She is like me: a qualitative exploration of body image ideals and the young woman psychologist working with eating disorders

ABSTRACT

Objective

Women who are early career psychologists are likely to share a range of similarities with clients experiencing eating disorders including societal body image ideals and their own eating disorder history. While lived experience may strengthen their capacity to empathise with the client, it may also place the psychologist at risk of overidentification with the client if sufficient supports and training are not provided. This qualitative study explored the experiences of women who are early career psychologists working with eating disorders.

Method

Seven early career women psychologists working in Australia with clients experiencing eating disorders participated in semi-structured interviews in relation to the impact of body image ideals on their work and how they utilise supervision around this issue.

Results

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interview data revealed that several participants believed they had received inadequate training in preparing them to work with clients experiencing eating disorders. Though participants with lived experience believed their capacity for empathy was enhanced, findings indicated that similarities between clients and psychologists also created vulnerability to overidentification with the client, the triggering of their own body image issues, and experiences of shame in supervision and the workplace.

Conclusions

Training and supervision implications, and future research recommendations are discussed.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

1. Therapists with a personal eating disorder history are likely to choose to work with eating disorders, which can present both advantages and challenges in their work.

2. Young therapists often share a range of similarities with clients living with an eating disorder.

3. Trainee counsellors can experience shame about personal body image or eating disorder history which prevents them from disclosing in supervision.

What this topic adds:

1. Results suggest that some young women psychologists with their own eating disorder history or body image issues can be required to take on eating disorder heavy caseloads.

2. Though there are advantages in the development of empathy and the therapeutic relationship, these practitioners seem prone to overidentification with the client with eating disorders, boundary transgressions, and worsening of their own eating disorder symptoms.

3. Despite clinical supervision being the primary support to manage issues of overidentification, study participants with their own eating disorder history or significant body image issues tended not to disclose this in supervision when discussing eating disorder cases.

KEYWORDS:

• Early career psychologist
• early career therapist
• eating disorder
• supervision
• body image

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).