Working with Eating Disorders as a Non-Specialist: Assessment, Collaboration, and Ethical Practice & GLP-1 Medications and the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment: Navigating Complexity, Contradictions, and Clinical Decision-Making

Vanessa Scaringi, PhD, CEDS_C is a licensed psychologist in Austin, TX. Vanessa co-owns a group therapy practice called CALM Counseling, where she works with adolescents, young adults, and adult populations. She primarily sees individuals working on recovery from eating disorders or body image issues. Vanessa also runs interpersonal process groups where clients can heal in community with others.

Vanessa has dedicated much of her career to working in the eating disorder field.

She is a relational psychologist who strives to understand the context of one’s eating disorder. By facilitating insight, Vanessa works with her clients to identify patterns and behaviors that interfere with living the life they want. Vanessa also strives to instill a sense of hope, as she has found this is an important part of the change process.

Kathryn Garland, LCSW-S, CEDS-C is a licensed clinical social worker and supervisor in Texas, New York, and Massachusetts. She is an IAEDP-approved Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Consultant. Kathryn spent her early career and completed postgraduate training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in New York City. She incorporates relational and attachment-based methods into her work with clients. Her experience includes working with LGBTQ+ teens in the NYC foster care system, community mental health clinics, as well as a primary therapist and IOP Program Coordinator at an eating disorder treatment center.

Kathryn co-owns a group therapy practice called CALM Counseling in Austin, Texas.

Content Description:

These sessions will equip therapists to work more thoughtfully with clients around food, weight, and body image, even outside a specialized eating disorder practice. The first addresses foundational gaps in clinical training—helping therapists recognize eating disorder symptoms, assess risk, and know when referral or consultation with eating disorder-informed providers is needed. It grounds this in an understanding of weight stigma, diet culture, and weight-inclusive/Intuitive Eating principles, while asking clinicians to reflect on their own relationships with food and body image and how those shape the therapeutic process.

The second session extends this lens to a timely and complicated issue: the rise of GLP-1 medications and their growing role in conversations about weight, appetite, and health. As clients increasingly bring these medications into sessions, therapists are caught between polarized cultural narratives—from uncritical endorsement to outright rejection—and this training helps them navigate that tension by examining how GLP-1 use intersects with healthism, diet culture, anti-fat bias, and medical stigma. Together, the two sessions build a throughline: helping clinicians move past oversimplified or moralized takes on weight and food, toward more informed, ethically grounded, and client-centered care.

Course Agenda

Working with Eating Disorders as a Non-Specialist: Assessment, Collaboration, and Ethical Practice & GLP-1 Medications and the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment: Navigating Complexity, Contradictions, and Clinical Decision-Making

with Vanessa Scaringi, PHD, CEDS-C & Kathryn Garland, LCSW-S, CEDS-C

Live Online Zoom Session 1 – Working with Eating Disorders as a Non-Specialist: Assessment, Collaboration, and Ethical Practice – Friday, September 11th – 9-10:30am PDT/12-1:30pm EDT/5-6:30 BST – 1.5 CEs

Most therapists will work with clients struggling with disordered eating, chronic dieting, body dissatisfaction, or eating disorders at some point in their careers. However, many clinicians receive little formal training in recognizing eating disorder symptoms, assessing risk, or determining when referral and consultation are necessary.

This training will help therapists develop greater confidence in identifying eating disorder presentations, understanding the impact of weight stigma and diet culture on clinical work, and navigating the ethical responsibilities of treating clients with eating concerns outside of a specialty practice. Participants will learn how to assess when a higher level of care may be indicated, collaborate effectively with eating disorder-informed providers, and recognize the limits of their own competence while continuing to support clients in meaningful ways.

The training will also explore foundational principles of Intuitive Eating and weight-inclusive care, as well as the influence of clinicians' own relationships with food, body image, and cultural messaging on the therapeutic process.

Session Agenda:
• Why eating disorders are everyone's issue (10 mins)

• Common eating disorders and presentations therapists may encounter (5 mins)

• Screening and assessment basics (10 mins)

• Red flags and higher levels of care (5 mins)

• Building an effective treatment team (15 mins)

• Intuitive Eating and weight-inclusive frameworks (10 mins)

• Understanding weight stigma and diet culture (5 mins)

• Therapist countertransference and cultural conditioning (15 mins)

• Case examples and consultation dilemmas (15 mins)

Live Online Zoom Session 2 –  GLP-1 Medications and the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment: Navigating Complexity, Contradictions, and Clinical Decision-Making – Friday, September 18th – 9-10:30am PDT/12-1:30pm EDT/5-6:30 BST – 1.5 CEs

The rapid rise of GLP-1 medications has transformed conversations about weight, appetite, health, and body image. Clients are increasingly arriving in therapy already taking these medications, considering them, or struggling to make sense of the cultural messages surrounding them. At the same time, clinicians are being asked to navigate competing narratives that range from enthusiastic endorsement to outright rejection of these meds.

The training will explore how GLP-1 medications intersect with broader cultural forces, including healthism, diet culture, anti-fat bias, medical stigma, and the ongoing search for certainty in a highly polarized conversation.

Session Agenda:

• The cultural moment: Why GLP-1s matter (10 mins)

• What therapists should know about how these medications work (5 mins)

• Potential benefits and areas of promise (5 mins)

• Risks, concerns, and unintended consequences (15 mins)

• Eating disorder recovery and relapse considerations (5 mins)

• Body image, identity, and changing relationship with food (10 mins)

• Weight stigma, medical bias, and social determinants of health (10 mins)

• Ethical and clinical dilemmas (15 mins)

• Case consultation and discussion (15 mins)

Working with Eating Disorders as a Non-Specialist: Assessment, Collaboration, and Ethical Practice & GLP-1 Medications and the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment: Navigating Complexity, Contradictions, and Clinical Decision-Making

with Vanessa Scaringi, PHD, CEDS-C & Kathryn Garland, LCSW-S, CEDS-C

Learning Objectives

Session 1: Working with Eating Disorders as a Non-Specialist: Assessment, Collaboration, and Ethical Practice

1. Identify three common eating disorder presentations and recognize warning signs that may warrant further assessment.

2. Describe two impacts of weight stigma, diet culture, and fatphobia on client well-being and treatment outcomes.

3. Determine when consultation, referral to an eating disorder specialist, or a higher level of care may be appropriate.

4. Understand the role of interdisciplinary collaboration, including partnerships with HAES-aligned dietitians and medical providers.

5. Examine personal biases, assumptions, and countertransference related to food, weight, health, and body size.

Session 2: GLP-1 Medications and the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment: Navigating Complexity, Contradictions, and Clinical Decision-Making

1. Understand two basic mechanisms and intended uses of GLP-1 medications.

2. Identify three potential benefits and risks associated with GLP-1 use from an eating disorder-informed perspective.

3. Assess two factors that may increase vulnerability to eating disorder onset, relapse, or symptom exacerbation while using GLP-1 medications.

4. Explore the impact of GLP-1 medications on appetite, relationship with food, body image, identity, and emotional coping.

5. Develop a nuanced framework for discussing GLP-1 medications with clients without defaulting to either endorsement or rejection.

For Intermediate mental health professionals.

Continuing Education

This program offers limited Live CEs/Contact Hours.

Continuing education credit/Contact hours are awarded on a per-session basis, with full attendance required for the entire 90-minute duration.  There is no additional charge for the CEs.  Application forms and other required CE materials will be available to participants by the Academy of Therapy Wisdom.

NOTE:  To receive continuing education credit, applicants must complete all CE materials, comply with attendance regulations, and submit an evaluation form for the session attended. Information on how to obtain the CEs will be emailed to all participants who qualify within two business days of the live broadcast. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine if CE credit/contact hours offered by Academy of Therapy Wisdom meet the regulations of their state licensing/certification board.  

Psychology:  This course does NOT provide CEs for Psychologists.

Counseling:

Academy of Therapy Wisdom has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7370. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Academy of Therapy Wisdom is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.  This program is approved for 1.5 CE Credit Hours for each live session for a possible total of 3 CE Credit Hours.

NY State Social Workers: Academy of Therapy Wisdom is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Workers as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers. #SW-0814.

NY State Mental Health Counselors: Academy of Therapy Wisdom is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0285.

Marriage/Family Therapy: See below for CAMFT information.

This course is $49 per month. You can purchase it here.