I am sharing a post I made on the Precision Nutrition Students and Grads Facebook group page, today. The reason I wanted to share this on my blog is because this topic touches me personally - not just as a Clinician, but as a woman who has survived a distorted brain that has tried to kill me, slowly, over time. I am also sharing this because, as a Clinician, I want to make sure that people who work with others (Trainers, Teachers, Nutrition Coaches, etc...) remember that even though you might not have the ability to diagnose or treat issues like addiction, depression, anxiety, disordered thinking, etc.., you might be the first line of duty to save.
Here is what I shared:
I wanted to give a thumbs up and a cheer to the PN writer(s) who penned the "Disordered Eating" and "Food Addictions" segment for the chapter on Special Scenarios.
I'm a Psychotherapist who has worked with addictions for years. In fact, I picked up my Personal Training Cert along the way as another way to help clients physically as well as mentally - and I am completing my PN1 Precision Nutrition 1 Coaching Cert) in order to round out a bit of the nutrition piece. I'm also a survivor of an eating disordered brain, which I developed at 10, and have been in remission from, only after years of my own therapy - though, I can tell you guys openly - the thinking never really goes away. Only the behaviors change. And, to put some reality to the whole issue - most women with EDOs don't live past 40 (we don't have an accurate statistic on men, in part, because fewer men will report or ever seek help).
Although I am a rare Personal Trainer who can also diagnose and treat such things, I can tell you that CPTs are far likely to see people with addictions and disordered thinking well before those clients will ever seek out Clinical help of a Therapist or Counselor (if those folks even do ever seek out Clinical help). This means that identifying this thinking and these patterns of behavior can save lives. Building relationships and trust with your clients, and keeping your practice free of judgment - which even extends to whispering with your co-workers or taking your comments to social media and places you think are "private" that are truly public - and honestly listening to others without coloring it with your own personal opinions, is so vital.
Be open to the fact that many of these clients are already living in a place in their heads in which they are so self critical and afraid of anyone "finding out" - and yet, if they are with you, they are at least reaching out to try /something/ to change. I can tell you my own stories of Trainers and Nutritionists who either inadvertently supported my poor coping skills by dismissing "food addiction" being a "thing", or caused me to shut down and run with their criticism of people who "can't control themselves". At the time, I didn't know it was transference on their part, and perhaps a veiled cover up of their own secrets with food fetishes. Yet, I was lucky enough to cross paths with a Coach who identified me, and helped me get the help I needed after she built trust with me.
Through her, I was able to find the courage to work with Therapists and other Nutritionists - and eventually became one, myself. I turn 45 in September this year, and I am happier and healthier than ever... and more importantly, because of a Coach who held nothing but empathy and hope for me, I am alive to pay it forward. Just a side note: Empathy literally means the ability to step outside of one's own opinions and beliefs to see the world through another's eyes, without judgment, and then to step back into their own - relatively unchanged by the experience. I hold this as a personal motto for my own work with others.
<3, Jonni Fit Khat
Here is what I shared:
I wanted to give a thumbs up and a cheer to the PN writer(s) who penned the "Disordered Eating" and "Food Addictions" segment for the chapter on Special Scenarios.
I'm a Psychotherapist who has worked with addictions for years. In fact, I picked up my Personal Training Cert along the way as another way to help clients physically as well as mentally - and I am completing my PN1 Precision Nutrition 1 Coaching Cert) in order to round out a bit of the nutrition piece. I'm also a survivor of an eating disordered brain, which I developed at 10, and have been in remission from, only after years of my own therapy - though, I can tell you guys openly - the thinking never really goes away. Only the behaviors change. And, to put some reality to the whole issue - most women with EDOs don't live past 40 (we don't have an accurate statistic on men, in part, because fewer men will report or ever seek help).
Although I am a rare Personal Trainer who can also diagnose and treat such things, I can tell you that CPTs are far likely to see people with addictions and disordered thinking well before those clients will ever seek out Clinical help of a Therapist or Counselor (if those folks even do ever seek out Clinical help). This means that identifying this thinking and these patterns of behavior can save lives. Building relationships and trust with your clients, and keeping your practice free of judgment - which even extends to whispering with your co-workers or taking your comments to social media and places you think are "private" that are truly public - and honestly listening to others without coloring it with your own personal opinions, is so vital.
Be open to the fact that many of these clients are already living in a place in their heads in which they are so self critical and afraid of anyone "finding out" - and yet, if they are with you, they are at least reaching out to try /something/ to change. I can tell you my own stories of Trainers and Nutritionists who either inadvertently supported my poor coping skills by dismissing "food addiction" being a "thing", or caused me to shut down and run with their criticism of people who "can't control themselves". At the time, I didn't know it was transference on their part, and perhaps a veiled cover up of their own secrets with food fetishes. Yet, I was lucky enough to cross paths with a Coach who identified me, and helped me get the help I needed after she built trust with me.
Through her, I was able to find the courage to work with Therapists and other Nutritionists - and eventually became one, myself. I turn 45 in September this year, and I am happier and healthier than ever... and more importantly, because of a Coach who held nothing but empathy and hope for me, I am alive to pay it forward. Just a side note: Empathy literally means the ability to step outside of one's own opinions and beliefs to see the world through another's eyes, without judgment, and then to step back into their own - relatively unchanged by the experience. I hold this as a personal motto for my own work with others.
<3, Jonni Fit Khat
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