Food Psych #188: How to Improve Treatment for Disordered Eating with Marcella Raimondo

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Eating-disorders psychologist Marcella Raimondo joins us to discuss how to improve disordered-eating treatment for people who don’t fit diet culture’s idea of what an ED “looks like,” how eating disorders can affect our career choices, why more representation of marginalized identities benefits everyone, how fatphobia was born out of racist beliefs about body size, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to handle the fact that there are hateful corners of the internet devoted to tearing down the fat-acceptance movement.

Marcella Raimondo, PhD, MPH is a passionate and spirited clinical trainer speaking from her heart on multicultural issues in eating disorders since 1995. Marcella is a licensed psychologist for Kaiser Permanente’s adult eating disorder clinic in Oakland and part of a regional leadership team. She runs her own practice in Oakland. She is also on the Board for Eating Disorders Recovery and Support (EDRS) as President, advisory board for Association of Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH,) Advisory Board for Nalgona Positivity Pride (NPP) and Board of Founders for About-Face. Marcella herself recovered from anorexia nervosa over 15 years ago. Her recovery and her martial arts training inspires her dedication to multicultural body nurturance and community celebration. Find her online at MarcellaEDTraining.com.

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We Discuss:

  • The mixed messages that Marcella received in adolescence about food as a way to connect to her heritage, while being aware of the changes in her body

  • Anti-fatness as a response to racism and trying to assimilate

  • The thoughts and emotions that pushed her to start dieting, and eventually fueled her eating disorder

  • What motivated her to pursue recovery

  • How eating disorders can affect our career choices

  • Her eating-disorder recovery experience

  • The effect of learning about the experiences of other women of color on her recovery

  • Privilege, and how it affects a person’s ability to access treatment

  • Why acknowledging eating disorders and disordered eating in marginalized identities helps everyone

  • Grassroots efforts to make eating-disorder treatment more accessible to everyone

  • Finding the balance as a small-business owner between making a living and offering accessible eating-disorder treatment

  • Fatphobia as a barrier to treatment and recovery

  • The many ways in which our current healthcare system is broken and harms marginalized folks

  • How martial arts and yoga can play a role in various parts of recovery

  • The importance of self-compassion and forgiveness

  • What drew Marcella into martial arts training, and how it affected her recovery and work today

 

Resources Mentioned

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Listener Question of the Week

What advice is there for dealing with anti-fat discourse on the internet? What motivates people to be hateful toward larger-bodied people? Why do some people get defensive toward the idea of fat acceptance? What are some strategies to handle the fact that there are hateful corners of the internet devoted to tearing down fat acceptance and other forms of social justice? How does the structure of the internet itself uphold hateful rhetoric? What are some trusted resources for fat-positive information?

(Resources Mentioned:

 
Christy HarrisonPOC, culture, heritage, fatphobia, racism, assimilation, dieting, eating disorders, eating-disorder recovery, recovery, privilege, marginalization, accessibility, eating-disorder treatment, healthcare, martial arts, yoga, compassion, forgiveness, fat acceptance, fat positive, feminism, intersectionality, S619