Chelsea Buffum, MS, LMHC

05/02/2023

Eating disorder rates have skyrocketed since the pandemic. This article explains some of the shifts we have been seeing in the field, how social media has been impacting teens, and the gaps in recognition and treatment for folks in marginalized groups.

Teen eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia have never been this rampant — or this severe, new research indicates.

01/29/2021

This is an excellent article to start with if you are examining your relationship with food and body. January is a tough time and rife with diet culture.

There’s an insidious reason why dieting is so common, yet so difficult.

12/31/2020

Friendly reminders:
Resolutions are not requirements.
Reflection can happen any time of the year.
"Self-improvement" and "self-care" do not happen in a vacuum.
Reflections, commitments, and resolutions are much more complicated, expansive, and messy than diets or exercise plans.

12/15/2020

Season's Greetings:
For those who feel immense loneliness as the pandemic rages on: I'm with you.
For those who struggle to breathe because you're waiting for the next shoe to drop: let's fill our lungs together.
For those who feel exhausted as the nights get longer: let's rest together.
For those for whom the holidays bring up endless expectations, to dos, and failures: you are enough.
For those who feel like they haven't gotten far enough in this life (based on strong but false cultural narratives about what it means to be an adult): again, you are enough.
For those who are stuck in behaviors, addictions, and cycles that you hate (but may also be helping you to survive right now): you are not alone.
And for those who feel the looming New Years Resolutions right around the corner, the never ending requirement for self-improvement even in one of the most stressful years of our lives: again, you are enough just as you are.

09/29/2020

A wonderful article. People in larger bodies often face numerous barriers to getting pregnant because of weight stigma.

If you’re fat and pregnant, or fat and want to get pregnant, you will, inevitably, be told to lose weight. Both before and during…

08/24/2020

I am overjoyed to announce that I am officially a Certified Body Trust © Provider!

Hilary and Dana have been foundational in my training and healing since 2009 when I started following Be Nourished (https://benourished.org/). This certification feels like a capstone of over 10 years working toward building my career and life around one of my deeply held values: we all deserve to come home to our bodies.

I’m so looking forward to continuing to provide therapy and advocacy alongside other eating disorder providers and healers in an incredible community of fat-positive, trauma-informed, and social justice oriented folks.

Your faithful therapist,
Chelsea

Be Nourished teaches Body Trust®, a pathway to acceptance of the body, an alternative dialogue to the conventional paradigm of food, body image, and weight concerns in our culture.

05/22/2020

From Be Nourished:

"We become habituated to feeling diminished.
We lose connection with our bodies.
We become habituated to self-diminishment in order to earn what passes for love and belonging. Love and belonging that we need.
Love and belonging that we can’t live without.
We do this to survive.
It can feel like we don't have any other choice.

When we are habituated to living from a place of self-diminishment, learning to allow expansion into the full expression of our truest selves is a practice.

Taking up space is a practice that we return to again and again and again.🧡

-Image Description-
text reads: What do we sacrifice in order to fit in? We lose our voice, our connection to our truth.

"

We become habituated to feeling diminished.
We lose connection with our bodies.
We become habituated to self-diminishment in order to earn what passes for love and belonging. Love and belonging that we need.
Love and belonging that we can’t live without.
We do this to survive.
It can feel like we don't have any other choice.

When we are habituated to living from a place of self-diminishment, learning to allow expansion into the full expression of our truest selves is a practice.

Taking up space is a practice that we return to again and again and again.🧡

-Image Description-
text reads: What do we sacrifice in order to fit in? We lose our voice, our connection to our truth.

03/22/2020

It's okay to gain weight during this crisis.
It's always okay for your body to change. Bodies change.
It's okay that your level of movement has changed.
You don't need to use this time to change your body.
There are more things to worry about than your weight and body, especially right now.

Friends, please be mindful of what you are posting around quarantining and being "healthy." Isolation and massive change are particularly hard for folks with eating disorders. This is a vulnerable time for us all, and we don't need to increase panic about our bodies, on top of it all.

03/20/2020

Uncertainty is so difficult to sit with sometimes, and most of us are feeling it. If you need some action oriented tools, this is a nice guide.

And just a quick reminder: you don't have to be productive during this time.

Exposure therapy is the single most effective treatment for anxiety. Learn how to supercharge the way you help your clients to face their fears.