The Impact of Trauma on Food and Body Concerns, with Cinna Holsclaw

Trigger warning: on this episode, we're talking about trauma and how traumatic experiences can impact your relationship with food and your body. No, my guest and I don't get into too many details, but we do mention abuse. So if you're not up for this one, just take care of yourself and pass it by.

Trauma and eating disorders often go hand-in-hand. Indeed, research has suggested that up to 50% of those diagnosed with eating disorders meet the criteria of PTSD. So if we're going to talk about food and body concerns, we need to talk about trauma.

From an IFS perspective, it makes complete sense that some of your parts would use food to manage the impact of trauma. Providing traumatized parts with food is one way to comfort them. Food is also a great way to distract yourself and numb your system. And restricting food can be highly effective in distracting yourself and feeling a much-needed sense of control.

It also makes complete sense that your parts would develop negative feelings toward your body if you've experienced trauma--especially trauma on or about your body.

This is a topic that I really want to delve into, which is why I invited my colleague Cinna Holsclaw to join me in discussing it. Cinna is a licensed clinical social worker with a practice in Utah. She’s a certified level 2 trained IFS therapist who is also trained in EMDR and Brainspotting. Cinna specializes in PTSD and c-PTSD and is very much aware of the correlation between trauma and food and body concerns. She's also just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life, so I’m really excited to have her on.

The plan is for Cinna to come back on to talk about details related to trauma and eating concerns but in today’s episode, Cinna and I start with an overall discussion about trauma and how it relates to food and body concerns. We discuss:

What is c-PTSD
How parts use food in various ways to cope with trauma
How food physically impacts your system (i.e. why we turn to carbs for comfort!)
Epigenetics and legacy burdens

Again, this is just the beginning of this very important discussion so stay tuned for more. Take a listen!

Where to find Cinna:

Where to find me: