Wednesdae will be sharing work around art therapy and gender affirming care and how those with eating disorders can cope through gender dysphoria.

Wednesdae & Colleagues share a presentation on the restricted social justice topics in our current culture and the importance of examining intersections.

ECSU Pride Center welcomes Wednesdae to discuss Queer Body Liberation and how art heals and documents the beauty that is the queer body.

Join Wednesdae at the Connecticut Women’s Consortium for a talk on body justice, body trust, HAES, and the expansion of body justice in the 21st Century.

Join Ron for an informative panel on eating disorders with MEDA.

Treating Eating Disorders in Marginalized Identities"

Join us for an enlightening event with breakfast, where we'll discuss treating eating disorders in marginalized identities. This in-person event will be held in the conference room at:

Homewood Suites by Hilton Newtown - Langhorne, PA: 110 Pheasant Run, Newtown, PA 18940.

There will be three 1-hour speakers during the morning event:

• 8:30am-9:00am Check-In, Breakfast, Networking / Community Time

• 9:00am-10:00am RACHEL MILLNER, PSY.D, CEDS-S, CBTP® (she/her): "Anti-Fat Bias in Eating Disorder Treatment".

• 10:00am-11:00am SHANNON HAYS, LPC, CAADC, CEDS (she/her): "Intersection of Disabilities and Eating Disorders".

• 11:00am-12:00pm WEDNESDAE REIM IFRACH, REAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, LPC, NCC, CLAT, LCMHC, LPCC (they/them): "Trans and Gender Diverse Bodies in ED Treatment".

• 12:00pm-12:30pm Networking / Community Time

Treatment Centers & Programs are welcome to contact Stacy Hunt, PhD regarding reserving space for tabling: director@buckssupportservices.com

There will be a community table for sharing cards and information for local practices.

*The venue is ADA compliant and accessible. Please contact Stacy Hunt, PhD for any additional accommodation requests.

Prof. Sharlene Kerelejza at the NASW Conference in CT where they will be presenting on The Ethics of Body Trust and Body Justice in Trauma Work.

Join Wednesdae for this donation based training on Gender Affirming Care in Eating Disorder Treatment. 100% of the proceeds will go to Project HEAL’s treatment equity fund to aid in equitable access of eating disorder treatment.

CT Women’s Consortium on integrating HAES, Intuitive Eating and the Ethical Healing of Bodies.

90-Minute Arm Chair Discussion surrounding gender affirming care and working with LGBTQ+ Clients.

Weight Inclusive Dietitians in Canada to discuss Radical Person Centered Care. How do we elevate past trauma informed, hear clients needs, center our clients as experts of their bodies and help them meet their needs in the face gatekeeping tactics by the systems that be.

Register at the button below!

This training will cover the intersection of eating disorders within marginalized communities including: BIPOC/AAPI, LGB+, Disabled, Trans & GD+, and those who are neurodivergent. 

Topics covered will include that statistic of each population, compassionate practices for eating disorder treatment, treatments which encompass diversity, cultural competency and do no harm and how to be a more ethical provider within those communities. 

Based on the research of Parker and Harringer (2020), Minority Stress greatly affects the LGBTQ+ community including the ability to learn self-nourishing skills. By utilizing the Minority Stress Model and expanding it to BIPOC & AAPT communities we can create a more holistic and sustainable treatment model that follows the ethics around treatment inclusion (Calzo, Blashill, Brown& Aregnal, 2017). This is further cemented by the American Psychological Association’s composite research on Acculturated Stress (APA, 2022). 

As part of self-nourishing, we will discuss how past “gold-standards” of treatment caused harm to marginalized humans and how to support self-nourishment in a way that incorporated culture, cultural food and the needs presented in neurodivergent people including but not limited to: struggles navigating harmful systems that cause trauma reactions to food, a lack of self-nourishing skills, being texture, taste or smell avoidant and forgetfulness.

This 3-hour virtual workshop will introduce and demonstrate the use of political art therapy, body liberation, and social commentary for the treatment of body image issues. By creating political posters in a group focusing on the integration of intersectionality to enhance a client's emotional and clinical development, participants will learn about the practical applications of social action and political art therapy for addressing cultural adversities surrounding the marginalization of non-traditional bodies. They will learn how political art therapy can deepen the clinical treatment of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and body image issues. The political model of art therapy puts an emphasis on the relationship between the self, the symptoms, and the culture in which they manifest, as well as calling for an awareness of power and value issues that are believed to impact those symptoms. In this way, art therapists are facilitating a public arena for the voice of the client/artist to be “heard” within the social context. All are welcome.

Join Art Psychotherapist & Counselor Ron Ifrach, LPC, ATR for Kink Positive, Sex Positive consultation and supervision. Join an affirming and safer space to discuss client cases, receive education on how to affirm clients and ensure you’re promoting best practices.

This training will cover what weight stigma is and the role of weight stigma in gender affirming medicine. As part of that topics discussed will include Weight & Gender and Gatekeeping Gender Affirming Care Through Weight, Body Image and what actual treatment looks like when discussing weight with clients. We will cover the most innovating evidence-based treatments and how to be a more ethical provider within those communities. Based on the research of Parker and Harringer (2020), Minority Stress greatly affects the TGNC+ community including the ability to learn self-nourishing skills. By utilizing the Minority Stress Model, we can create medical care and treatment inclusion (Calzo, Blashill, Brown& Aregnal, 2017). This is further cemented by the American Psychological Association’s composite research on Acculturated Stress (APA, 2022).

This event is an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions surrounding how to support clients who continue to seek intention weight-loss wether it’s due to their own internalized fatphobia, diabetes management, the needs to access a surgery or gender affirming care. We do not promote intentional weight-loss, instead we promote harm reduction and bodily autonomy and a client centered approach.

Join M with Washington IAEDP as they discuss the short comings of the eating disorder field and ways providers can do better to be intersectional providers.

How do we provide affirming, ethical care to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex clients (TNBI)? This workshop will provide a brief overview of key concepts associated TNBI identities, creating a common language for further exploration. We will discuss the current barriers to care that TNBI adult and adolescent clients face, including the impact of discrimination and gatekeeping associated with gender affirming interventions. Providers will review the ethical codes and current standards of care for practice, identifying potential opportunities to advocate on behalf of our TNBI clients and unpacking the repercussions of recent anti-trans legislation across the nation.

Objectives:

1. Explain the current barriers to affirmative mental health care experienced by transgender, nonbinary, and intersex (TNBI) adolescents and adults.

2. Identify and describe three common pitfalls associated with gatekeeping within the mental health community.

3. Assess current practices to determine areas of improvement needed to provide gender affirming care with minimal gatekeeping.

4. Develop a process for meeting with TNBI clients for advocacy-based letter writing to support access to gender affirming interventions.

5. Recognize and describe the ethical dilemmas associated with state-specific legislation associated with caring for TNBI adolescents and adults

Are you curious about letter writing for transgender, nonbinary and intersex clients? Are you looking for ways to reduce the gatekeeping this community experiences? Please consider joining Kayti Protos and me for this 3-hour online training (ethics CEs available!) on Friday, October 7 from 1:00-4:00pm. U of Pitt School of Social Work is the sponsoring organization - CEs available for LSW/LCSW, LMFT, and LPC. Register online (Cost: $60) by clicking on our workshop at their website.

We will be offering a similar event later in October for doctoral-level providers that also addresses the impact of various PsyPact state regulations on providing affirmative care to TNBI adolescents and adults. More information on that soon!

This lecture seeks to educate mental health & medical professionals on the use of a weight neutral approach with trans and gender non-conforming clients. Based on the research, we see the need for a weight neutral approach in clinical work as a way to mitigate risk factors including eating disorder development, the development of low self-esteem, and continued distorted thinking about the body.

1. Attendees will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the Weight Neutral Approach as applied to gender diverse clients.

2. Attendees will be able to assess the key factors of disordered eating in gender diverse clients.

3. Attendees will demonstrate an understanding of at least one experiential therapy practice within clinical work with trans and gender non-conforming clients.

Instruction level is intermediate. This event is intended for clinicians with a foundational understanding of eating disordered treatment. One CE credit.

Presented by M Reim Ifrach, Director of Rainbow Road (they/them)

To register click here.