Feel the Fear: Integrating Exposure into Eating Disorder Therapy

Eating disorders fall under the category of “emotional disorders,” meaning that individuals who struggle often tend to avoid situations that bring up difficult or uncomfortable emotions. Because avoidance often serves as a maintaining factor for emotional disorders, it is essential to incorporate interventions that promote emotional approach rather than avoidance. Doing so can increase emotional tolerance and reduce reliance on eating disorder behaviors as coping strategies.

This workshop will examine the maintaining factors of eating disorders, identify how avoidance patterns manifest, and explore the core principles of exposure therapy. Participants will learn how to design and implement exposures that are creative, safe, and effective in promoting emotional flexibility and recovery. Attendees will also learn how to work alongside a multidisciplinary team and further clarify their role as a clinician, even without an eating disorder specialty. Eating disorders rarely exist alone, and so this workshop will also be useful for clinicians who have clients struggling with multiple comorbidities, such as anxiety, OCD, and trauma.

Objectives:

• Describe 5 common maintaining factors for eating disorders.
• Identify 3 different types of emotional avoidance and provide specific examples as they relate to folks struggling with eating disorders.
• Explain how to walk a client through an exposure hierarchy and plan for exposures.

3.5 CE Credits

Presenters:

Lacey Vogel, LMHC is a licensed mental health counselor with her own private practice, LV Mental Health Counseling LLC, where she treats clients residing in Massachusetts. Lacey graduated with her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, MO and earned her M.A. in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine from Boston University’s School of Medicine.

Lacey specializes in eating disorders, trauma and PTSD, anxiety disorders, with a special interest helping athletes struggling with disordered eating. From 2014-2024, she worked in all levels of eating disorder care before transitioning to outpatient care full-time. She has experience supervising, presenting at various conferences, and training staff and is also EMDR trained.

Angela Kaloudis, LMHC, PMH-C is a licensed mental health counselor and maintains a private practice for individuals remotely in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont, and in person in Greenlawn, NY. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Rhode Island and completed her Master’s in Mental Health Counseling at Boston University’s School of Medicine, where she later served as an adjunct professor. Angela specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, PTSD and trauma-related disorders, and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

She has extensive experience across all levels of eating disorder care including residential, partial hospitalization (PHP), intensive outpatient (IOP), and outpatient settings. For nearly a decade, Angela worked at The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders, where she provided direct clinical care, supervision, and training across Renfrew Center sites. She is also the co-author of The Renfrew Unified Treatment for Eating Disorders and Comorbidity: Therapist Guide and has presented widely on topics related to eating disorders and co-occurring disorders.