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Lauren Zaniboni, Psy.D., is a 2024 graduate of the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee:

  • Katherine Evarts, PsyD, Chairperson
  • Karen Meteyer, PhD, Committee Member
  • Jennifer Leslie, PsyD, Committee Member

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

4-2024

Abstract

The field of clinical psychology has long privileged cognitive and affective experience and information over that which is stored in, and communicated by, the body (Caldwell, 2018; Young, 2006). Despite the profound and complex web of interactions between mind and body in EDs, this subspecialty has been no exception. The need for improvements in eating disorder (ED) treatment outcomes is well documented and transtheoretically accepted. Current practice guidelines for the treatment of adult EDs recommend the utilization of cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal strategies to target problematic thinking and deficits in emotion regulation that are thought to fuel ED behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2023). While effective in some cases, these treatments fail to help a substantial number of patients and relapse rates among individuals who do respond are high (Berkman et al., 2007; Linardon et al., 2018; Murray et al., 2019; Tomba et al., 2019; van Hoeken & Hoek, 2020). It has been hypothesized that the utilization of techniques that help increase positive embodiment could augment current evidence-based treatments for EDs (Cook-Cottone, 2020; McBride & Kwee, 2018; Piran & Teall, 2012). There is theoretical and adjacent empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis; however, the relationship between embodiment and EDs has yet to be quantitatively explored. Utilizing the recently developed Experience of Embodiment Scale (EES; Piran et al. 2020), and the well-established and widely utilized Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, Short Form (EDE-QS; Gideon et al., 2016), the present study utilized quantitative, non-experimental, self-report survey research to explore the relationship between embodiment and ED symptomatology in 250 adults living in the United States. Findings suggest that there is a strong and significant relationship between disrupted embodiment and ED symptoms. Implications for clinical practice and ongoing treatment development and refinement efforts are discussed. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

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ORCID: 0009-0006-8474-0410

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