to work with the lived experience of the body in eating disorders."—Leslie Greenberg, PhD, distinguished research professor emeritus of psychology at York University"What an open and inspired view on the body, the psyche, and the spirit! This volume portrays the body as not just part of the human being, but as the graspable incorporation of humanness. This is the best preventive attitude and therapeutic view!"—Alfried Längle, MD, PhD, founder and president of the International Society of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis

Hillary L. McBride, MA, RCC, is a PhD candidate in counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has won the Young Investigator Award in Human Sexuality and is the author of Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are. You can learn more about her work at www.hillarylmcbride.comJanelle L. Kwee, PsyD, RPsych, is program director and associate professor of counseling psychology at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia and a registered psychologist in private practice at Altus Psychological Services. For more about Dr. Kwee, see www.altuspsychology.com/about/dr-janelle-kwee/