We recently shared a bit about Be Nourished for the Association for Size Diversity and Health’s (ASDAH) newsletter. Ever wondered what got Be Nourished started? Here’s a little background:
Be Nourished was founded on the simple intent to introduce others to the compassionate world of self-care that is Health at Every Size®. Our tagline is ‘change from a deeper place’, which is a way to express that we believe the process of an individual adopting HAES℠ is about connecting the tenets of this approach to the deepest, most supportive, integral aspects of self. This practice truly creates a life of sustainable and pleasurable self-care and love. Through our years of practice, we know now more than ever how these simple self-care principles become increasingly complicated in a dieting, fat-phobic culture. Our role in our community is to speak strongly as advocates and to support our clients in building community around sustainable health practices that love them back.
In 2005, Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD and Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC of Be Nourished started facilitating groups to help women let go of food/weight obsession. Realizing that they shared a similar approach and philosophy regarding food, weight, body image and health – one directly counter to that of conventional institutional paradigms, the two decided to merge their practices to create a partnership that would offer a revolutionary approach to women seeking answers regarding eating disorders, weight loss, exercise, and nutrition. Dana and Hilary developed and co-facilitate a 14-week Body Trust Wellness Program and teach the following six core competencies: develop sustainable health practices, engage in joyful movement, practice intuitive eating, nurture self-compassion, develop body trust, and redefine success.
Our personal paths to HAES were different, which has deeply enhanced our business partnership:
Dana’s journey to this work began when she met someone that really cared about how they treated their body. This person was environmentally conscious of their food choices and led an active lifestyle. She began to make lifestyle changes to take better care of herself and her environment. A side effect of these changes was movement toward a natural, healthy weight. These changes have been sustained for over 20 years.
After Dana worked in research for many years helping people make lifestyle changes to lose weight, she began to think that focusing on the number on the scale wasn’t useful. She kept suggesting that the principal investigators stop weighing people and just focus on healthy lifestyle behaviors to improve health. They, of course, thought she was crazy. So she decided to build a private practice to incorporate the mindfulness and self-acceptance practices of yoga into her work to help people make changes from a deeper place. It was at this time that she discovered the Health at Every Size community, which only strengthened her commitment to this work.
Hilary found HAES through trying to sort through her own long-term body hatred and misunderstood PCOS. A compassionate and smart therapist helped her understand the incredible strength and the unlimited resource of her body—just as it is. Such a radical introduction to what is truly possible instead of trying to “be healthy” through self-punishment, dieting and being ever focused on another “self-improvement” project. Growing in a belief that her body is a compassionate presence and endless resource for engaging in joyful living, Hilary finds her life endlessly expanding. As Hilary grew her counseling practice, she fell in love with the empowerment model that is at the root of HAES, and the rich and endless healing metaphor that is available when people explore their own relationship with their bodies and self-nourishment. After 15 years, Intuitive Eating is now a way of life; one that is continually changing and deepening in it’s practice. It’s never boring!
As Be Nourished has grown over the years, we have begun responding to a need to introduce the actual practice of delivering HAES messages to other health care providers who are longing to do this work, but are often lacking the supportive language and clinical technique that makes HAES work in a therapeutic environment. We have been speaking and offering trainings on using HAES in clinical practice and now combine this offering with training in motivational interviewing. We are also invested in our work as adjunct professors at Lewis and Clark College in the Eating Disorder Certification program, a program with a dedication to presenting a HAES-based curriculum.
Be Nourished is an evolving entity, just as the work in the HAES community often is. We are grateful to have found the Association for Size Diversity and Health. Never have we witnessed or been a part of a professional community that is so rooted in authentic support. We see it in every posting and are so grateful, especially on those days when the work feels lonely, or that we are at the very bottom of a steep grade. The strong and generous voices that appear in ASDAH are very clearly in the process of changing the world.
Each of you, who even consider challenging the dieting mind are also changing the world. We know that this is a challenging change process. Becoming a follower of HAES and intuitive eating means separating yourself further from a world in which you may already feel that you don’t belong. Acting on behalf of your own voice of health is a revolutionary act in our culture as it is today. You are not alone.
