Ep. 15: Freedom from Food & Body Struggles - Carmen Cool

EB015 Freedom from Food and Body Struggles with Carmen Cool  Body-centered psychotherapist and certified Hakomi practioner, Carmen Cool helps people end the cycle of dieting and overeating, once and for all.  Along the way, she helps them unravel their body stories and learn to trust their bodies and themselves.   Her own journey to recovery, partnered with her sister's death of an eating disorder, makes her even more passionate about her work and a zealous advocate for Health at Every Size.   Carmen joins me today to discuss the nonprofit organization she founded where she partnered with teenagers as they help and address the body struggles in schools, communities, and other circles of influence. She also shares how active engagement in activism helps in her client's healing process and how taking the change on a societal level helps achieve true freedom from the diet culture.     "I don't think you can recover from an eating disorder and try to lose weight at the same time."   – Carmen Cool    This Week on the Every Body Podcast:  Uniqueness in Carmen's approach  Founding of the Boulder Youth Body Alliance  The mentality that led her, her sister, and others to eating disorders  How she was introduced to the ideas and concept of Health at Every Size   The spark that ignited the fire in her to pursue freedom from food  Explaining how "weight stigma" was really the cause of her sister's death  Why she chose to specialize in binge eating and overeating  Defining "Health at Every Size" and why the model was developed  The Hakomi method   What impacts people the most as they go through recovery  Poisonous myths that need to be busted    How to Change the Norms on Body Weight:  Look at and understand your own biases.  Ask yourself, "How do they operate?"  Ask yourself, "How do they get in the way of me seeing others clearly?"  Ask yourself, "What do I need to do to unlearn my biases?"    Resources Mentioned:  Hakomi Institute  Carmen Cool's Website   Rate, Share, & Inspire Others to Love  Every Body         Thank you for joining me this week on the Every Body podcast. If you enjoyed this week's episode,  head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show and leave a review to help us spread the word to Every Body!      Don't forget to  visit our website, follow us on  Facebook, Twitter, and  Instagram,  and join our mailing list so you never miss an episode!