Adoption, Trauma in Infancy, and Eating Disorders

In healthcare, we know that the same set of symptoms can reflect different underlying causes. The more we understand the range of causality and underlying dynamics in eating disorders, the more we can offer truly individualized and effective care.

In previous episodes, we’ve discussed the role that trauma, complex trauma, dissociation, and genetics can play in the development of an eating disorder.

In this episode, our guest Rebecca Berg, talks about the link between eating disorders and adoption. She shares her story as an adoptee with an eating disorder history and challenges the misconception that adoption during infancy has less impact on a child. She also discusses preverbal trauma and how it can be addressed in the therapy setting which so often centers around recounting verbal memories.

Rebecca Berg, MS, RDN, is a registered dietitian, adoptee, and self-proclaimed neuroscience nerd. Based in Los Angeles, California, she is the owner of No Strings Nutrition, a weight-inclusive virtual nutrition therapy practice dedicated to the thoughtful treatment of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns.

Rebecca is committed to empowering her clients to notice and refute the influence of diet culture in their lives through relational nutrition counseling. She provides compassionate, realistic support and challenges the oppressive systemic forces that make being in a body difficult. She helps each client understand that their interactions with food, body, and movement are shaped by unique individual perspectives, sociocultural factors, and systems.

Rebecca’s professional background as an eating disorder specialist, combined with her lived experience as a domestic infant adoptee, has fueled her passion for helping clinicians and all members of the adoption constellation better understand this unique intersection.

More on Rebecca: https://www.nostringsnutrition.com/

More on Elka: https://cubacubcounseling.com/

Elka’s book, Binge Eating Demystified https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FD493WZ3