Upcoming Webinars

Description:

Gender-expansive individuals experience elevated rates of eating disorder (ED) behaviors and body image distress, yet many clinicians providing ED care have limited training in gender-affirming approaches, particularly in the context of the current political climate. This intermediate-level, 60-minute virtual workshop (45-minute presentation, 15-minute Q&A) will explore the mechanisms of sociopolitical harm and corresponding impact on gender-expansive communities, particularly as it relates to embodiment. Then, we will explore how to adapt existing ED and body image interventions for gender-expansive clients whose disordered eating may function as an attempt to align the body with gender identity or to avoid experiences of harm. Attendees will gain practical frameworks, language, and treatment strategies to support ethical, affirming, and effective ED care for gender-expansive individuals.

• Scout Silverstein, MPH
  Scout is a PhD student and public health researcher focused on eating disorders, body image, and gendered embodiment. Their work examines how surveillance, gendered objectification, concealment, and transphobia shape disordered eating among gender-expansive individuals, while also demonstrating how these same mechanisms operate within cisgender populations. They support structural change to care delivery via medical education, providing training to practicing clinicians, and adapting clinical interventions to meet identity-based needs.

• Emil K. Smith, PhD, LCSW
  Emil is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Clinical Research and Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Their research is informed by their clinical experience in primary care, outpatient, and intensive outpatient mental health settings. Inspired by disability justice and anti-carceral mental health advocacy, Emil seeks to transform clinical practice to enable the healthcare system to better serve trans communities. Their scholarship currently focuses on integrated primary care, eating disorders and disordered eating, and relational suicide assessment and intervention.

• D. Catherine Walker, PhD
  D. Catherine Walker is an associate professor of psychology at Union College, a small liberal arts college in Schenectady, NY. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist with a small part time telehealth practice. Her research and clinical focus is on eating disorders, weight, and body image. In particular, she has a dual focus on body image interventions such as mirror exposure, and examining eating disorder and body image psychopathology in underrepresented groups within the field (e.g., men, LGBTQ+ populations, BIPOC individuals, etc.). 

Description:

This presentation provides a brief, clinically focused overview of psychedelics and their emerging relevance to eating disorder treatment. Proposed mechanisms, including effects on cognitive rigidity, self-concept, and emotional processing, will be reviewed alongside a high-level summary of the current evidence. Practical considerations such as safety risks, patient selection, developmental issues, and how to respond to patient inquiries will be emphasized. The goal is to equip clinicians with a balanced, evidence-informed framework for discussing psychedelics in eating disorder care.

Elizabeth Wassenaar

Dr. Wesley R. Barnhart
Assistant Professor, Suffolk University