[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile? It's a question we all need to answer for ourselves. I'm Ramsay Zimmerman. As for me, it's building mind, body, and spirit wellness. Let's ponder the big questions together as we seek peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Nobody wants an eating disorder. And when you come down with an eating disorder, nobody's struggle is the same, and nobody's recovery is the same. So when you're working with eating disorders, and I'm a certified eating disorder specialist, and I've struggled with an eating disorder myself, then you know that everybody is unique, and there's not a cookie cutter approach to treating them. But you do want to keep in mind this whole mind, body, spirit thing. You do want to keep in mind that no matter how a person presents, it's going to affect all the three areas.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Hey, there. It's Ramsey here. That was Tracy Cannella. Tracy is a licensed mental health counselor with a certification as an eating disorders specialist supervisor. She helps people connect with body, mind, and spirit to help them heal from potentially life threatening conditions that can happen when people have disordered relationships with food, eating, and body image. As a student of holistic health and nutritional therapy, I felt it was important to begin learning about disordered eating. Whether you're new to this or already knowledgeable, whether you struggle with your relationship with food or whether you see this in a loved one, I hope you'll learn as much as I did. Let's begin.
Hey, Tracy. How you doing today?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Ramsay? It's great to be here, and I am doing fine. It's a beautiful day, what they say in the northwest.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, it is. And we had a nice summer. I guess I'm ready for fall. Like, I could use a few more weeks of sun, but, you know, close enough.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Yeah. But fall is definitely upon us. I can feel the change, and it's nice because it's sunny, and so, yes, I'm doing great. Weather is good, and it's good to talk to you, for sure.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Fantastic. Hey, yeah, no, thanks for. Thanks for coming on the podcast today.
You are a licensed mental health counselor, and the name of your practice is Lokahi counseling. How'd I do? Was that close?
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Lokahi. Lokahi counseling. And that is the name of my counseling practice here in Alaska.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: So what is that? What is the significance of the name? What does it mean? What is that all about?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Well, it's interesting because I started my counseling practice in 2009, shortly after my grandmother's death, and there was a little bit of money that she left for me. Not a lot. But I thought, you know, if I start a business in the name of my grandmother in a hawaiian name, I mean, how could it go wrong, right? Because she was three quarters hawaiian, and that's pretty rare. So I am actually a quarter hawaiian myself. And I don't know how I stumbled upon this word lokahi, but it means harmony, unity, and agreement. And that is why I named my business Lokahi. Counseling is because I always wanted to help people get to harmony, unity, and agreement. And that is what that word means. So I took it up, and my grandmother's energy has been with me, I think, ever since. So there's some. There's some spirit stuff for you, even though even right out of the gate before we start talking about mind, body, and spirit. Right.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: No, that is great. That is great. And it feels like kind of, in many ways, the opposite of chaos. And of course, youre video podcast, which you publish on YouTube, is called the Chaos.
So I'm curious, and continuing on that theme, what chaos are you referring to, and how does your work and your podcast seek to calm the chaos?
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Good question. Yeah. So I started that podcast back in 2019 when I was struggling with a lot of clients needing help, and they were coming to me for help, and I didn't know where to turn them to because I was completely full in my practice. So I thought, I've always kind of wanted to do a podcast. Most of my clients that came to me for help had anxiety and depression and some eating disorders, and I wasn't turning the eating disorders away, but the standard anxiety and depression that could be possibly helped by self, some self help skills and tools. I thought, you know, why don't I just put some stuff out there for free on the Internet in a podcast so that they could receive self help while they're looking for another counselor, because, of course, I couldn't take them on. Times have changed since then, and I am still taking new clients now, but back then, it was really super busy, and that's why I started the podcast. And calming the chaos is usually because the mixed anxiety and depression causes a lot of chaos with people. And that was what I was seeing at the time before the pandemic come into my office. So that's what it was. That's how I. How calming the Chaos podcast was born.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Well, this podcast that I have is. Is called what's worthwhile. And I've been asking myself that question this year, and I ask that question of my guests, either directly or implicitly I suppose.
And I was doing that because I was really looking to make a life change, a professional life change.
And I kind of, I arrived at an answer, so that felt good.
And the answer for me about what's worthwhile is building mind, body and spirit wellness, doing that in myself, for myself, but also beginning to work with people to do that.
And it sounds like, you know, our efforts are pretty similar. Would you say you think there's some overlap there?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: I think so. You know, I've always had this work with clients in my private practice of mind body techniques that I use, and with calming the Chaos podcast as well. I've had a lot of people like you who are people who are health coaches or certified nutritionists or people who like using the mind and body. So it's really been a big theme for me. And you really have to incorporate some of the spirit stuff, too. So some of the people who I've interviewed on calming the chaos have been life coaches, but they've got this spiritual aspect to them as well. So I think that's really super important for you to make that life transition, but then also to know that counselors out there are doing the same thing. They're trying to incorporate those three things and more as we do. Right. As we can. But I like that. I like. So the name of your podcast is what's worthwhile. I was going to name my podcast what really matters at first, and I have a little mini book up there on my bookshelf called what really matters. And I love that little book. And I decided on calming the chaos because it was just a little catchier, so.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we do overlap. I guess that's the long answer to your question.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: Well, there's a lot to. There's a lot to be said for alliteration. Right. Using the same letter over and over again.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Aren't we clever?
Well, so I'm a. I'm a full time student right now. I'm really getting into. I'm taking classes in holistic health and then also specifically in nutritional therapy.
So I've been learning a lot and sort of digging in on healthy lifestyle habits and particularly nutritional eating patterns and habits.
And you mentioned eating disorders a moment ago, and that, I think is particularly relevant. And we're going to spend some time today sort of digging in and talking through disordered eating and kind of how that relates to mind, body and spirit. I'd like for you to kind of begin to define for us what do you mean by disordered eating? Like, how does that tend to manifest. What does it look like? Kind of. What are we talking about? Kind of set the stage for us.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Sure. So there are now, there are basically four major eating disorders. I want to specify that there's four. There's. There's eating disorders in the DSM, which are the diagnostic and statistical manual of treating people.
Those are the disorders that are in there, the four major ones and two minor ones. And then there's outliers, there's disordered eating. So there's the eating disorder that you can be diagnosed with that fits in with the DSM. And then there's the other ones that are disordered. So they affect your life in some sort of way.
So in order to be diagnosed with an eating disorder, it has to be. It has to fit within the criteria of that book and that chapter of the book. Basically, there's anorexia nervosa, which is a restrictive eating disorder, and that has to do with low body weight and negative body image, just to be short. There's other criteria as well. There's bulimia nervosa, which doesn't have to have low body weight but has the same sort of, like, I don't have a really great body image and I'm either restricting or binging or purging, which is an undoing behavior that could be either over exercising or throwing up or doing other things. So there's that one. The third one is binge eating disorder, which is when you're eating more quantities of food than you would normally eat. One person would normally eat a normal sitting, but not doing anything to compensate for it. So the result of that sometimes will result in weight gain. And then the other one is avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, or arfid, which doesn't have anything to do with body image at all. But it's just like kind of what we used to refer to kids as picky eaters. They just would eat certain kind of foods. But what it does is it results in significant weight loss so that it medically affects the child. And it's usually, it usually is a parent in children that we can see. So those are the four main ones. And the outliers are going to be the otherwise specified eating disorders. And there's these other two that are, that kind of picks up the outliers, which are more disordered eating behaviors. And that means that they don't really fit into the criteria that we just mentioned on those four that I just mentioned, but that they are affecting the life in a certain way, that it either affects their work, their physical capabilities or their relationships. It affects their social skills. It'll affect school. So it'll affect one of the major life domains. So those other two not otherwise specified eating disorders and osfed, otherwise specified eating disorders, those are the other two outliers. So what you need to know is if your relationship with food is affecting your life and the life domains, then you may have disordered eating, or you could have an eating disorder. I hope that wasn't too much information in that small amount of time.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: No, that was great. That was perfect.
So would you say that disordered eating has profound impacts, then, on all three of these things, mind, body and spirit?
And would you also say that it's sort of caused by all three of these things, you know, in certain ways? Like, how is that all tied together in your mind?
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Well, what I'd like to say about that is that nobody wants an eating disorder. And when you come down with an eating disorder, nobody's struggle is the same, and it's not ever the same epigenetic sort of a thing that happens. Nobody's struggle is the same and nobody's recovery is the same. So when you're working with eating disorders, and I'm a certified eating disorder specialist, and I've struggled with an eating disorder myself, then you know that everybody is unique, and there's not a cookie cutter approach to treating them. But you do want to keep in mind this whole mind body spirit thing. You do want to keep in mind that no matter how a person presents, it's going to affect all the three areas.
And typically, you want to have a treatment team. So you want to have a psychotherapist like myself. You want to have a medical doctor at minimum, and a dietitian or a certified nutritionist, which I think you're studying to be that, and possibly psychiatry, if that's warranted. But you do want to have a treatment team when you are treating an eating disorder, disordered eating behaviors affect the lives, but they're not as severe. So I don't know that a treatment team is specifically necessary. But the mind and the body and the spirit are, are connected in all of these ways with any of the people struggling with food, eating and body image.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Well, even though they're connected, why don't we break them apart just for the sake of talking? So why don't we start with the mind?
How does disordered eating affect one's mind? How is it driven by one's thoughts?
How can it be improved by the mind?
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And the way that we're typically trained to treat eating disorders is looking at the body first. But I will be happy to go into the mind. But really, what we. I can just really briefly look at the body because the body is really. Go ahead.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: And you can just do the body first. We'll get to the mind second. Do what makes more sense.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Body does come into the picture because not just because people have body image. They look in the mirror and they see something they don't like and they want to change it. So they do a behavior mentally. So that's the, that's the best example I can give right there. They'll see the body in the mirror. They will have some sort of mental process. That's the mind, and they will do a behavior that will hopefully, in their minds, make their body into something that they want it to look like. So that's the body image part. And the actual physical body can be affected by that. Because what happens is if you start to, for example, restrict your food intake, your physical health and well being, you know, if they do lab tests on you, you may be anemic, you may be nutritionally deficient.
There could be things that people struggle with as far as organ damage. There could be delayed gastric emptying, all these things that happen when you mess around with your appetite and eating. Right. So there's the body image part of it, and then there's also the actual physical body. Plus, we think about blood sugar levels and balancing blood sugar is so important to have energy throughout the day, strength and energy to do what you want to do. It affects the body and. Yeah, so we always want to make sure that if we get somebody in for an eating disorder or disordered eating behavior, that we have them checked out by a physician and get lab tests done and have all of the tests done to make sure that they're okay physically. And we then go into the mind part of it, which, you know, usually is done in the same session as well. Right. I'll say, all right, when's the last time you had labs done? What, what is your general health and well being? Do you have the strength and energy to go about your daily routines? And that's kind of the body part. And then we'll go into the mind part, which is the, typically, it will be negative thoughts about yourself, or a person might be doing comparisons between their body and another person's body. They may just have general anxiety or social anxiety that's really getting to them or a situation that's causing them anxiety or depression. Like, even something that happens in the family could trigger them to say, you know what? I don't have any control in my life at all. This is one of the things I can do to take control of my life, which is my eating. I can control what goes into me, what comes. Comes out of me. I can control that peace when everything else in my life is falling apart. And so that's how the thinking kind of goes with eating disorder. And then when you think about this whole thing about fearing gaining weight or if there is a weight gain, fearing what people are thinking, that's all psychological and in the mind. And then there's this thing called perfectionism, where we just want to do everything perfectly and do everything, everything right. And that comes up a lot, as well as low self esteem comes up almost with every eating disorder or disordered eating behavior. You see is this lack of self esteem, low self esteem and perfectionism and thinking, I have to do it right or else. And the eating disorder becomes kind of this security blanket that people will use for coping with all of these underlying emotions that come with this whole mind and the thinking. I call it kind of monkey mind. There's some monkey mind going on there, and people can get really lost, entangled in the weeds with. With all of that mental stuff. So there was. There was body and mind there. What do you. What are your thoughts about that? That was a lot of information.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, as I listen to that, as I hear you describe it, it sounds like often issues with your eating like this is really based around an unmet desire either to, you know, either to take control or to change the way someone looks or to, you know, in response to some other things in their lives that are not going well, and then sort of translating that into affecting how they eat in order to sort of drive a conclusion or an outcome.
But it sounds like that outcome that they're trying to drive is frequently not successful or healthy.
It sort of goes too far or goes in the wrong direction, or it was sort of misguided in the first place.
Is that a fair characterization that the intentions are there for either self protection or self improvement, but they often.
It actually ends up kind of doing the opposite.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. That does happen. And really, what they are, are the disorder eating patterns. And. And everything that they do behaviorally is driven because they're having some emotional reaction to something. So the main emotions, being mad, sad, happy, ashamed, guilty, fearful, those are the major ones. There's a lot of other ones that can. Angry. They can fit into all of those categories or underneath, like, irritated is in the anger family, right? So you're struggling with some sort of emotion, and somewhere along the line, you try using food or you figure out that, hey, you know, eating a box of Oreos makes me feel better. So I think I'll do that. And. Or, hey, you know, skipping dessert or having smaller portions makes me feel better somehow. So I think I'm going to continue doing that. And then, yeah, like you said, the effects are not sometimes the most desired effects. Sometimes with the Oreo person, weight gain can happen, and with the person who starts decreasing their quantities could start to feel a sense of power and control that is addictive and continues on and on until they're in a hospital and severely underweight. It just depends on the person. Like I said before, we're all different, and we all of the. The people who present have different presentations and struggles and recoveries. So, yes, that is completely correct.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: And to transition into spirit, it would seem to me that a connection to the spirit, sort of a higher belief in something bigger than oneself and a belief that. That they are loved by a higher power.
Those sound like things that might help in a situation like this or that are perhaps not being found. But what kind of spiritual connections do you see? Do you encourage, do you encounter with these issues?
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was actually educated at Chapman University back when it was Chapman, then it turned to Brandman. Now it's University of Massachusetts. I don't know what it'll be tomorrow, but there it is. That's where I was educated, and it's a christian college. And we were encouraged to talk to our clients about spirituality and to explore, because it is a life domain when you think about it. So there's this, the physical self, there's the social self, there's the family self, there's the working self, there's the school going self, and there's the spiritual self. Right. There's other kind of selves. Right. But. So we were always encouraged to explore that with people and ask some questions, just like we would about anything else and not avoid it. So it does come up in therapy, usually in the intake session. And what I start with is, well, so do you actually have a belief in a spirituality or a higher power or God? It doesn't have to be. It could be your oak tree outside of your window. It could be that seagull that's just flying by. It could be just nature in general, whatever it is. Do you believe that there is an order to these things? Which kind of goes back to my podcast, the opposite of chaos is order. And is there an order to things that, you know, when you can't control your life? Is somebody else in charge? Do you believe in angels? Do you believe in signs from the universe? Do you believe that the universe has your back? You know, so we do try and ask these questions and have people to reflect on their struggles and, and really think about even the thoughts about themselves, like I told you earlier, with the mind, these negative thoughts about themselves. Well, so who are you? How were you beautifully and wonderfully made? You know, to, and that is a Bible quote. You are beautifully and wonderfully made, and yet people don't seem to think so. So how we can get a person to even believe that who they are, as someone who is beautifully and wonderfully made is a spiritual sort of conduct. You know, sort of, it is a sort of a context that they can look at themselves through that is way different than they would have if I hadn't drawn attention to that. But who you are, your values, your values can be very spiritual if you believe in integrity, honesty, these things that are taught in the Bible and are taught in ethics, that are taught in, you know, families that have family values, they can be very spiritual in nature, who you stand for and what you value and your whole spirit is your essence. So I usually like to try and tease out a really special part of them. If they're artistic or if they are curious or if they're sensitive. A lot of people are very compassionate who have eating disorders. A lot of people are very empathic and who you are inside in your spirit and your energy, you have a very calming energy, or you have an energy that's, that's, that can be quite feisty and that can serve you. And those are the things with the spirit that are really kind of fun to, to talk about. And they don't even know they're talking about spirituality, but this is the stuff about themselves.
So that's the one piece. The other piece is the connection to actual spirit and spirituality, like your beliefs. If they're religious beliefs, if they are just like the connection to that seagull that I mentioned earlier. And, yeah, if they actually have a spiritual base, it's going to be a lot easier for them to recover because they believe that they are trying to take control and power over the situation. And that if they could just sort of release that and let the universe, God or that seagull help them out, if they could just let go, that is a very spiritual concept as well. Like, let go and let God. Right. And so having faith having community, having resources, allowing help. Those things are all very spiritual things. And it takes a lot for people to master them because they're just so used to taking control themselves. But succumbing to a higher power is really what we'd like them to be able to do. I actually wrote a book, chapter in a book called Adolescent assuring the needs of emerging adults.
And they didn't want me to put higher power in there. But I did put spirituality in there. They did not want me to put the. The word higher power, which is interesting. I don't even remember how I rephrased it. But apparently that's not really cool to say if you're going to be writing in a textbook. But anyway, I would say higher power my own self.
Because if you don't feel like you have the power, then what does? What brings the buffalhead ducks back into the bud inlet every year? What turns the leaves different colors during the autumn? What makes it really hot during the summer? If we don't know there's something out there working there. Right.
And I would always challenge people to what is your part?
Believing that something else greater is in charge and that you can only do so much and then you have to let go. And that really is a big stress reliever and helps people to get through their issues and problems with food. And to see that, you know, there's something greater out there is a big comfort to them. So.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Well, I don't see how anyone could deny the concept of a higher power as you just defined it. You know, whether that higher power is God, as, you know, certain people believe, or whether it's the universe or whether it's nature, or whether it's, you know, the sun emitting radiation and the earth rotating and moving around it through space and having different seasons and diurnal cycles. You know, all of those things are higher powers.
A couple things you said really were interesting to me.
It seems like the idea of the higher power and discovering and sort of looking at how we fit into it are ways to kind of stand up to pressure, perhaps. Orlando, you know, there's so much kind of influence in the world and from society.
There's things like, you know, traditional ideas about beauty and pressure to look a certain way and to, you know, be a certain shape.
And, you know, those things, I think, are often.
It would seem to me that those are often driving people's motivations that then get sort of misdirected, as you described it. So it seems like those things would be helpful with a spiritual perspective.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: If you believe that somebody has your back, whether it be the universe, God, or whatever sort of higher power that you would want to imagine, then it does seem a little bit more insignificant that you're worried about your, you know, how you're going to appear to other people. Yeah. Because you're more in tune with who you are spiritually, who you are, really, and what your real energy and your essence is. So if you could focus that concern from the outward appearance to the inward spirituality, then that does help a lot, because then they're not trying to control what they're eating so much or being out of control with what they're eating. And they're not going to these two extremes, but what they're doing is they are consulting maybe their intuition or spirit or essence when we decide what we want to eat and when is a good time to eat, and when we look at our bodies in the mirror, not being so critical, but being more self compassionate and loving to ourselves and being understanding and forgiving to our own bodies and knowing that our bodies will change. It's more of a flexible thinking type of an attitude that you want to help them to adopt. And spirituality is really helpful in order to get people to be more flexible in their thinking.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, as we're sitting here talking, I realize that I don't myself personally have experience with the kind of eating disorders that we're talking about. It's not something that I really understand, and I hope I'm not coming across to those listening as being really clinical or being really clueless.
But you mentioned that you have some experience yourself. Would you like to share a little bit about that? And how has that sort of affected you? And then how did that kind of thereby affect your sort of decision to help others with those issues?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: Well, when I was 16 years old, I had a pretty. Well, my mom probably wouldn't agree with this, but it, I thought it was a pretty bad case of acne. And so I had heard that cutting sugar out of your diet and chocolate and all of these things, these like what they call junk foods, like potato chips and chocolate and sugar were the main ones that they could help you clear up your skin. And so I started restricting my eating because I wanted to clear up my acne. And so I was about 15 years old when that happened, and I was normal weight, but, and I've always been on the thin side. So what happened was, is I had sort of this, I don't know, maybe ten pound weight loss. And it was at just at a certain time in my life, where things felt really out of control. And when I saw the numbers on the scale go down, because I noticed that my clothes were fitting a little bit differently and my skin was clearing up, but I didn't know if it was because of. I put oatmeal on my face, too. I tried everything to try and clear up my acne, but anyway, I just said I felt this sense of control and power that I really was. It was really comforting to me. And when everything else was going astray in my life, it seemed like I was doing really well in school. I'd always done well school and academically, but that I was like, wow, I could do that with my own body. And it just continued to go further and further until my energy started to be really bad. And we didn't have really good medical care. We were pretty poor when I was growing up. But my mom did spend a day to take me into the doctor, and the doctor did diagnose me with anorexia because I had lost a significant amount of body weight. And for my size and developmental curvature, I was way down on the, on the growth charts. So when he did, it was in a time where Karen Carpenter had just died from anorexia. That was back in the early eighties, and not a lot of information or education was known about it. And my mom was really upset, and I was like, wow, I don't look like those pictures in that book. You know, I wasn't that bad.
But, you know, we started us on the awareness track, and I ended up struggling until my early twenties, when I ended up thinking, you know what? I got to get out of my environment. So I moved from California to grants pass. I had a boyfriend at the time who lived there. His family was really great. They're a christian family. They actually really spoke. The whole lifestyle evangelism thing was really big with them. They didn't really talk about the Bible or Christianity outwardly, although they did witness to me sometimes, but they were really low key about it and everything. And I remember there was this. So I ended up thinking, wow, I really would like to move to a simpler place. From the Bay area in California to grants Pass, Oregon, which is pretty much a retirement community, but I wanted to live in a simpler place. And so I moved up there and stayed at this hotel for a little bit until I got a job, and I got a little studio apartment of my own and stuff. And I remember one day we were water skiing. It was the 4 July, and we were water skiing.
And I remember maybe just a voice saying, like, why not? Like, why not just give it a try? Why not just dive in and just, like, believe?
And I said, okay. And that's the day I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And that was back in 1985. So it's kind of interesting because 4 July is Independence Day, and for me, it was dependence Day a little bit. I depended on a higher power. It's always been a very special day for me in my life.
You know, it's. I was able to see a christian counselor who worked on a sliding fee scale, and my eating disorder began to clear up. And I would like to say that everything was happily ever after. But, you know, there was. There was a relapse that happened in my forties, but aside from that, that was in graduate school, which was extra embarrassing, because here I am studying to be a psychotherapist, and I go through this. This eating disorder relapsed pretty much in front of everybody. And I think it was worse.
I lost a lot more weight in my forties than I did when I was younger, so it was pretty embarrassing. But I think the relapse taught me something, too. It was for a shorter, more intense period of time. So really, I've had anorexia twice.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: Well, and I'm sure that being in graduate school was very stressful. It's always stressful, right. To do that. And I imagine that had a lot to do with, you know, the relapse.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Well, I can tell you where the relapse came from, is I came from the Evergreen State College, which they didn't have any grades, and to Chapman University, where they started giving grades. And we took our first test in my first class that I was supposed to be legitimate. I had to take a bunch of prerequisites. But there was this legit, first legitimate class, and I happen to see the person, her test score sitting next to me. I think there was like a ten. You should get a ten out of ten. That would be the perfect score. I got a six, she got a seven. And that somehow that triggered me into, you are not okay.
You should do a lot better. Like just all this negative self talk. And then it had me. It's like a behavioral repertoire. There's this book on the shelf that I've used before. I'm just going to pick it up and use it again. And I knew I was using it. This was the difference. I knew I was using it, and I even told one of my colleagues, I know I'm going back into this, but this is the reason why I'm going to figure out how to cure it. But I was really fooling myself because when I went into it that second time, it was. Was deep and dark and intense, but I did get out of it, thankfully. So, anyway, that was how that relapsed. And I would have to say that spirituality really did play a big part in there because I had been pretty solid in my faith by that time, because I had been a Christian for a couple of decades at that point, and being able to just say, listen, Tracy, you know, God wants you to live.
It was really powerful for me just to be able to say, all right, so you've got to eat. You got to eat. God wants you to live. You got to eat.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: That is an amazing testimony, Tracy.
So, full disclosure, you and I have known each other for a long time, and we were in a small group together, a christian small group together. And hearing that, I hope would give a lot of people some hope in terms of, I really do believe that the notion that God loves us, God cares about us, and even when we're in a dark place and it seems like things are not going our way and the world is not rooting for us, I think there's a lot of power to that idea that God is for us and that God does love us.
Do you find that your faith kind of plays into your practice, your counseling, and how you recognize things and how you interact with people? People don't. Clients, customers in any kind of business or any kind of service or any kind of counseling are not always going to believe the same way that we do. But do you find that your foundation of faith is helpful in interacting with people?
[00:40:55] Speaker B: I do. Personally. I can't, you know, tell them about who I am and what I believe in and all this other stuff, but sometimes they asked, but that's not, I just am there to explore their spirituality. But my own spiritual base is going to be. It's really helpful for me to go in to a session. I've got the art. I've got the archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel in my office, and I do use some kind of click. Now, it's not the office that you visited. Well, you did visit.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: Talk about a support team. You can't have a better support team than that.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: That's the four corners, baby. It's really there, man. There's Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel. They're all there, and they're all these white angels are in my office that I don't do. I should probably put them in the in person sessions office. But they're more for me, like, knowing that they're there and, and they, and some of the intentions that I said. And I will ask God to bless my clients and I will ask God to bless my work before I start my day. I will ask God to bless each one of my clients after I end my day. And I think that, that I also have a God box in my office. It's in, not in the one that I do regular therapy and it's in the telehealth office. But if somebody has a big need, I will, if I know they're a spiritual person and believe in God, I will ask them if they want me to me to put that in my God box. And I pray over that God box. And it's interesting to go through some of the requests and the prayers. There was one in particular that was answered in really severe case of eating disorders and didn't know if she was going to make it. And she ended up moving to Florida, getting a Disney princess wedding. And really it was a happily ever after thing. And I had put her name in that goddess box as well. And so I even have here in my telehealth office a God box that has a picture of Jesus on it. And Jesus has a, he has a brick in his hand, because what he's doing in the regular picture is he's handing it to a man. And it says, God loves to help you out in your life. And so that's my God box here in my office. And I love, always love that picture of Jesus handing, just patiently handing the guy a brick. You know, I'm here to help you. I love helping.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: So if someone is, if someone is listening today and it's occurring to them, oh, boy, this sounds too much like me, and maybe they're realizing something. What would you say to them? What should they do? What advice would you have for them?
[00:43:49] Speaker B: One of the things that I would suggest is going to the National Eating Disorders association website. It's NEDA, or nationaleatingdisorders.com. and that has a bunch of tools, tips, advice, and also referral sources. And finding somebody who can do a free evaluation and treatment planning session, whether it be myself or. We have, in this area in Washington state, we have the Emily program, we have center for Discovery, we have eating Recovery Center, Seattle Children's Hospital, and others that can do a free eating disorder evaluation. You can sometimes do them over the phone. And if you're afraid you may have an eating disorder and you don't want to talk to someone, go to the National Eating Disorders association website, they have some questionnaires you can fill out a, or you could actually call one of those, those places that I mentioned. There's a lot of other treatment facilities as well around the United States that would be willing to do free evaluations and treatment planning for you. And I wanted to just say a quick word about parents out there who think they have a child who might have an eating disorder. I do coaching, parent coaching as well. So if your child, you think your child might have an eating disorder and you're freaking out and, or if the child has been diagnosed and you're freaking out, then please give me an email, because I love doing that. I love being able to provide resources to parents, especially with teens who have problems with food and eating, and steer them in the right direction, insurance wise, treatment wise, and just be able to help them with their general mental health while they're going through their own children or their own child struggling with, with food.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: Good, good. That's helpful.
So what else, what else are you sort of focused on these days? What are you excited about? What have you got coming up on your podcast? Like, what else would, what else should we add? We've had some, some significant heavy topics, but what else, what else is coming up for you? You?
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Well, podcast is all over the place, but I'm focusing on mainly what the problems are that are facing Americans. And hopefully to have you come on and be a guest will be really great. Yeah, I got a list for you as far as like, maybe we can talk some politics around political time. And then, you know, I don't know when you're going to air this, but I usually air an eating podcast episode that's geared toward eating and eating disorders around the holidays because it becomes particularly difficult to manage food after Halloween. Halloween is usually what triggers it, because all the sugar and stuff like that, you know, you start eating your kids Halloween candy and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden you're eyeing these marshmallow treats at Target or whatever you're doing. And you name it, I've heard it. And usually around the holidays it gets pretty bad. And then around January, people will make those ghouls to be better, healthier and all that other stuff, right? So there's going to be, I hadn't.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: Even, I hadn't even thought about it, but this will be the first Halloween and then Thanksgiving since I started going into like, nutritional therapy and stuff. I'm just starting to think maybe Halloween's going to hit different this year for me.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: You might not be stealing that candy.
Yeah.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Or I was like, oh, here we go.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: Right, right. It's like, yeah, so it could, it could be because, yeah, you don't even have to have any kids at home. I guess both of your kids are in college, but you just go into a target and they're right there. It's like, there's the Halloween candy and it's there and you remember it, and.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: You'Re just like, we got neighbor kids. We got neighbor kids. So we need a bowl.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: You have to buy some.
That is super. Yeah, that's super true. So again, I, so there's that coming up, and I really don't know. Just keep doing the podcast for another season and keep doing my good stuff at my therapy practice. And as long as, as long as I got people wanting help, I'm going to be there to help them. And so that's pretty much how can.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: How should people best get a hold of you? How can people get in touch with you? Where should they go to find you?
[00:48:21] Speaker B: They can reach me through my website, www. Dot lokahi counseling.com. that's lokahicounseling.com. and you can also make a comment under one of my videos. So if you want to go to YouTube and it's all the chaos, you can look at some of my videos and make a comment underneath it. And I'm also on Instagram at calmingthechaos and also under Tracy Canela, which is my name.
But mainly, yeah, through my website and my email, you can contact me.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Well, Tracy Canela, thank you so much.
This was a really great time to talk to.
I learned a ton about all of this. It's not something that I sort of know deeply. But, you know, as I, this is important for me as I learn about holistic health and about nutrition. And, you know, I'm only coming at it from my own perspective. So this is really was a great way to expand my own horizons, my own perspectives, and it was just great catching up with you again and talking to you. Thank you so much for coming on today.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: All right, thanks, Ramsay. It's good catching up with you. Take care.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: Thank you for asking. What's worthwhile? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsay Zimmerman, and please provide your name and email to become a supporter. I'm asking for prayer, advice, feedback, and connections. The what's worthwhile podcast is on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon. You can also
[email protected]. thanks.
