Rachel Dash-Dougherty, better known as The Grounded Therapist, works with clients who struggle with disordered eating, perfectionism, and control when it comes to our food and our bodies. Today Rachel is here to address some of the myths and stigmas around mental health, help you understand where you are on the spectrum of how you relate to food and provide tips and guidelines to help you get a better foothold on life and your mental health. Gaining Awareness And Peace Whether you are working with a professional or trying to do this on your own, understanding how you interact with food and movement is the key to gaining awareness and peace. Instead of buying into diet culture, Rachel is here to help you work on your thoughts first, set boundaries and get a grip on your irrational thoughts.  Seeking help and changing the way you relate to food, diet, and movement is a brave thing, and with help of counselors like Rachel, you can tackle disordered eating, assert boundaries and look at your language around food to let go of perfectionism and control. Instead of beating yourself up, Rachel wants to help you be kind to yourself and shake those hilarious irrational thoughts out of your head for good. Do you feel as though you display some of the indicators that your relationship with self-worth, body image, and food needs a second look? Share how you are working to be kinder to yourself in the comments on the episode page.   In This Episode Addressing the stigma of medication and the shame around getting help (9:35) How to get yourself out of the self-generated pervasive perfectionism loop (15:00) Tips for nudging yourself towards the edge when the fear is overwhelming (22:20) Exploring disordered eating and how it relates to issues of control (34:10) Learn how EMDR can help you process your stuck and irrational beliefs (42:25)   Quotes “I put people back together so that they can go back out into the world and function.” (11:22) “The gray, which is my zone, that is where therapy happens is in the gray. You cant trap yourself like that because the world is not that simple of either its this or its this when there is so much in between.” (19:12) “You can think all day long, you can think horrible, violent scary thoughts. You can think wonderful rainbow unicorn fluffy thoughts, but none of them have any value or meaning unless you assign it to them.” (26:42) “It’s not giving up, it’s taking out a layer of suffering when you are already in pain.” (32:28) “That stuff is that person’s stuff, it is not your stuff. So if they are lost in their own disordered eating, if they are lost in their weight loss challenges or whatever is going on for them, that does not mean you have to take it on, you don’t have to believe the same thing other people believe.” (46:03) “You will get there faster, you will be less exhausted, you will accomplish that goal and you will enjoy the fruits of all that work you did because you were kind to yourself that whole time.” (55:08)   Links The Grounded Therapist Follow Rachel on Instagram Leave Steph a Voice Message Here Get the Made Strong + Core 4 Book Bundle Here Nutritional Therapy Association Website   Harder to Kill Radio is sponsored by the Nutritional Therapy Association. Registration is now open for the NTA’s November class. You can learn more and save your seat by clicking here (and don’t forget to mention my name on your application!) You can also try out their free 7-day course, Nutritional Therapy 101 by clicking here. Check out the full show notes here! Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes!