#78 - Beyond Shrinking & Drinking with Lael Atkinson

10/04/23 • 40 min

This week, we’re talking to Lael Atkinson (they/them), a certified professional recovery coach who works at the intersection of drinking and dieting. During their experience of parting ways with alcohol and then tackling a lifetime of dieting, disordered eating, and body shame, they found resources that addressed quitting drinking OR that addressed food and body image issues, yet could not find any sources that spoke to the intersection of the two. And in both their personal experience and the experience they saw with many of their clients, they found that the two do indeed frequently overlap. This led Lael to work with both folks who want to examine their relationship with alcohol and folks who want to divest from diet culture. They also created the Beyond Shrinking & Drinking course to address this intersection.
Lael hopes that whether it comes to questioning their drinking, or their participation in diet culture, that people know they can do it without labeling themselves, without judging themselves, and without it reaching a point of being “bad enough.” It’s more than enough to start from a place of asking if your life would be better without it.

We had an amazing conversation with Lael about...

their own journey with drinking & dieting, and how it led to the work they do today
the parallels between drinking & dieting (and why comparing booze to food is not helpful)
the parallels between drinking culture & diet culture
why some folks may experience food or body image issues when they quit drinking (and vice versa)
how they're working to fight against the shame & stigma of both drinking and dieting
and why this work is especially important within the Queer community.

You can connect with Lael on Instagram @beyondshrinkinganddrinking, learn how to work with them at LaelAtkinson.com, or join their online course at BeyondShrinkingAndDrinking.com!

Stay in touch with the pod on IG @satisfactionfactorpod!
And here's where you can continue to find us:
Sadie Simpson: www.sadiesimpson.com or IG @sadiemsimpson
Naomi Katz: www.happyshapes.co or IG @happyshapesnaomi

We had an amazing conversation with Lael about...

their own journey with drinking & dieting, and how it led to the work they do today
the parallels between drinking & dieting (and why comparing booze to food is not helpful)
the parallels between drinking culture & diet culture
why some folks may experience food or body image issues when they quit drinking (and vice versa)
how they're working to fight against the shame & stigma of both drinking and dieting
and why this work is especially important within the Queer community.

You can connect with Lael on Instagram @beyondshrinkinganddrinking, learn how to work with them at LaelAtkinson.com, or join their online course at BeyondShrinkingAndDrinking.com!

Previous Episode

#77 - Allow Ourselves to Re-Introduce Ourselves!

Next week will mark two years since we published the first episode of Satisfaction Factor!
In that first episode, we introduced ourselves, told you our origin stories, and generally gave you the low down on who we are, what we do, and what we believe in. So in this week's episode, we're celebrating our podcast-iversary by reintroducing ourselves! We're chatting all about what's changed for us in the past two years in life, business, podcasting, and everything in between.
Thanks to all our amazing listeners & guests for making these past two years so successful! We're so glad we get to keep sharing this space with you!

Next Episode

#79 - Viewing Diet Culture Through a Trauma-Informed Lens with Katie Kurtz

This week, we’re talking to Katie Kurtz, MSW LISW-S (she/her), a subject-matter expert and trainer who specializes in integrative and inclusive trauma-informed care. As a licensed social worker & certified coach, she has spent the last 15 years specializing in trauma-informed training and consultation across multiple disciplines and industries. She reimagines trauma-informed care as inclusive and accessible for all people and professions through her developed frameworks and methodologies. She has created an integrative trauma-informed care approach to train thousands of professionals in multiple industries across 6 continents. She brings a vast lens of integrative instruction to embody these skills across many client experiences. She believes in honoring the origins of the approach while ushering it into a future that is inclusive for all industries and most importantly, doable so people can apply it into everyday practice.
Katie is the author of the reflective space holding tool, the Contain Card Deck© and host of A Trauma-Informed Future Podcast. Additionally, she is the regional co-chair of the State of Ohio’s Trauma-Informed Care Collaborative, Subject Matter Expert with the Integrate Network, and is invited to guest teach in various professional settings nationally and abroad. Her leadership and work has been awarded and internationally recognized within both the social work and coaching fields.
We had an awesome conversation with Katie about...

what trauma is....and what it isn't
how diet culture itself can be source of trauma
why naming our experience as trauma can help us process it
what it means to be a trauma-informed provider & why it's so important for anyone who does work with or about bodies to practice through a trauma-informed lens
why boundary-setting is a trauma-informed practice
and so much more!

Connect with & learn more about Katie here: