Becoming "Comfortably Uncomfortable," with Celia Clark

The Emotional Eating (and Everything Else) Podcast

Changing your relationship with food and with your body can be quite the complicated process, can't it? It seems like we often take two steps forward and four (or more?) steps back. I think that's because sometimes we go too far too fast, and we experience a backlash from parts.

Let me give you an example. Say you feel out-of-control with food sometimes (or a lot of the time). You decide to control your eating by putting certain parameters around it. Maybe you cut down on carbs or tell yourself you can't eat past a certain time of the day. And maybe you do that for a while, and you feel more in-control.

And then one day, you (actually, your parts) say, "f* it. I want some bread! And a late-night snack!" And you start eating, seemingly with reckless abandon.

In IFS, this is what we call a backlash. You went too far in one direction (restriction) and parts rebelled against it (by breaking the rules you had set with food). It makes total sense when you think about it. Our parts are using and/or restricting food for a reason, and when we just try to change what they're doing, they don't like it. We're changing their job and taking away the only way they know how to help us.

This is why we need to take smaller steps when we're working toward change.

In this week's podcast, I'm talking about the concept of being "comfortably uncomfortable" during the process of healing your relationship with food and your body with my guest, Celia Clark. Celia is a Food and Body Image Specialist who began her therapy career working in addictions. She has completed advanced education in Eating Disorders and Complex Trauma is trained in various modalities, including Person-Centred Counselling, Family Therapy, EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Celia now works primarily through a parts lens and believes the parts of ourselves invested in impulsive or compulsive eating behavior as a solution often have positive intentions and are unaware of the consequences. By getting to know these parts, we begin to build safety and trust within our internal system and heal the shame-based wounding and internal disconnection that so often drives our challenges with nourishment. This safety and trust also supports a return to the body, where our sense of belonging originates. By learning to reconnect with ourselves in this way, our body again becomes a place to live in and from, a place to call home.

Celia and I talk about a few things in this episode, including:

• The concept of nourishment and how she considers nourishment to be a two-part process: that of giving nourishment to our parts and that of our parts receiving it from Self
• How helpful IFS has been to her own system as well as to her clients in healing food and body concerns
• What Celia calls the "confusion around chaotic controlled eating"
• The need to become "comfortably uncomfortable" when we work toward change
• How to begin slowly providing for your parts’ needs

I truly enjoyed our conversation, and I hope that you do too! Head here to listen, and check out all of Celia's offerings here.

Where to find me:

Therapy website (for therapists and practitioners): drkimdaniels.com

Coaching website (for non-therapists): yourweightisnotyourworth.com

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