About This Blog

Amid cultural messages that teach us to dislike our bodies and distrust food, there is a deep need – one might even call it a hunger – for a transformed and transforming relationship with the body. I believe this need can only be met through a fully-embodied spirituality that draws on practices that allow us to connect with the Divine, in and through our bodies. This blog is an invitation to shift how we collectively think about and experience embodiment.

My perspective is shaped by who I am: a therapist specializing in eating disorders, an eating disorder survivor, and a candidate for ordination within the United Methodist Church. Because eating disorders disconnect people from their bodies and spirits, I believe that true recovery must involve reconnecting body, mind and spirit. Yet, eating disorders are only the most extreme expression of cultural messages that affect everyone. As a result, I think everyone can benefit from practices that intentionally connect body, mind and spirit.

While I hope that my blog speaks to others in the eating disorder community (those with eating disorders, their loved ones, providers, and researchers), I believe it is applicable to everyone who eats and has a body. While I hope it speaks to people of faith across religious traditions, it is also for people who are not religious, but are interested in connecting with their spirituality.

Posts explore:

• Spiritual practices, particularly those that incorporate the body and/or food
• Scripture, how it describes food, eating, and the body, and how it can be distorted by an eating disorder
• Theology - what the Christian tradition teaches about the body and food
• Culture - sociocultural forces that contribute to eating disorders, create body dissatisfaction, and ascribe moral value to food, eating, and exercising.