Presented by Portia Allie-Turco, La Tasha Sullivan, & Tryphena Quaicoe

1.25 LMHC CEUs
1.25 NBCC CEUs

Black women’s battle to reclaim the damaging stereotypes about their womanhood, and to challenge the stigma of being perceived as angry, aggressive, emasculating, loud, and promiscuous resulted in the embodiment of the strong Black woman schema (Harris-Perry, 2011). This representation allowed Black women to showcase their enduring strength in the face of adversity and to persevere through the unbearable weight of trauma, and oppression.  Being strong is a protective factor that allowed Black women to survive the trauma of slavery, and ongoing systemic racism and oppression. However, even though being strong, allowed them to discredit these derogatory associations, and to promote a respectable, self-contained, and self-reliant femininity, this strength has contributed to emotional dysregulation and disordered eating that is silently killing Black women (Collins, 2000; Harris-Perry, 2011).  Since endorsing a strong Black identity is a protective factor against the pursuit for thinness, Black women typically have a positive body image even at larger sizes compared to women of other races. This has led traditional behavioral research to promote the idea that Black women are immune to eating disorders even when disordered eating patterns pose a detriment to their health and wellbeing.  The goal of this presentation is to explore disordered eating in Black women, by understanding how maladaptive eating patterns can be conceptualized, and assessed to create treatment strategies that addressed the unique needs of this population and mitigate the impact of this largely unrecognized issue.
This presentation will utilize an interactive lecture and group discussion to explore emerging strategies in the treatment of disordered eating. The merits of the Healthy At Every Size and Intuitive eating models will be incorporated to infuse social justice as foundational to the clinical treatment of eating disorders in Black women.

This workshop was originally presented at NYMHCA's 2022 Virtual Convention: Summer of CEUs, and was recorded for future on-demand use.