What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Weight, Dieting, and Body Image + 1.0 Ethics CEU

Kersti Spjut, Ph.D., CST is a licensed psychologist and Certified Sex Therapist in private practice in Provo, Utah. She specializes in psychological testing, sexual health, perfectionism, and anxiety. She was previously a clinical faculty member at BYU, where she taught a course titled, “Intuitive Eating, Body Image, and Culture,” and she practices from a Health at Every Size lens. She also has Type 1 Diabetes and first-hand experience with unintentional diet culture among healthcare professionals.

Even if you don’t specialize in eating disorders or body image, it’s impossible to do therapy without talking about bodies at some point. Many therapists inadvertently cause harm in this area due to applying common ideas about food, exercise, and body size, without realizing that most of these ideas are outdated, not supported by research, and actively harmful to clients. In this presentation you will get a crash course in what to say (and what not to say) when discussing food and bodies while staying within the ethical scope of your practice.