Break Free From Dieting OCD: Therapist Training Food Body Image Issues

1 Day LIVE Online Training

10/2/26 9:00a 4:00p EST

Why Do So Many Clients Stay Stuck with Food and Body Image Struggles?

Because

Dieting Behaviors Often

***Function Like* *OCD***

Break Free From Dieting OCD is a clinician training that teaches you how to treat chronic dieting, food anxiety, and body image distress using the Dieting OCD Framework—integrating ERP, Intuitive Eating, and a Systemic Understanding of diet culture and stress.

LIVE 1 DAY TRAINING

October 2, 2026 9:00a - 4:00p EST

THIS TRAINING IS FOR:

~THERAPISTS ~SOCIAL WORKERS

~PSYCHOLOGISTS ~MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS

~COUNSELORS ~EATING DISORDER CLINICIANS

~DIETITIANS WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH

So, Why Are Clients STILL So Stuck with Food?

Many clients come to therapy exhausted by:

• chronic dieting
• rigid food rules
• binge–restrict cycles
• constant body checking
• fear of weight gain

They often have insight.
They understand the patterns.
They want change.

Yet despite this, the cycle continues.

Clients may temporarily improve—only to find themselves pulled back into the same patterns of control, anxiety, and preoccupation with food and their bodies.

So, Why Are Clients STILL So Stuck with Food?

Many clients come to therapy exhausted by:

• chronic dieting
• rigid food rules
• binge–restrict cycles
• constant body checking
• fear of weight gain

They often have insight.
They understand the patterns.
They want change.

Yet despite this, the cycle continues.

Clients may temporarily improve—only to find themselves pulled back into the same patterns of control, anxiety, and preoccupation with food and their bodies.

What If We’ve Been Misunderstanding the Problem?

Food and body image struggles are often treated as issues of:

• eating behavior
• distorted thinking
• lack of control

But for many clients, these struggles are not just about food.

They are driven by an underlying pattern that is often overlooked:

An anxiety-driven cycle of obsession and control.

Clients experience intrusive thoughts about food, weight, and their bodies—followed by an urgent need to reduce that distress through control.

This pattern closely mirrors the obsession–compulsion cycle seen in OCD.

At the same time, these behaviors don’t exist in a vacuum.

They are reinforced by a broader system—and often serve a deeper function.

What If We’ve Been Misunderstanding the Problem?

Food and body image struggles are often treated as issues of:

• eating behavior
• distorted thinking
• lack of control

But for many clients, these struggles are not just about food.

They are driven by an underlying pattern that is often overlooked:

An anxiety-driven cycle of obsession and control.

Clients experience intrusive thoughts about food, weight, and their bodies—followed by an urgent need to reduce that distress through control.

This pattern closely mirrors the obsession–compulsion cycle seen in OCD.

At the same time, these behaviors don’t exist in a vacuum.

They are reinforced by a broader system—and often serve a deeper function.

"Amazing workshop. Wonderful presenter; very personable and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend her workshop to others!"

-Former Student

A More Complete Understanding

____________________________

Food Struggles Are Maintained at Three Levels. To create meaningful change, clinicians need to understand that dieting behaviors are not random--they are maintained by multiple interacting forces:

1. The OCD Pattern (How the Cycle Works)

Clients become caught in a loop of:

• intrusive food and body thoughts
• rising anxiety
• compulsive attempts to regain control through dieting behaviors

These behaviors reduce anxiety in the short term—but strengthen the cycle over time.

2. Dieting as a Coping Strategy (Why the Behavior Persists)

For many clients, dieting is not just about weight.

It becomes a way to:

• manage stress
• create a sense of control
• reduce emotional discomfort
• cope with uncertainty

Over time, food and body control become a primary way of coping with life itself.

3. The Systemic Influence of Diet Culture (Why It Feels So Compelling)

Clients are also operating within a system that:

• reinforces fear of weight gain
• promotes rigid food rules
• equates body size with worth
• normalizes chronic dieting

This makes the cycle feel not only necessary—but morally right or expected.

The Result

Life gradually becomes narrowed around food, body, and control.

A Shift in Treatment

This Approach Moves Beyond

Controlling Food
"Fixing" Eating Behaviors
or Relying on Willpower

And Instead Focuses On

Reducing Anxiety
Expanding Coping
Helping Clients Re-engage with a Fuller Life

When you enroll in Break Free From Dieting OCD you will learn...

The Dieting OCD Framework

The Dieting OCD Framework is a structured clinical model that addresses the problem at all three levels. Rather than focusing only on eating behaviors, this framework helps clinicians intervene where the cycle is actually maintained.

This Approach Integrates:

1. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

To help clients interrupt the obsession–compulsion cycle and reduce food-related anxiety.

2. Intuitive Eating

To rebuild trust with hunger, fullness, and body signals to direct what to eat, supporting a more flexible relationship with food.

3. Systemic and Coping Awareness

To help clients understand:

how diet culture influences their beliefs and behaviors
how dieting has functioned as a coping strategy
and how to develop more adaptive ways of responding to stress

"This was one of the best trainings I've done. Shelby was so well informed and engaging!"

-Former Student

In This Training, You Will Learn How To:

✔ Identify Dieting OCD patterns in real client presentations

✔ Apply Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to food and body-related fears

✔ Interrupt compulsive dieting behaviors without increasing distress

✔ Integrate Intuitive Eating within an anxiety-treatment framework

✔ Recognize when dieting is functioning as a coping strategy for life stress

✔ Help clients build alternative coping strategies that reduce reliance on control

✔ Address the impact of diet culture on client beliefs and behaviors

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Check Out What People Are Saying!

________________________________

“Excellent presentation!! Best one yet that I’ve attended. Shelby was very likable, approachable, and genuine. I really appreciated how she took the time to address each comment and question and that she shared personal experience. The way she engaged the group was helpful and kept my attention the whole day. Thank you!”

- Former Student

"This was one of the best trainings I've done. Shelby was so well informed and engaging!"

-Former Student

"This training might be my favorite to date in two years of being employed here!”

- Former Student

6 Contact Hours

1 Day LIVE Online

Break Free From Dieting OCD

$249.99* Value

Just $199.99 Today!

October 2, 2026

9:00 am to 4:00 pm EST

This course is designed for:

• therapists
• psychologists
• social workers
• marriage and family therapists
• counselors
• eating disorder clinicians
• dietitians working in mental health

Especially helpful for clinicians working with:

• chronic dieting
• disordered eating
• food anxiety
• body image distress
• binge–restrict cycles
• weight preoccupation

This course is designed for:

• therapists
• psychologists
• social workers
• marriage and family therapists
• counselors
• eating disorder clinicians
• dietitians working in mental health

Especially helpful for clinicians working with:

• chronic dieting
• disordered eating
• food anxiety
• body image distress
• binge–restrict cycles
• weight preoccupation

A New Way of Working With Food and Body Image Struggles

Clinicians who complete this training will leave with:

✔ A clear and integrated framework for understanding complex food and body issues

✔ Practical tools to interrupt the dieting OCD cycle

✔ Strategies to help clients reduce anxiety and compulsive behaviors

✔ A deeper ability to address the role of stress, coping, and systemic influence

Supporting Clients in a Broader Transformation

Rather than helping clients simply manage food behaviors, this approach supports them in:

✔ Developing more flexible and effective ways of coping with life stress

✔ Reducing preoccupation with food and body

✔ Reconnecting with values, relationships, and meaningful activities

✔ Expanding from a narrow life focus → to a whole life focus

The Bigger Shift

Clients move from:

control, anxiety, and preoccupation

→ toward

flexibility, engagement, and a more fully lived life

“Shelby is a warm, caring and supportive individual. Her incredible ability to connect with and guide people towards health is matched by her incredible depth of knowledge. Each time I meet with Shelby, I walk away feeling uplifted and more centered in myself. I trust fully in her ability to help couples and individuals and would recommend her with out hesitation!”

-Sarah Maurer, LMFT

Meet the Instructor

Shelby Levesque, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20 years of experience in clinical practice, seeing clients out of her private practice on the coast Southern of Maine.

Shelby is also the founder and CEO of Connections Rising, LLC, a company she built that is dedicated to advancing social, emotional, and mental mastery. Through this work, she delivers clinical trainings for continuing education and professional development for clinicians and organizations. Connections Rising, LLC also provides personal development education and coaching for individuals, couples, and non-clinical professionals so that all people can have access to the same knowledge and expertise to achieve their own personal mental emotional mastery.

Shelby is also the creator of the Dieting OCD Framework, developed through years of clinical work with clients struggling with chronic dieting, food anxiety, and body image concerns.

Her work surrounding food and body image is informed by her own extensive clinical experience, research, education, as well as her own personal struggles with food, weight and body image in years past. This all led to a deep commitment to understanding what creates meaningful and lasting change in these areas.

Shelby is passionate about equipping clinicians with practical, applicable tools to address food and body image concerns at their root—so clients can experience greater flexibility, reduced preoccupation, and more fully engaged, and empowered lives.

Her work is grounded in a simple goal: helping people spend less time thinking about food and their bodies—and more time living their lives.

Meet the Instructor

Shelby Levesque, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20 years of experience in clinical practice, seeing clients out of her private practice on the coast Southern of Maine.

Shelby is also the creator of the Dieting OCD Framework, developed through years of clinical work with clients struggling with chronic dieting, food anxiety, and body image concerns.

Her work is grounded in a simple goal: helping people spend less time thinking about food and their bodies—and more time living their lives.

"When you meet Shelby, it is immediately evident how much of her heart and soul go into her work. Her passion is to help people understand and improve themselves and their relationships. She is a dedicated and committed Coach and Therapist. I would highly recommend her program!"

Tina Zorger, Psy.D.