Workshops
Fat clients deserve unbiased, dignifying, and empathetic care.
This is a rarity in our anti-fat world.
I imagine a world in which fat clients experiences are validated and held with reverence and care, in which straight-sized and thin practitioners understand their
body size privilege.
Fat clients are in desperate need of practitioners who understand anti-fatness, to know that they aren’t going to receive unsolicited diet advice or unhelpful suggestions that perpetuate disordered eating and possibly retraumatize them.
The thing is, most of us - therapists, coaches, counsellors, dieticians, and nutritionists - don’t talk about this at all in our training and schooling.
We get one class about diversity if we’re lucky, and fatness is very rarely included in that. It is often ignored as an intersection of oppressed identity.
Anti-Fat Bias for Helpers 101
60m presentation, 30m Q&A
Together we will:
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Explore what anti-fat bias is, it’s history, and how it intersects with other forms of oppression,
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Identify how anti-fatness enacts modern-day colonization,
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Look at the history and development of the BMI and why it is irrelevant and harmful,
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Explore the systemic and interpersonal impacts of anti-fat oppression,
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Reflect on how anti-fat bias shows up in helping professions (often sneakily) and how to counteract it,
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How to incorporate trauma-informed approaches to working with fat clients, and
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Identify specific DOs and DON’Ts for how to show up for you clients.
Participants will get a recording and resource document post-workshop.
You're invited to...
So often I hear from clients about the ways their past practitioners have harmed them, such as:
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Forcing clients to be weighed to receive treatment, and treating any resistance as “non-compliance”,
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Use of BMI and moral panic about fatness,
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Hearing client’s share the pain of experiencing anti-fatness and responding with diet advice,
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Making recommendations about mindful eating to someone with binge eating disorder,
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Assuming fatness is a symptom of trauma and treating the trauma will “fix” the fatness,
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Blaming any physical ailment on the client’s weight,
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Assuming a fat body is a sign of dissociation, and
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Making recommendations for exercise without any understanding of how it relates to disordered eating.
It’s okay if you’ve made mistakes in the past.
You will not be shamed or judged for the ways you’ve shown up in this space. But by stepping into this space, I trust that you are committed to confronting your own anti-fat bias.
You should expect to feel discomfort - oppression and violence are not comfortable topics to explore. Participants should be prepared to discern between discomfort and safety, especially those who hold significant privilege. Discomfort, shame, and guilt, are often important learning edges that can offer us deep insights.
We all share the desire to do right by our clients and to not cause further harm.
Ultimately this is about the safety and well-being of our clients.
HERE ARE THE DETAILS
By the end of our time together, my hope is that you’ll learn:
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An understanding of anti-fat bias and better lens to spot it in your work
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How anti-fatness intersects with other experiences of oppression
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Some clarity on do’s and don’ts of addressing fatness, food, and movement with clients
This is for you if:
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You work in one of the following professions:
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Social Worker
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Counsellor
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Therapist
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Supervisor
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Psychologists
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Dietitian
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or student of any of these fields,
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You want to learn about the history of anti-fat bias,
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You need help figuring out resources to learn more,
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You’re ready and willing to confront anti-fat bias in your own practice
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You are ready to reflect on the ways you have caused harm (we all do - as Vikki Reynolds says, “We learn our this work on the backs of clients… Our work is not innocent”).
Don’t quite fit in this list? Contact me to check if this workshop is for you or if you want to invite me into your organization.
Physios, RMTs, etc are welcome but we won’t be tailoring this to the nuance of body work. More to come on that soon!