About this course

Learning Objectives

• Identify eating disorders, risk factors, warning signs and medical complications.
• Summarize what is involved in outpatient nutritional rehabilitation, including the use of the no-numbers approach to treatment, called the Plate-by-Plate Approach®
• Apply new treatment interventions to use in the therapeutic setting for the eating disorders and body image.
• Identify key risk factors and developmental considerations in adolescent eating disorders, including genetics and environment
• Discuss the role of weight stigma in the development and treatment of eating disorders.
• Discuss the benefits of a multidisciplinary outpatient treatment team and common therapeutic approaches, including IFS, FBT, and CBT.

Learning Levels

• Intermediate

Target Audience

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Signe Darpinian

  LMFT, CEDS

  Signe Darpinian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, host of Therapy Rocks! a personal growth podcast, and public speaker. She is also the co-author of No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom as well as Raising Body Positive Teens: A Parent's Guide to Diet-Free Living, Exercise and Body Image, as well as a forthcoming book titled A Woman's Guide to Menopause, Body Image, and Emotional Well Being, in Midlife due out in January 2026. Signe provides tele-health therapy services in the state of California. https://www.signedarpinian.com/

• 

  Wendy Sterling, MS, RD, CSSD, CEDS-C

  Registered Dietitian

  Wendy Sterling, MS, RD, CSSD, CEDS-C specializes in adolescent nutrition, eating disorders and sports nutrition. She is a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and a Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has consulted for the Oakland Athletics, Golden State Warriors, NY Jets, and NY Islanders. She is a frequent lecturer to schools and sports teams, emphasizing a Health at Every Size Approach®, while integrating nutrition practices that are sustainable and practical. She is the co-author of How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder, How To Nourish Yourself Through an Eating Disorder, No Weigh! A Teens Guide to Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom and Raising Body Positive Teens: A Parent's Guide to Diet-Free Living, Exercise and Body Image. She is the co-founder of the Plate-by-Plate Approach®, a no-numbers, visual approach to the nutritional treatment of eating disorders. She also sees patients virtually nationwide through Sterling Nutrition at www.sterlingnutrition.com.

• 

  Shelley Aggarwal, MD

  Medical Director Juvenile Custody Health Services

  Shelley Aggarwal MD, is a board-certified Pediatrician and Adolescent Medicine Sub-Specialist. She treats medically complex teens and young adults, and works on a variety of youth-specific health issues including adolescent development, the management of eating disorders, reproductive health, the needs of the chronically ill child, weight-neutral approaches to wellbeing, and medical complications related to mental health conditions, health equity, to name a few. She is also the co-author of No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom and Raising Body Positive Teens: A Parent's Guide to Diet-Free Living, Exercise and Body Image, both with Jessica Kingsley Publishers in London.

  Dr. Aggarwal is teaching faculty with Stanford School of Medicine and UCSF. As an adolescent health expert, she enjoys speaking to small groups of parents and teens about health and wellbeing and has also presented at national and international conferences on scholarly topics. Currently, she is the Medical Director of clinics serving juvenile justice involved youth.

• 

  Theresa Chesnut, LCSW, CEDS-C

  Founder and CEO of The Chesnut Group

  Theresa Chesnut specializes in the treatment of Eating Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), and issues related to anxiety, depression and stress. Her focus embraces the optimization of athletic performance as well as the resolution of conflicts arising within the family, particularly those pertaining to adolescent growth. Her therapeutic orientation is holistic, strength-based, and grounded in both psychodynamic and Internal Family Systems (IFS) theories. Theresa has worked with adolescents and adults for over 30 years, managing her clients’ challenges with Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorders. Previous to her having formed her own private group practice, she held the position of Clinical Director at The Healthy Teen Project (HTP), an adolescent, eating disorder-specific outpatient clinic. Before her tenure at HTP, Theresa held many roles over her 13-year stint at a national eating disorder residential treatment center, including Program Director, Lead Individual and Group Therapist, Program Director, Director of Regional Marketing, and supervising master level interns. She was also instrumental in a senior management role, starting new programs, training new staff, overseeing operations, creating policies and procedures for programs, and expanding existing practices into new geographic locations. Theresa lectures locally and nationally, both in person and virtually, on therapeutic interventions targeting the entire eating disorder recovery process. Over the last 3 decades, Theresa has lectured on college campuses as well as to allied professionals covering the state of the art of symptom identification and eating disorder prevention, therapeutic interventions. She has been trained in Family Based Therapy (FBT), Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and has been an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist for 2 decades; additionally, she has assisted in Level One Trainings. Theresa served as a Board member of the national Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) from 2009-2017 and held board positions as the Secretary, Vice-Chair, and Chair. Additionally, she sat on several committees including the Conference Committee and Weight Stigma Awareness Week." Theresa currently runs an annual event - The Tri-State Eating Disorder Conference in Evansville, Indiana. She maintains group practices in California and in Indiana. The practice offers practicum internships for Masters level students. She is one of IADEP’s Certified Eating Disorder Specialists, in addition to being one of their Supervisors. Although she maintains her private practice in Northern California, she resides in Evansville, IN where she is a proud grandmother to 4 grandchildren and her therapy Shepadoodle, Stevie Nicks.

Disclosure

References

• Dueck, C. A., Matt, K. S., Manore, M. M., & others. (1996). Treatment of athletic amenorrhea with a diet and training intervention program. International Journal of Sport Nutrition, 6(1), 24–40.
• Nagata, J. M., Brown, T. A., Lavender, J. M., & Murray, S. B. (2019). Emerging trends in eating disorders among adolescent boys: Muscles, macronutrients, and biohacking. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 3(7), 444–445.
• Cachelin, F. M. (2001). Barriers to treatment for eating disorders among ethnically diverse women. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 30(3), 269–278.
• Academy for Eating Disorders. (2021). Eating disorders: A guide to medical care (4th ed.)
• Almeida, L. (2020). Reduce body checking with 2 easy steps. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/reduce-body-checking-with-two-easy-steps-1138366
• American Psychiatric Association. (2006). Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with eating disorders (3rd ed.)
• Lock, J., & Le Grange, D. (2015). Treatment manual for anorexia nervosa: A family-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
• Catanzaro, J. (2024). Unburdened eating: An Internal Family Systems approach to healing your relationships with food and your body. Bridge City Books.
• Puhl, R. M., & Suh, Y. (2015). The role of stigma in weight-related health care avoidance. Obesity Reviews, 16(1), 97–111.
• Pearl, R. L., Austin, S. B., Jebeile, H., & Katzman, D. K. (2023). Opportunities to advance research, intervention, and policy on stigma, eating disorders, and body image. Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 132.BioMed Central
• Crest, P., Vendlinski, S. S., Borges, R., Landsverk, J., & Accurso, E. C. (2024). Interdisciplinary perspectives on accessing specialty evidence-based treatment for Medicaid-insured adolescents with eating disorders. Journal of Eating Disorders, 12, 1.SpringerLink
• Sterling, W., Crosbie, C., Shaw, N., & Martin, S. (2019). The use of the plate-by-plate approach for adolescents undergoing family-based treatment. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(7), 1075–1084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.06.011