What is an eating disorder? We know it can involve symptoms such as food restriction, binge eating, or purging behaviors. But what underlies these behaviors? What causes an eating disorder, and how do we treat it? These are questions that do not have a universal, clear-cut answer.

Is an eating disorder a coping strategy developed in response to trauma, an attempt for control, a cry for help, a response to societal pressures, or a biological susceptibility triggered by food restriction. Is an eating disorder about food and body image or some deeper biopsychosocial dynamic?

How we answer these questions determines the type of treatment we provide.

In this episode, Rachel Lewis-Marlow discusses her work in eating disorder recovery using a comprehensive approach that includes trauma-informed, attachment-based, and somatically integrated methods. We break down what each of these mean and how they relate to eating disorder etiology and treatment. Rachel shares how attachment in her personal relationships impacted her ability—or inability—to eat at various periods in her life. She also discusses powerful moments of connection and co-regulation she’s seen as a clinician. From Rachel's perspective, an eating disorder is a form of communication to listen to rather than a pathology to erase. Recovery, then, is an additive process focused on building a client’s resources and support, rather than an eliminative process aimed at removing behaviors.

Rachel is the co-founder and director of the Embodied Recovery Institute. She is a somatically integrative psychotherapist, dually licensed in counseling and therapeutic massage and bodywork. She is a Certified Advanced Practitioner in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and has advanced training and 25 + years of experience in diverse somatic therapies including Craniosacral Therapy, Energetic Osteopathy, Oncology massage and Aromatherapy.

Rachel began her work with eating disorders in Residential, PHP and IOP treatment programs. There she developed the Embodying Recovery group therapy protocol which forms the basis for the Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders (ERED) treatment model. She provided program development, training and supervision for the implementation of this model to enhance the effectiveness of current best practices, such as DBT, Interpersonal Process, ACT groups. She also developed the Body Wisdom group protocol, an alternative to the traditional body-image group, which focuses on enhancing the mind-body relationship through mindful experience of and through the body.

She has extensive experience as a teacher and presenter, focusing on accessing the body’s unique capacity to give voice to the subconscious and to lay the foundation for healing and maintaining psychological and physical health. In her private practice in Chapel Hill, NC, Rachel specializes in working with people exploring recovery from trauma, eating disorders, and dissociative disorders.

Rachel and the Embodied Recovery Institute https://embodiedrecovery.org/

Elka’s binge eating recovery program: https://elkacubacub.com/