Amidst a rapidly shifting sociopolitical landscape, trans and gender expansive (TGE) individuals with eating disorders face heightened vulnerabilities and barriers to care. While research on treatment outcomes for this population remains limited, emerging evidence highlights the crucial role of gender-affirming medical care in reducing eating disorder symptoms and improving quality of life. This presentation will synthesize current scholarship, including recent recommendations for TGE-affirming, weight-inclusive, trauma-informed, and anti-racist approaches to care (Goetz & Wolk, 2023). It will explore what these frameworks can look like in practice, especially in settings where access to care is restricted, with the aim to aid clinicians in navigating evolving policies regarding care. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, presenters will discuss evolving models of gender-affirming care, such as clinics that center mental health providers in collaboration with endocrinologists, surgeons, and primary care physicians, and strategies for integrating eating disorder treatment within these systems. Practical tools, including dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills for distress tolerance and radical acceptance, as well as expressive art therapy interventions, will be highlighted as means to support patients in navigating gender dysphoria, cultivating gender euphoria, and building resilience beyond body shape or size. The session will offer both clinical recommendations and creative practices to help providers distinguish between gender dysphoria and body image concerns, foster gender joy in diverse ways, and strengthen coping for patients facing structural, political, and interpersonal barriers to care. Attendees will leave with strategies for advocating and providing affirming, evidence-informed treatment for TGE patients with eating disorders in this challenging time.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify current gaps and emerging evidence in research on eating disorder treatment outcomes for transgender and gender expansive (TGE) individuals, including the role of gender-affirming care in reducing symptoms.

2. Apply principles of TGE-affirming, weight-inclusive, trauma-informed, and anti-racist care in the development of interdisciplinary treatment approaches that address both eating disorder concerns and gender dysphoria.

3. Implement practical clinical strategies, including DBT-informed distress tolerance skills and expressive art therapy activities, that help patients cultivate gender euphoria, differentiate dysphoria from body image concerns, and build resilience within hostile sociopolitical contexts.

Speakers

Cal Mims, Doctoral Cand. (she/they)
Clinical Fellow, Yale Univeristy, University of South Alabama

Wednesdae Reim Ifrach REAT ATR-BC ATCS LPC NCC CLAT RMT (they/them)
Professor, Art Therapist, Moravian University & Rainbow Recovery

his is a panel of lived-experience therapists and coaches who have used art for their own recovery and for their clients' recovery. This interactive panel will discuss the healing power of art and decolonize traditional art spaces by presenting tactile, interactive artworks for participants to touch and engage with.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify and articulate at least two specific ways that lived experience therapists and coaches use art processes to support emotional regulation, trauma integration, and recovery in clinical and community contexts.

2. Describe how decolonizing frameworks transform traditional art therapy spaces by examining approaches that center tactile engagement, community participation, and non-Western healing traditions.

3. Design one example of an interactive or sensory-based art intervention that they can implement in their clinical or coaching practice to promote embodied expression and client engagement.

Speakers

Wednesdae Reim Ifrach REAT ATR-BC ATCS LPC NCC CLAT RMT (they/them)
Professor, Art Therapist, Moravian University & Rainbow Recovery

Eliran Ifrach ATR-BC, LPC (he/they)
Art Therapist, Rainbow Recovery

Kevin Green (they.them)
Peer Advocate

This 3-hour virtual workshop explores the intersections of body politics, queer identity, and creative process through the lens of social action art therapy and expressive modalities. Drawing from a harm reduction and trauma-informed framework, participants will examine how body image struggles within queer communities are shaped by societal norms, oppression, and resilience practices. Together, we will explore how artmaking, movement, breathwork, and sensory-based practices can provide effective healing in treatment and create space for radical re-imaginings of the body. Within therapeutic contexts, social action art therapy serves not only as a means of individual expression, but also as a tool for collective empowerment and advocacy. Participants will learn strategies for using these approaches in virtually any clinical setting and how they can be adapted for clients of all ages and abilities. By incorporating both visual and embodied forms of expressive therapy, this workshop highlights ways to engage queer clients who may not typically respond to traditional approaches, offering an effective way for working with populations often underserved in mental health care. This session is designed for counselors and psychotherapists working with Queer clients, but the tools and practices offered will enhance our work as clinicians more broadly. Generalists and specialists alike will be introduced to practical, experiential methods for use in treatment with individuals and groups. Through the creative process, participants will discover how social action art therapy and expressive practices can deepen daily therapeutic work, enhance emotional development, and open pathways toward collective healing and social change.

NJIMHC is a first-of-its-kind conference that brings together practitioners and leaders in mental health, behavioral health, and holistic wellness for a full day of continued education, professional development, networking and an opportunity to earn up to 6 CEUs.

Extend your holiday weekend and boost your career—NJIMHC for CEUs with a view! At the historic Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, an iconic gem set against the stunning backdrop of Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Wednesdae will be presenting on Creative Queer Care based on thier forthcoming book, Queer Expressions.

This workshop integrates expressive arts and somatic therapy to address trauma within Queer and marginalized communities. Through creative and embodied practices, participants will explore the intersections of identity, body, and narrative. The session emphasizes harm reduction, body liberation, and culturally responsive care to foster resilience and holistic healing.

Objectives:

• Describe the foundational principles of expressive arts and somatic therapy in trauma treatment with Queer and marginalized clients.

• Apply at least two creative or body-based interventions (e.g., El Duende process, sensory art directive, circular breathwork) to promote embodied healing.

• Integrate harm reduction and body liberation frameworks within trauma-informed, Queer-affirming clinical practice.

• Identify the socio-political and intersectional contexts that shape Queer clients’ experiences of trauma and resilience.