Guest Presenter Jane Reagan, MED, RDN, CEDS-C
Guest Presenter Jane Reagan, MED, RDN, CEDS-C
Jane Reagan is a Boulder-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS-C) with a Master of Education in Counseling. She has over two decades in both nutrition and counseling and brings a “food-first,” non-diet approach that considers how eating, emotions, and physiology intersect. Her background includes work in higher-level care and university health settings, and she’s also the creator of The Eating Disorder Recovery Roadmap for Parents.
Why Jane's Expertise is Helpful for Our Group
We've never met a human who doesn't have some discomfort with food, bodies, and self-image. We're influenced by culture, stress, trauma, health conditions, identity, or family messaging when we think about our bodies and their value. Jane walks the middle path in her treatment; she holds expertise but also a flexible approach. She's going to help us notice early signs, ask better questions, speak about bodies with care, and know when to refer. Since disordered eating shows up in so many diverse ways, it's our obligation to have some familiarity with assessment, comfort in talking about bodies and food in non-pathologizing ways, and the support we need to support our clients.
What You'll Walk Away From
This is for social workers and counselors who want to feel more grounded and informed when discussing food, body image, and presentations of disordered eating. We know that we're far more likely to approach topics and subjects in our work with clients when we feel more confident that we're informed, capable, and won't cause harm. For many people, early intervention and assessment can be lifesaving and highly relevant to their care. We hope you leave with more explicit language, improved assessment skills, and greater confidence in assessing risk, supporting change, referring to specialists, and collaborating with dietitians and medical providers.
Preparation Materials
We know that a lot of us don't have formal training or experience with disordered eating. To prepare, we like to create a baseline of understanding so that consultation time can be focused on more meaningful clinical reflection. The goal is to strengthen comfort with body, image, and food-related conversations, to notice relational dynamics that shape symptoms, and to widen the lens beyond your client to consider the systems around them.
The Eating Disorder Recovery Roadmap for Parents (Module 1)
Jane exposes us to the reality of eating disorders through the lens of their loved ones. It offers a framework, common concerns, and language that helps make sense of what can feel chaotic and terrifying. The module supports empathy, clarifies common relational patterns, and helps clinicians understand the ripple effects that often show up indirectly in therapy, even if family therapy isn't your thing.
Eating disorders rarely stay contained inside the person; they ripple to relationships and routines. This lesson offers a window into the fear, confusion, urgency, helplessness, and “What do I do?” that loved ones carry. This mirrors the feeling that we can have as clinicians when we're exposed to a symptom presentation we don't know how to approach.
The questions that Jane addresses, on behalf of parents, are mirrored in the clinician's experience. There is a fear on our behalf that talking about it will make it worse, a desire to monitor or manage symptoms and behaviors, and a recognition that good intentions can quickly turn into control or enabling behaviors. This is often the opposite of what our intentions are (or parents in this module), yet it is the impact.
Jane's module offers a clear framework: clearer roles, steadier expectations, and the preparation (and knowledge) that prevents us from reacting to our client's feelings or behaviors. When you have a plan, it reduces power struggles by giving people something to do besides escalating, arguing, or avoiding. This isn't a script, but enough clarity that support becomes actionable.
Bring questions that assess relational impact and safety without turning therapy into family therapy: Who knows? Who helps? Who escalates? What support feels regulating vs controlling? What boundaries protect recovery without isolating the client?
Reclaiming Body Trust TEDx (Sonya Renee Taylor)
This talk helps widen the frame from “fixing” bodies to relating to bodies differently. It’s a cultural and relational lens that supports clinical work with shame, self-criticism, comparison, and the belief that worth is earned through control. Many clients won’t use eating-disorder language, but they live with body discomfort. This material supports a steadier stance for clinicians: less moralizing, less urgency, and more capacity to hold nuance when bodies, food, and identity get tender.
Control-based approaches often sound like health, discipline, or self-improvement, until they become rigid, punitive, or fear-driven. This reframe invites respect and repair. Our bodies are worthy of care, not projects to perfect. Clinically, it supports curiosity and compassion and helps name the systems that shape body distress: culture, oppression, trauma, and medical experiences, without collapsing into helplessness. We will continue to prioritize our clients' dignity, agency, and the reduction of harm in body conversations.
Body trust is not just about loving your body or ignoring medical facts. It means understanding that our bodies send us signals, that coping strategies make sense, and that feeling safe is most important. In practice, this could mean helping clients notice their body’s cues calmly, approach eating without self-criticism, and recognize when a need for control is taking the place of healthy habits. It also changes how clinicians speak; it allows us to step out of the power dynamic (or at least observe it), while partnering with our client and encouraging therapeutic congruence and genuineness.
The body trust approach helps clients feel genuinely listened to, so they can talk about food and body concerns without feeling judged or pressured to change.
While you watch Taylor’s TEDx video, notice what elicits a reaction from you.
Can you notice your own biases or times when you feel the urge to fix things immediately?
Are there certain bodies or behaviors that make you feel judgmental, anxious, or overly focused?
Are there topics you usually avoid because they seem too heavy or complicated?
What We’ll Practice Together in Consultation
We’ll work on using language that is clear, accurate, and kind, so clients feel understood rather than labeled. This means choosing words for patterns that are easy to overlook, discussing risk without causing alarm, and using phrases that reduce shame while still taking symptoms seriously. When we use the same terminology as other collateral providers (nutritionists, psychiatrists, other medical professionals), we create a cohesive narrative with our clients, reducing confusion, opportunities for miscommunication, and inconsistent goals. This ensures that all providers and their clinicians define recovery, relapse, medical risk, and support similarly. When we speak consistently, clients receive steadier care and fewer mixed messages.
