The Appetite

  What would your personal style look like if you weren't concerned about size or body image? Hear how Erin Drischler has changed lives through changing the closets of women in recovery from eating disorders. Through The Garment Project—the non-profit she founded—those in recovery are getting a chance to find clothing without having to deal with the often triggering experience of navigating clothi...

Are you ready for a change? We're exploring what  the stages of change are and why acknowledging ambivalence is often the linchpin when it comes to transformation.  In a roundtable conversation that touches on self-care, creative habits, routines, and recovery, Opal Co-Founders Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD sit down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to explore the many t...

How are bodies political? The vibrant dietitian and podcast host Aaron Flores, RDN (of  Dietitians Unplugged ) joins Opal's Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD and host Carter Umhau, LMHC   to share his feminist perspective on the politics of being in a fat body. Aaron talks about how being fat (as a cis, white man) has given him access to understanding the lack of safety people with...

What does it take to heal? Obviously there's a lot to it, but we'd dare to say that COURAGE (in all its forms) is at the heart of it all. Opal Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr. Lexi Giblin PhD, CEDS joins host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC to explore the many types of courage and their roles within eating disorder recovery. Lexi and Carter will pull from psychologist Rollo May's work, which...

Do you trust your body's appetite cues? It's all about internal regulation on the last of this four-part series inspired by Ellyn Satter's "Eating Competency Skills" and we're talking body wisdom. Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talks with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC about the wisdom your body holds around food and eating. They'll be exploring the po...

What habits and routines can support healthy eating?    This third of our four-part series on Ellyn Satter's eating competency skills, offers a look into how to build a healthy context and environment to support your food choices. Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talks with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC about grocery shopping, a full pantry, and all tha...

What is a healthy attitude around food and eating habits?    This second of a four-part series on Ellyn Satter's eating competency skills, continues to define healthy eating through the question of  how  to eat, rather than  what to eat . Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talks with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC about the work of understanding one's own...

Do you know how to eat in a healthy way? Most answers to the question of healthy eating actually have more to do with what foods you should be eating, rather than the HOW; Ellyn Satter digs into this, offering adults scaffolding for the  how  behind building a healthy relationship to food (both for one's self and for those adults that are parents, modeling healthy eating for their kids). In this f...

How can we take care of the athlete as a whole person? Often considered a lesser concern, the mental health of the athlete is of key importance—both on and off the field. Jason Durocher, ATC, LAT head athletic trainer, and Monica VanWinkle, MS, RDN, CD sports dietitian—both at Seattle Pacific University athletic department and beyond—join Opal Co-Founder and Director of the Exercise + Sport team K...

How can yoga help in eating disorder recovery? Opal therapists and yogis Kendra Appe, LMHC, RYT and Lauren Donelson, RYT join T he Appeti te to answer this question. Creators of the "Do No Harm" workshop series at Opal, they also speak to how the Western culture around yoga can   inadvertently encourage disordered eating and the exclusivity of bodies beyond the thin, white ideal. Kendra and Lauren...

What does it mean to have a healthy diet? At Opal: Food + Body Wisdom, that means attunement, adequacy, and freedom with food. It also means letting memory play a part in our food choices! In this podcast, Opal Co-Founders Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD and Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Appetite host Carter Umhau, LMHC share the foods that hold the greatest memories for them (raspberries straight of...

How are eating disorders a social justice issue? Gloria Lucas, founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride, has a world of wisdom to share in explanation. She joins host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC to explore historical trauma and eating disorders. Gloria created Nalgona Positivity Pride--a Xicana-indigenous and body-positive organization—to offer support, education, and mental health resources for p...

How do you deal with change in life? Former competitive figure skater Chrissy Hughes (and therapist at Opal!) shares about her retirement from skating and what the process taught her about dealing with big life transitions. Chrissy—who joins host Carter Umhau, LMHC and Opal Co-Founder and head of the Exercise + Sport Program, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS—explores the psychological, social, and physical...

How can nature be a part of your self-care ritual?  Lisa Hasselman of Forest Garden Farm on Vashon Island, WA joins Carter Umhau, LMHC to share her story of leaving her job as an attorney and starting a job as a flower farmer on Vashon Island, WA. Lisa's story speaks to the risk it can be to defy expectations and live a more congruent life and how choosing farming has increased her mental health a...

Shilo George talks about the intersections of fatness, queerness, and indigeneity in her story of eating disorder recovery and advocacy. Shilo, a Southern Cheyenne-Arapaho and Scottish international speaker, trainer, and owner of Łush Kumtux Tumtum Consulting, shares her story with host Carter Umhau, LMHC and Opal Co-Founder Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD. Her advocacy work and story speak to the...

Jo Langford, MA joins  The Appetite  to talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about consent. This conversation—which focuses first on helping parents help their teens learn the language of sexual consent and the role of technology within it—contextualizes consent within the work of attunement, empowerment, and embodiment that's so often pursued in the process of eating disorder recovery. Whether you'r...

How would you describe your style of exercise or workout? Opal: Food + Body Wisdom's Co-Founders, Dr, Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about their own styles of movement, how they incorporate it into their lives and why (or why not!) they find themselves moved to move. In a mainstream culture where exercise is glor...

What does it look like to pursue movement or working out while recovering from a fraught or disordered relationship to your body? Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founder Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and host and therapist  Carter  Umhau, LMHC sit down to talk about the   "grey areas" of movement—where "healthy" behaviors are defined by the nuances and attitudes toward exercise, sport, or movement, not the t...

If you've had a pet at some point in your life, you may be aware of the inherently therapeutic presence of that animal in your life. But what happens when a pet spends most of their days in an eating disorder clinic? Zoe, Opal's therapy dog, joins her owner (and Opal Co-Founder and Executive Director) Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS and host Carter Umhau, LMHC to showcase the amazing empathy and suppor...

Emotional eating is never just about the food. Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD and therapist and host Carter Umhau, LMHC discuss the differences between binge eating, compulsive eating, and emotional eating. Julie contextualizes overeating within the realm of normal eating and full permission with food, and Carter shares some of her own journey, honing in on t...

  Sugar. It's loved, it's feared, and apparently it's in everything. In pop culture, this often leads to it being demonized. At Opal: Food + Body Wisdom, we're debunking sugar myths, normalizing sugar, and talking about how sugar can be a part of any and everyone's attuned eating style. Host Carter Umhau, LMHC sits down with Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD to...

After ditching the diets, have you ever wondered what "normal eating" actually looks like? The truth is that attuned eating looks differently from person to person. So on this episode, the Opal Co-Founders (Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RD, CEDRD-S, CD) talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about their own eating styles, debunking the myth that there is a "normal."...

In what ways do you use indirect communication to make your thoughts, needs, or feelings known? Opal Co-Founders Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD, and host Carter Umhau, LMHC explore the nuances of direct and indirect communication through a Radically Open DBT lens. They each reflect on how socialization has impacted their communication style, and speak from their expertises aro...

Behind the scenes, Opal Co-Founders Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, have been hosting workshops for young girls to start them early on learning body wisdom and developing a healthier relationship to their body image. One of Kara's daughters--and a participant in the workshop--joins us today to share her impression on the key tenets of the workshop, ranging from identity, to...

Filmmaker Elizabeth Ayiku joins host Carter Umhau, LMHC to talk about her upcoming feature film, Me Little Me. Elizabeth's own struggles with an eating disorder and her difficulties pursuing recovery as a black woman in a flawed treatment world are both the inspiration for the film and at the center of this conversation. Listen in to learn about the filmmaking process and Elizabeth's vision for ex...