Empathy and Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders are a human experience. They don’t play favorites or stick to a certain stereotype. They are often ways a person seeks out safety or control amidst a traumatic or trying time. And they rarely begin straight out of the gate as a diagnosable eating disorder and rather a coping mechanism through which disordered eating and an ultimately harmful relationship with food or body image take hold. Some recurring themes throughout today’s episode will be empathy and connection.

To guide us through these conversations, we have two guests joining us. The first is Nōn Wels. Nōn is a writer, doggo lover, mental health advocate, the creator of the weekly podcast, You, Me, Empathy, and the founder of the collaborative mental health community, The Feely Human Collective, where you can grow your capacity for empathy, vulnerability, and emotional curiosity. For Nōn, eating disorders, specifically anorexia nervosa, have played a role in his mental health journey, stemming from his parents’ divorce, childhood trauma, and a way to seek control and communicate his pain.

We’ll also hear from Corrie Van Horne, co-founder of and therapist at Omni Counseling in Denver, Colorado, who will give us her professional perspective on eating disorders. Corrie believes that therapy is inherently radical in that it aims to dismantle and abolish systems of oppression and the ways we as individuals have internalized them. Outside of work, Corrie spends her downtime with family, friends, and her pup Roxy.