Understanding Binge Eating Disorder, with Amy Pershing
On today's episode, I'm so excited to be joined by Amy Pershing to talk about Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Amy is essentially THE expert on treating BED with IFS, and I'm so thankful that she's sharing her wisdom with us! We've been trying for months to record an episode, and we finally did it!
Just a little about her, Amy Pershing, LMSW, ACSW, CCTP-II, is the Founding Director of Bodywise, the first BED-specific treatment program in the United States, and President of the Board of the Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is the founder of Pershing Consulting, which offers training to clinicians treating BED and trauma worldwide. Amy is also the co-founder of "Attune", an online coaching program for attuned eating and recovery support.
Amy is an internationally known leader in the development of treatment paradigms for BED, and one of the first clinicians to specialize in BED treatment. Based on 35 years of clinical experience, Amy has pioneered an approach to BED recovery that is strengths-based and trauma informed, incorporating Internal Family Systems (IFS) and body-based techniques to heal the deeper issues that drive binge behaviors. Her approach integrates a non-diet body autonomy philosophy, helping clients create lasting change with food and body image.
Amy is also the author of the book Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond (Taylor and Francis, 2018) and Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing And Body Image: A Trauma-Informed Workbook, with co-authors Judith Matz and Christy Harrison (PESI Publishing, 2024). She also offers a variety of trainings on BED treatment through PESI. Amy maintains her clinical practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Amy begins the podcast episode by discussing her own history with binge eating disorder and how, thanks to the relentless messages from diet culture, she believed that her body "needed to be fixed because it was fat."
Throughout the episode, we touch upon:
How IFS views Binge Eating Disorder
The role of Binge Eating parts
Shame as a coping mechanism
How to build trust between Self and parts
What Self-led eating looks like
Developing trust in your body
Amy also emphasizes the fact that Self cannot be damaged by trauma, and Self does not accept body shame narratives. She states, “There’s never a time that you’re in-Self and accepting a body shame narrative. It just doesn’t happen. Self knows that body shame doesn’t exist.”
We ended the episode speaking directly to therapists, both those who work with food and body issues and those who don't. Amy noted that all therapists are working with clients who live in a body and we're therefore all working with body stigma to some degree. She further notes that all clinicians really need to think about how their parts feel about their own body, food, weight stigma, and health.
And finally, she states, "If you treat BED, you’re treating trauma. We have to understand the binge eating in the context of their history."
Amy gives us so many pearls of wisdom in this episode that you'll want to listen to it more than once (and take notes). Even if you aren't someone who binges, how she talks about body shame is applicable to everyone in a body. Take a listen!
Where to find Amy:
Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond
Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing And Body Image: A Trauma-Informed Workbook
Where to find me:
Click below to listen!