THRIVE Episode 16: Whitney Russell

Hi, I’m Melissa Clark. I’m a professional counselor in the Dallas area with a passion for helping you overcome challenges, process painful emotions, and understand your God-given identity. 

I am so glad that you are here!  This article is a series format. This means each month you will read about different mental health topics. These are issues I’m thinking about, seeing in my office, or have personally experienced. Here are some examples: anxiety, negative thoughts, parenting a child with mental issues - and so much more. We will be looking at these topics from a Christian perspective. 

Thank you so much for being here! I believe reading this will leave you feeling excited, educated, and empowered.

We are starting a new series this month. May is Mental Health Awareness month. I am so excited about this series. I hope to debunk myths about mental health issues, provide resources, help you gain insight that will help you understand mental health issues. We’re going to be talking about addictions, bipolar, suicide, and childhood mental illness. 

Today we have the privilege to hear from the amazing Whitney Russell.  We’re going to talk about Eating disorders. You’re going to hear from an expert about resources, ways to detect eating disorders, and insight into this disorder. I hope this gives you compassion if you know someone with this and grace for yourself if you are struggling in the midst. 

Whitney is the owner and founder of Brave Haven Counseling in Richardson, Tx. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist-Supervisor.  She began her counseling career at the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center working at a rehabilitative residential treatment center with struggling teens. From there she began her journey as an expert in the field of eating disorders. Her experience in this area ranges from being a primary therapist at a partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient setting at the Renfrew Center of Texas to being the Regional Director of Operations for Center For Discovery.

Her clinical experience has allowed her to work with people of all ages, races, genders, socioeconomic statuses, body sizes, and sexual orientations at all levels of care. Through this work she has gained immense compassion and love for the human experience. Her favorite part about being a therapist is establishing relationships with her clients where she is able to help them to see what they have been missing about themselves all along- that they are powerful beings worthy of great love, belonging, and connection. 

She is also a wife, mother of 4, and an Enneagram 1. She is a lover of plants, nutella, thrift stores, and collecting books.

MC: Eating disorders are the most deadly of all mental disorders but often the most misunderstood. So let’s start off really broad, what is an eating disorder? 

WR: I like to describe eating disorders from an addiction or coping model. Eating disorders are disordered relationships with food that someone uses to cope and manage their experience. So Eating Disorders are just a symptom of something else. It could be depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship issues, low self-esteem, etc. And it doesn’t necessarily matter what specific behavior the eating disorder is presenting as, it could be restricting food, bingeing on food, exercise, purging...it all stems from some underlying issue. 

MC: How common are eating disorders? 

WR: The National Eating Disorder Association estimates that 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives. So they are more common than you think!

MC: What are the common myths that you have encountered about this disorder? 

WR: 1)That they only affect affluent young white teenage girls. “The truth is that eating disorders don't discriminate”. SOCIAL MEDIA POST They affect people of all races, socioeconomic status, genders, ages, religions, body sizes, etc. 

2) That you have to be underweight in order to have an eating disorder. This is one that does a lot of damage especially to those that are struggling. The truth is that you can be any body size and have an eating disorder. SOCIAL MEDIA QUOTE So if someone has an eating disorder and they do not look emaciated, they are often overlooked by providers who don’t have experience, they can feel like they aren’t sick enough to receive treatment, they can even think that they don’t have an eating disorder because they don’t look like the stereotypical image that people think of when it comes to eating disorders. 

3) That is has to do with food. As we discussed earlier, eating disorders have very little to do with food. It is just how that person has learned to cope with the world and their internal experience and it is being played out with food. So in order for someone to recover from their eating disorder, they have to confront the underlying issue. 

MC: If you feel comfortable, can you share about your own story? 

WR: have never had a diagnosable eating disorder, but I have definitely had disordered relationships with food and exercise at times. There was a time that I was too rigid with exercise and focused on continuing to find the “healthiest” food to put in my body. The symptom that I did not have during that time of my life was the body image disturbance that many people with eating disorders experience. I think that my relationship with food and exercise during that time was about having a sense of control during a time that felt somewhat out of control. 

MC: What helped you, or others you’ve worked with to receive treatment? 

WR: People receive treatment for a lot of different reasons. But the commonality that I have found is that people have gotten to a place in their lives where their eating disorder is beginning to interfere with their everyday functioning. It could manifest as not being able to concentrate at work because they are so focused on food, or their loved ones are very concerned and it has put a strain on their relationships, or they are just not recognizing themselves when they reflect on their behaviors. And I think the important thing to say here is that people are deserving of treatment way before it reaches that point. There is a lot of shame associated with eating disorders and many people don’t seek treatment because they don’t want anyone to know or they don’t feel “sick” enough to seek treatment. 

MC: From a Christian perspective, how is it harder to seek treatment?
WR: I think it is related to the shame piece. I have worked with many Christian women who feel that they have failed God or that their eating disorder has effected their relationship with God so much that they feel so incredibly separate from him. Many people with eating disorders also feel that they are “bad” and undeserving of help from God or other people. My response to them is always that there is nothing that could separate you from God and he has been with you the whole time. That he suffers when you suffer and he continues to love and cherish you no matter what you have said or done. He will always believe that you are worthy of healing even if you don’t. 

MC: How have you found faith to be trans-formative in the recovery process? 

WR: Absolutely. And there are a couple reasons that I think its trans-formative. 

  1. God is a loving God. He loves you no matter what you look like, whether you are perfect or imperfect, whether you say or do the right things. Once you are able to connect with that fact, you are able to have a lot more compassion and grace for yourself which can be immensely powerful in transforming your relationship with yourself and your body. 

  2. God didn’t create bodies for restriction, He created bodies for relationship. And I think this is a really important shift in how we see our bodies. A lot of our body image disturbance is about how we dislike our appearance and how diet culture says that we aren’t acceptable. But if we let go of the assumption that our bodies were made for appearance purposes, we are able to see that our bodies are capable of so many beautiful things that have nothing to do with what we look like. And I believe that he created our bodies for relationships with ourselves, each other, and with him. And I think there is a lot of proof to that. Think about how a woman’s body communicates with her newborn to sense its needs and to nurture its growth. Or about how our nervous systems are able to help each other regulate emotions. And how we are able to experience all that God has provided for us through our 5 senses. Its pretty amazing stuff!

MC: What is getting you excited right now? Feel free to plug your services here

WR: I am honestly just really excited about having the opportunity to provide a safe space for people in my community to do daring and difficult work. For the past couple years I had the amazing opportunity to work in leadership and operations for a national treatment center, and I recently stepped down to go full time into private practice! So I am really excited to be getting back into my passion of being a therapist and establishing those 1 on 1 connections with people!

MC: What podcasts are you into right now?  Feel free to plug your podcast here

WR: I really love Armchair Expert. I appreciate Dax Shepards honesty and willingness to talk with anyone and explore different topics. I also love that he is so honest and authentic and is not afraid to be himself. 

I also love Buffering the Vampire Slayer because I am a really big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV show. It was my favorite show in high school and its so cool to be able to dissect each episode and hear them talking about all the social justice and feminist issues being played out in each one. 

And of course, I love my podcast that I co-host with a dear friend and dietitian, Casey Bonano. Its called Real Messy Real Happy. We talk about all things mental health and diet culture. We have our first season out and we are going to be recording more soon!

MC: What book are you reading or recently read that you’re loving? 

WR: Changes that heal 

Really nerdy- I recently read Sick Enough by Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani about medical complications of eating disorders and she is just so knowledgeable about the medical side of eating disorder recovery. It was really refreshing to hear from a medical professional who has extensive experience and whose recommendations were based on a social justice perspective.

MC: Where can we find you?

WR: My website www.bravehavencounseling.com

On instagram @whitneylpc

Podcast: realmessyrealhappy.com and @realmessyrealhappy

Helpful web links:

Thank you for stopping by this week to read Thrive: Mental Health and the Art of Living Free. Make sure to visit my website where you can listen and subscribe to the Podcast version on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. Hey, while you’re at it, help me out by adding some stars to the rating and tell a friend about the show. 

Be sure to stop by or tune in next week, where we continue our conversation about Mental Health. 

Have a great week!

Melissa Clark