❌ You’re forced to engage in FBT and other “traditional” models, despite it being harmful

❌ Your relationships crumble due to a loss of trust

❌ You get passed from pillar to post, with no one who really understands the connection between autism and eating disorders

❌ You’re stamped with all sorts of labels including too complex, manipulative, treatment-resistant, defiant, and hopeless

❌ There’s too much focus on body image, food, and weight, overlooking the root cause of the eating disorder

❌ Autistic traits are often labeled as “ED behaviors,” sacrificing your ability to regulate

✅ How to distinguish autistic traits from eating disorder behaviors

✅ How to communicate with someone who has demand avoidance (PDA)

✅ How to respect the autistic need for structure while bringing in more flexibility

✅ How to regain trust after FBT and other harmful treatments

✅ How to get out of fight-or-flight mode and make peace with rest

✅ How to embrace and encourage autonomy while fostering safety

Week 1: Welcome & Intro

Hello, hi! Because you'll be going on an intimate, vulnerable, and often confrontational journey with other committed souls, it's important we all have an open mindset regarding the topics to come. So in this initial week, you'll learn how to recognize mental barriers and shift these to empowering beliefs.

Week 2: Understanding Autistic Traits

Autism is generally understood to be a "brain disorder" while disregarding the nervous system and the unique gifts autistic people bring to the world. In this week of the program, you'll learn to view autism through an adaptive lens. Not only will this perspective help you communicate more effectively, but it will lay the foundation for understanding how autistic traits can contribute to eating disorders.

Week 3: Adaptive Model of Eating Disorders

It's no secret that eating disorders tend to present differently in autistic folks – so how do we recognize and accommodate these differences in ED recovery? In Week 3 of the program, we'll dive into underlying reasons why autistic people develop eating disorders, including: black and white thinking, existential angst, gender dysphoria, the need for structure, and more. You'll also learn about the "tipping point" that shifts someone's denial about their ED to actually WANTING to get better.

Week 4: Autistic Manifestations of Disordered Eating

Get ready to get practical! In Week 4, we'll go through a multitude of ways in which "eating disorder behaviors" can mask autistic traits. You'll learn what's at the root of the eating issues – including sensory issues, interoceptive difficulties, the need for predictability and routine, among others – so you can untangle autistic traits from eating disorder behaviors. With this, you'll learn how to respect the autistic traits while simultaneously tackling the more destructive ED-driven behaviors.

Week 5: Escaping Fight-or-Flight Mode

Anxiety, restlessness, and constantly needing to stand and/or pace are common experiences in autistic people with eating disorders. In most cases, these mobilization behaviors are an adaptive response to release "trapped energy" as a result of being in fight-or-flight mode. In Week 5 of the program, you'll learn how to channel this energy into the commitment to recover.

Week 6: Communication & PDA

Demand avoidance is frequently overlooked in autistic people with eating disorders. However, it often plays a key role in tailoring one's recovery journey. In Week 6, you'll learn what language to use to either coach yourself, or to communicate with your autistic child or clients in a PDA-affirming way.

Week 7: Rebuilding Relationships (with a special guest!)

Eating disorders don't just affect the individual; they affect everyone around them. FBT and other "traditional" treatment modalities often destroy trust, leaving tension and trauma in their wake. But there IS hope! This week's session will be dedicated to a LIVE Q&A with my mom about how we not only rebuilt, but even strengthened our relationship through our family's ED recovery journey.

Week 8: Supporting Full Recovery

What does full recovery from an eating disorder even look like for a neurodivergent person? Contrary to what you may have been told, an eating disorder is NOT something you have to "manage" for the rest of your life. It's merely the result of engrained thought patterns, thought patterns we can change through consistent action. This final week of the program teaches you how to create your unique "safety box" that keeps your authentic values in, while restriction, fear, and limitation stay OUT.