An in depth conversation about the guidelines recently created by the Australian Ballet regarding body image, disordered eating, and eating disorders. Dr beth Shelton and Dr Susan Mayes were instrumental in the development of the guidelines. I am excited to have you hear their process of educating different departments within The Australian Ballet. This was a two year process and the results are really incredible. I hope that other ballet companies will follow in their footsteps.

Dr. Beth Shelton recently finished as National Director of the National Eating Disorder Collaboration (NEDC), a national sector collaboration dedicated to developing and implementing a consistent, evidence-based system of care for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. In August 2024 NEDC launched the National Eating Disorders Strategy 2023-2033 - a call to action and a roadmap for people who care about and are responsible for improving Australia’s response to eating disorders.
Dr. Shelton is a counselling psychologist with decades of experience working with individuals experiencing eating disorders and their families/supports. She developed and led an innovative community early intervention program at Monash Link Community Health Service and was clinical lead of the adult outpatient team of Monash Health’s eating disorder treatment service. Dr. Shelton worked with the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders for 10 years providing complex case consultation, training and service development in Victorian mental health services. Dr. Shelton co-led a project with Orygen headspace services to support staff to provide guided help for eating disorders and helped to formulate the headspace national eating disorders practice principles. Dr. Shelton has recently collaborated with the Australian Ballet on Body Image and Disordered Eating Guidelines: A framework for action and prevention of eating disorders. She has a distinguished professional history in contemporary dance and is interested in the role of movement and embodied experience in evidence-based interventions for disordered eating and body image problems.

Dr Susan Mayes AM has been the Principal Physiotherapist of The Australian Ballet since 1997 and is the Director of Artistic Health. The Australian Ballet’s health and wellbeing support for dancers is world-renowned. Sue also consults for national and international professional sport. Sue is an Adjunct Associate Professor at La Trobe University and received a Distinguished Alumni Award from La Trobe University in 2018. She has published ballet injury related papers, and is currently researching ankle, foot and hip joint health, and mental fatigue in professional ballet dancers as part of the partnership between The Australian Ballet and La Trobe University. Sue has been invited to speak at international conferences, and lectures throughout Australia, UK and Europe. Sue was awarded an Order of Australia in 2020 for her work on preventing dance injury and improving outcomes for ballet dancers.

https://nedc.com.au/

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