Introduction & Guest Bio:

Eating-disorders therapist Haica Rosenfeld joins us to discuss how her father’s binge eating and bariatric surgery affected her own relationship with food and body, strategies for responding to and shutting down diet talk, the Stages of Change as they relate to anti-diet messaging, bringing HAES to Spanish-speaking communities, and so much more. Plus, in “Ask Food Psych,” Christy answers a listener question about why it’s considered harmful for someone who struggles with an eating disorder to lose weight, but not for their ED-free sibling to gain weight. 

Dr. Haica Rosenfeld is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and Approved Supervisor by the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. She specializes in the treatment of Eating Disorders, Disordered Eating, Body Image Healing and has worked with clients at all stages of recovery for over 12 years.

Haica has a passion and calling for helping those who struggle with disordered eating, chronic dieting, emotional overeating, and Binge Eating Disorder and believes in prioritizing health-promoting-behaviors without focusing on weight loss. Her work incorporates a non-diet and weight-inclusive approach to wellness and whole health, which aims to honor and nourish the mind, body and spirit. She believes in the power of Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and Body Appreciation practices, and is informed by Health at Every Size® (HAES®) and Intuitive Eating principles. 

Haica currently works in private practice and has an office in Aventura, FL. She offers in-person and Telehealth psychotherapy to residents of Florida, Vermont and Venezuela, her country of origin. She is dedicated to helping individuals heal their relationship with food, exercise, and their bodies, as well as disrupting the internalized messages they’ve received from diet culture. She also often offers group therapy, as she deeply believes in the healing power of community. Find her online at HaicaRosenfeld.com.

We Discuss:

• Haica’s childhood memories around her relationship with food, including her experiences growing up in a Jewish household in Venezuela

• How she was affected by her father’s binge eating and his experiences as one of the first people in Venezuela to have bariatric surgery

• How bariatric surgery can affect alcohol absorption and consumption

• How a cruel nickname affected Haica’s relationship with food and body

• Her experiences with dieting growing up

• How she became interested in working with eating disorders

• How she responds to being pressured to get bariatric surgery 

• Strategies for responding to diet talk, and why it’s OK to not always have a response

• Setting boundaries with family

• The privilege of personality

• The Stages of Change as they relate to anti-diet and HAES messaging

• Haica’s work with Spanish-speaking people and health professionals

• Christy and Haica’s experiences transitioning to anti-diet work professionally

• Haica’s experiences in inpatient eating-disorder treatment centers that were not HAES-aligned

• The importance of community in eating-disorder recovery, and the difficulty in finding eating-disorder support groups for larger-bodied people

• Online eating-disorder recovery communities formed in response to the COVID-19 epidemic

Resources Mentioned

Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.

• Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered on the podcast

• My online course, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals

• My book, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating

• Help spread the anti-diet message by subscribing to the podcast

• Food Psych® episode #139 with Lisa DuBreuil

• Ragen Chastain’s work, and her Food Psych episodes #58 and #119

• Fiona Sutherland’s work, and her Food Psych episode 

• @COVID19EatingSupport (Instagram meal support account)

• @SomosHAES (Haica’s Spanish-speaking HAES community on Instagram)

• Haica’s website, Instagram, and Facebook

Ask Food Psych

Listener Question:

“Why is weight loss seen as a concern and weight gain is not seen as a problem in the context of HAES when both can reflect distress?”—Kylee

We Discuss: 

• Social context

• Concern trolling

• Looking beyond weight to identify the real concern