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Breath Inside the Body: A Somatic Intervention for Disordered Eating

Address Underlying Trauma & Body Shame with a Breath-Based Exercise

Ann Saffi Biasetti, PhD, LCSWR, CIAYT

Regardless of where your clients fall on the disordered eating spectrum, they all share the same painful cyclical experience of unrelenting self-criticism, negative body image, unhealthy behavior, and shame. And while great strides have been made in ED treatment, the recovery rate is still only 50%.

How can you move clients forward when they’ve spent a lifetime viewing themselves as wrong, unlovable, and unworthy of getting better?

It can feel impossible to effectively treat a client who feels like they don’t deserve to live…

… but you can learn how to effectively assess, diagnose, and develop personalized treatment plans for them in a safe therapeutic environment. It IS possible to transform your client’s shame into strength.

Watch Ann Saffi Biasetti, Somatic Psychotherapist and ED specialist, for this demonstration of a simple somatic exercise that can help clients re-connect with their long-neglected bodies and even learn to embrace, befriend, and listen to their own internal wisdom.



Practice: Breath Inside The Body

  1. Close your eyes.

  2. Notice your natural breath moving in and out through your nose.

  3. Hold your hands facing palms up. As you inhale, the hands move up one moving up, and as you exhale they both turn down as you imagine pressing the air down slowly.

  4. Repeat several times, slowing down the pressing down of the hands.

  5. After a few rounds, let your hands rest into one another now and just feel this touch.

  6. With your next inhalation, take one hand and see if you can follow your breath by noticing where you feel the breath beginning in your body when you inhale. Place a hand to that area. Notice, with each breath, where you can feel your breath the most. Move the hand around to follow it and then just allow the hand to rise and fall with the breath. After a few rounds, do the same with your exhalation. Noticing, with touch, where you can feel your breath the most and just allow the hand to rise and fall with the breath.
Help Clients Break Free From Disordered Eating
CSTS Certification: Eating Disorders, Addictive Eating, Body Shame & More
Packed with practical, evidence-based interventions using somatic psychotherapy, self-compassion, and mindfulness, this course will help you treat eating disorders, disordered eating, and body shame. Earn up to 26.5 CE hours, be eligible for the CSTS certification, and best of all, the certification is FREE for one year! Transform your client’s shame into EMPOWERMENT!
Meet the Expert:
Ann Saffi Biasetti, PhD, LCSWR, CIAYT, is a psychotherapist, author and speaker with over 27 years of experience in the treatment of disordered eating. Currently in private practice in Saratoga Springs, NY, Dr. Biasetti is also the owner of an Embodied Life yoga therapy training center where she trains yoga teachers in the practice of restorative yoga and embodiment. A specialist in somatic psychotherapy and eating disorder recovery, Dr. Biasetti is the founder and creator of the Befriending Your Body Program (BFYB), an 8-week holistic program teaching the skills of embodiment and self-compassion for eating disorder recovery. Ann is a Certified Yoga Therapist (CIAYT) and a Certified Mindfulness and Self-Compassion teacher through the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (IMP) and the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program. A sought-after speaker and trainer, Ann has presented at national eating disorder conferences as well as in school systems educating mental health clinicians, teachers, and parents on assessment, interventions and eating disorder prevention. Her first book, Befriending Your Body: A Self-Compassionate Approach to Freeing Yourself from Disordered Eating (Shambhala, 2018) has received outstanding reviews from consumers and colleagues alike. Ann has been featured on several podcasts discussing eating disorder recovery, embodiment training and self-compassion skills, and she is an ongoing contributing author and featured presenter to Recovery Warriors, a top online eating disorder resource.

Learn more about their educational products, including upcoming live seminars, by clicking here.

Topic: Disordered Eating | Shame

Tags: Activity | Body | Breath | Somatic Interventions | Video

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