The Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders: Tools to Reject Diet Culture, Heal Body Shame, and Promote Recovery

A workbook for all eating disorders and all body sizes.

If you have an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, or emotional eating, you may also struggle with negative body image that’s made worse by diet culture, television, magazines, movies, and social media. And, despite popular belief, not all people who struggle with eating disorders are tiny or thin. Eating disorders can affect people of all genders, ethnicities, and ages--as well as all shapes and sizes. That’s why you need a weight-inclusive approach--one that prioritizes your mental and physical health without perpetuating weight stigma.

Written by three clinical psychologists who specialize in eating disorders, this workbook offers a powerful new approach grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) called CBT-Weight Inclusive (CBT-WI), to help you heal from body shame, reject diet culture, and find lasting recovery. As you work through the book, you will never be asked to weigh yourself, compute your BMI, or restrict your eating. Instead, you will discover insights to help you better understand your eating disorder, and find proven-effective tools and strategies to cultivate radical body acceptance.

This weight-inclusive workbook will help you:

• Listen to and trust your body’s cues around eating
• Overcome purging, excessive exercising, and counting calories
• Appreciate your body
• Tolerate distressing feelings and sensations
• Understand weight stigma and stand up to diet culture
• Advocate for size-inclusive healthcare
• Set boundaries with friends and family
• Prevent relapse

If you’re searching for a weight-inclusive approach, this workbook will help you overcome the negative, internalized messages about weight that are perpetuated by diet culture, so you can feel at home in your body, improve your mental and physical health, and make positive changes in all aspects of your life.

Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD, is a psychologist, fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS), and approved consultant for the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP). Muhlheim is also a Certified Body Trust(R) Provider (CBTP). She directs Eating Disorder Therapy LA, a group practice in Los Angeles. She is certified in family based therapy (FBT) for adolescent eating disorders, and is author of When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder (New Harbinger, 2019). Muhlheim has held leadership roles in several professional organizations including the AED, IAEDP, and the Los Angeles County Psychological Association. She has previously been an IAEDP core course instructor. She provides training on eating disorders to mental health providers and parents internationally. She has a website and a blog and has built a solid professional platform around weight-inclusive modified evidence-based treatments for eating disorders, specifically, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and FBT.

Jennifer Averyt, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified clinical health psychologist. She is the lead psychologist of the Phoenix VA Health Care System eating disorder program, and provides training to practicum students, pre-doctoral interns, and post-doctoral trainees in the delivery of evidence-based eating disorder treatment. She also provides consultation and support to other VA eating disorder programs around the country.

Shannon Patterson, MEd, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in private practice, and clinical instructor at Equip Health. She provides teaching and consultation services to interprofessional eating disorder treatment teams located across the US. She is passionate about the provision of weight-inclusive eating disorder treatment to individuals across the lifespan.