Contributed by Judith Matz
11 Results
Unlearning Weight Stigma
The Latest Science on Weight and Trauma
Overeating Issues in Quarantine?
How to Relate To Food and Weight Now and Let the Shame Go
When COVID-19 hit and many of us began stocking up on food and sheltering in place, I grew deeply concerned for my clients. How were they going to handle the endless hours of isolation, or conversely, the stress of too many people at home at once? As a therapist who specializes in eating issues, here's the approach I use to help them. Read More
Health Comes in All Sizes
The HAES Approach to Countering Weight Stigma
3 Concerning Messages about the Netflix series “Insatiable”
…And 3 Ways to Talk about Them with Your Clients
There’s been a lot of outcry from mental health professionals, doctors, parents, and people who’ve suffered from eating disorders about the trailer for the new Netflix series, Insatiable, which portrays higher-weight people in a poor light. Here are three alarming myths the series perpetuates, and the lessons we can learn from them. Read More
Changing How You Think About Weight
Four Steps to Transform Your Internalized Views About Body Size
By Judith Matz - I’ve come to believe that the way we as therapists feel about our clients’ body size is not only a clinical concern, but a social justice issue. It’s not easy to challenge internal attitudes that are reinforced every day in the general culture, but if you’re willing to go against the cultural current, here are some things you can do to help you assess—and transform—your internalized views about weight and dieting. Read More
High-Stakes Therapy
Eating Disorders Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
A Diet-Free Way to Help Clients with Eating Problems
Judith Matz on Abandoning Weight Loss as a Marker for Success
Most therapists have been taught that if we can help clients understand the emotional triggers of their overeating, they’ll be able to control their behavior and lose weight. We tend to build strategies around nutrition, portion control, and exercise habits. But more often than not, the pursuit of weight loss typically triggers and sustains overeating. My focus with clients who have overeating and weight concerns is to help them learn how to have a healthy relationship with food. We therapists need to recognize that when we reinforce the notion of weight loss as a marker of success, we set our clients up to leave therapy with even more shame about one more failure. Read More
It’s Not about the Diet
Building a healthy relationship with food
Beyond Lip Service
Confronting Our Prejudices Against Higher-Weight Clients
Recipe For Life
Is Attuned Eating the Answer to Diet Failure?
Judith Matz
Judith Matz, LCSW, is co-author of the Body Positivity Card Deck and two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles, Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating, has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and a favorite resource for therapists to use with clients. She is also the author of Amanda’s Big Dream, a children’s book that helps kids to pursue their dreams – at any size! Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL, where she focuses her work with clients who want to get off the diet/binge rollercoaster and learn to feel at home in their bodies.