The Other Side Of The Plate

Episode 017
Voices of Hope: The Power of Parents in Recovery (with Kinsey Dalbec)
In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen sit down with Kinsey Dalbec, an eating disorder therapist at Equip who is also 13 years into her own recovery from anorexia nervosa. Kinsey shares the story of developing anorexia at 17, the crystal-ball moment in an adult treatment program that changed everything, and why her parents' refusal to back down was the single most important factor in her recovery. She and the hosts explore what leverage really means for parents of young adults, why the "once they turn 18, it's over" belief sells parents short, and how to set firm boundaries without damaging the relationship. Kinsey also describes what protecting recovery looks like more than a decade later and offers direct, practical encouragement to any caregiver feeling powerless.

00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer
01:03 Guest Introduction: Kinsey Dalbec
02:53 Kinsey's Story: From "Healthy Eating" to Anorexia
08:20 The Turning Point: A Crystal Ball in the Adult Program
10:48 What Helped Most: Parents Who Wouldn't Back Down
13:17 When Help Doesn't Feel Like Help
15:24 How Recovery Led to a Career in Eating Disorder Treatment
20:28 The Therapist She Needed but Never Had
22:46 The 18 Myth: Why Parents Still Matter for Young Adults
27:15 Redefining Leverage as an Act of Love
31:15 Empowering Parents to Trust Their Instincts
35:51 Unconditional Love Means Getting in the Trenches
39:09 Setting Boundaries Without Losing the Relationship
43:51 Protecting Recovery: The McDonald's Test
46:39 Spotting Sneaky Eating Disorder Behaviors
49:34 Final Words: Don't Sell Yourself Short

SUPPORT & RESOURCES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FEAST website:
https://feast-ed.org/
FEAST programs and services:
https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/
FEAST blog post:
https://feast-ed.org/dear-mom-and-dad-thank-you-for-saving-my-life/
FEAST Family Guide: https://feast-ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/FamilyGuide_UsingLeverage_2025_v2.2.pdf

Guest Bio: Kinsey Dalbec is an eating disorder therapist currently working at Equip who has also been in her own recovery from anorexia nervosa for 13 years. After developing anorexia at 17 years old, she received Family Based Treatment, which eventually led her to full recovery. She is now a married mother of two young children and uses her life experience and clinical expertise to help patients and families navigate their own treatment and recoveries.

Episode 016
Title: Treating to the Traits: An Introduction to Temperament- Based Treatment with Supports (TBT-S) (with Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck)
In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen sit down with Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck, clinical psychologist and co-developer of Temperament Based Treatment with Supports (TBT-S), to explore a model of eating disorder care built on neuroscience and personality research. Dr. Knatz Peck explains what TBT-S is, how specific temperament traits—like anxiety, perfectionism, and harm avoidance—are overrepresented in eating disorders, and why treating to the trait rather than against it changes everything. The conversation covers how parents can access TBT-S, what the five-day intensive format looks like, and why understanding the biology behind their child's behavior helps caregivers show up more effectively.
00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer
01:16 Guest Introduction: Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck
01:36 What Is TBT-S and Why It Was Developed
06:00 The "S" in TBT-S: Why Words and Supports Matter
08:22 What Temperament Actually Means
11:23 Temperament Traits Across Eating Disorder Subtypes
17:27 Traits as Gifts: Treat to the Trait
25:04 Honoring Traits Without Colluding with the Eating Disorder
30:06 How Environment Interacts with Traits
32:17 Why Parents Are the Primary Agent of Change
36:14 Neurobiological Empathy: What Parents Gain from TBT-S
38:33 How Families Access TBT-S: Intensives and Provider Training
43:58 Case Study: Finding Engagement After Years of Being Stuck
49:23 Three Practical Tips for Supports

SUPPORT & RESOURCES
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FEAST website:
https://feast-ed.org/
FEAST programs and services:
https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/
FEAST Blog Post-Laura Hill PhD:
https://feast-ed.org/how-temperament-influences-support-given-to-loved-ones-with-eating-disorders/
Bright Mind Therapy (Dr. Knatz Peck's clinic):
https://www.brightmindtherapy.com/
TBTS Institute:
https://tbtstraining.com
Guest Bio:
Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck is a clinical psychologist and the founder and clinical director of BrightMind Therapy. She is a practitioner-scientist trained in the UCSD Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry in child and adolescent mental health and evidence-based treatments for parents and youth. In addition to her role at BrightMind Therapy, Dr. Peck is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she directs an Intensive Family Treatment (IFT) program for adolescents and young adults with eating disorders and their families.
Dr. Peck is involved in clinical research underway at UCSD evaluating novel psychiatric treatments including psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and family-focused eating disorders treatment. She provides regular workshops and trainings around the world focused on parent training, family-based treatment, and eating disorders. Dr. Peck is passionate about high-impact treatments and working with youth, with a particular focus on adolescents. She is dedicated to ensuring that youth feel connected and safe while receiving high quality treatments that are rooted in science, adapted for age, family-involved, and last but not least, creative and fun!
Outside of her professional life, she enjoys being in nature, surfing, yoga, hiking, writing, and spending time with her young daughter and husband. Born and raised throughout Central and South America to American parents, Dr. Peck identifies as “third-culture” which she credits for the value she places on openness, flexibility, and appreciation for diversity of opinion.

Episode 015
Title: Facing the Toughest Moments in Eating Disorder Caregiving (with Dr. Erin Parks)
In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen sit down with Dr. Erin Parks, clinical psychologist and co-founder of Equip, to tackle the situations caregivers dread most: mealtime meltdowns, a child who seems to have stopped caring about everything, and the terrifying reality of self-harm and suicidality. Dr. Parks explains the neurobiology behind why consequences and rewards work differently in the eating disorder brain, and shares a vivid real-world example of how one family used that understanding to break through a months-long standoff. She also offers direct, compassionate guidance on how to talk openly about self-harm, when to involve emergency services, and how to protect your child while accepting the limits of your own control. Listeners will come away with practical tools for the hardest moments of caregiving and a reminder that imperfect support is still meaningful support.
00:00 Introduction, Disclaimer, and Content Warning
01:02 Guest Introduction: Dr. Erin Parks
04:40 When Meals Go Wrong: What to Do After You Snap
08:40 De-escalating in the Moment
11:35 Repairing After a Blow-Up
14:35 What Distress Tolerance Actually Means
23:48 Neurobiology 101: How the Eating Disorder Brain Processes Consequences and Rewards
30:19 The Shake Story: Finding the Key That Motivates Your Child
34:56 When Your Child Feels Nothing: Depression and Eating Disorders
39:22 Self-Harm and Suicidality: How to Keep the Conversation Open
47:53 Safety Planning and Imminent Risk
52:41 One Practical Tip: Choose One

SUPPORT & RESOURCES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FEAST website:
https://feast-ed.org/
FEAST programs and services:
https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/
FEAST webinar - How to Talk to Your Child When ED Has You Walking on Eggshells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6ibx-8YhWE
Brainstorms podcast episode:
https://brainstormsorg.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/episode-8-eating-disorder-interview-with-dr-erin-parks/

Guest Bio:
Dr. Erin Parks is a clinical psychologist and researcher who co-founded Equip in 2019. Equip is now the largest virtual eating disorder treatment program in the United States. As Chief Clinical Officer, she leads the clinical and research efforts that keep Equip's outcomes best in class. Before Equip, Dr. Parks was on the faculty at UC San Diego, where she treated patients across all levels of care for eating disorders. She earned her PhD from UC San Diego and completed her undergraduate work at Northwestern University.

Episode 014
Title: Voices of Hope: Untangling OCD and Anorexia (with Kyle King)
This episode is part of our Voices of Hope series. In these conversations, you'll hear from individuals who have walked through an eating disorder and come out on the other side. Our intention is to highlight that recovery is possible, relationships can survive, and even during the most challenging moments, hope is real.
In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen sit down with Kyle King, a second-year medical student at Yale and mental health advocate with lived experience of both OCD and anorexia nervosa. Kyle shares his journey from an OCD diagnosis at 12 to an eating disorder at 17, the ways anorexia drove him to lie to the people closest to him, what it was like to relapse in college and hide it from his parents, and how family-based treatment ultimately saved his life. He also offers a rare inside look at how OCD and eating disorders interact, why being male shaped his experience, and why he now dedicates his advocacy work to supporting caregivers.
00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer
01:22 Guest Introduction: Kyle King
02:34 Kyle's Lived Experience: From OCD to Anorexia
05:47 When ERP Didn't Work: The Limits of OCD-Only Treatment
07:15 Family-Based Treatment and Starting to Recover
08:06 The Lying Piece: What Parents Need to Know
09:30 Relapse in College: Fabricating Weights and Hiding
13:13 How Being Male Impacted the Eating Disorder Experience
17:09 Lying to Therapists and the Role of Pride
19:31 Why Kyle Fabricated His Weight: It Wasn't for Himself
21:05 How OCD and an Eating Disorder Interact
24:26 Should OCD and Eating Disorders Be Classified Differently?
28:06 Temperament, Brain Circuitry, and Environment
29:15 What Parents Did That Helped Most
32:40 How an Eating Disorder Affects the Whole Family
37:02 OCD Unfiltered: A Program Built for Parents
41:08 Why Kyle Shifted His Focus to Caregivers
44:06 The Power of Parental Vulnerability
46:51 From Lived Experience to Psychiatry
49:41 Hopes for the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment
SUPPORT & RESOURCES
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FEAST website:
https://feast-ed.org/
FEAST flyer:
https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/
Guest Bio:
Kyle King is a second-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine. More central to his identity, however, Kyle is a mental health advocate with lived experience of OCD and anorexia nervosa. He serves as a National Advocate with the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), is the founder and co-leader of the IOCDF's Young Adult Special Interest Group, and hosts the IOCDF Research Roundtable. In addition, Kyle works as a research assistant in the Yale OCD Clinic and is a frequent speaker at OCD conferences across the country. His primary interests include investigating novel treatments for psychiatric conditions, addressing inequities in access to mental health care, and exploring the complex overlaps between OCD and related conditions such as eating disorders.

Episode 013
Title: Voices of Hope: A Mother and Daughter Reflect on Their Eating Disorder Journey (with Alexa Cohen)
This episode is part of our Voices of Hope series. In these conversations, you’ll hear from individuals who have walked through an eating disorder and come out on the other side. Our intention is to highlight that recovery is possible, relationships can survive, and even during the most challenging moments, hope is real.
In this episode, Laura Cohen sits down with her daughter, Alexa Cohen, to talk openly about Alexa's eating disorder diagnosis at 16, the hard road through family-based treatment and higher levels of care, and what their relationship looks like on the other side. Alexa, now 22 and working in inpatient eating disorder care, shares her perspective from both sides of recovery.
00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer
01:02 Guest Introduction: Alexa Cohen
04:06 Life Before the Diagnosis: Ages 13–16
06:49 The Role of Lockdown, Social Media, and the ED Voice
10:02 How Laura First Learned Something Was Wrong
11:44 Starting FBT: Refeeding at Home During COVID
16:17 What FBT Felt Like from Alexa's Perspective
19:11 Why Giving In Was Never an Option
20:44 Finding the Right Treatment Team (and How Long It Took)
25:26 Deciding to Pursue a Higher Level of Care
32:00 College, Contracts, and Choosing Recovery
37:18 Alexa's Work in Eating Disorder Care Today
40:12 Advice for Caregivers Whose Kids Are in Treatment
45:49 What Alexa Would Tell Her 13-Year-Old Self
47:26 Advice to Caregivers: It Won't Ruin the Relationship

SUPPORT & RESOURCES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FEAST website:
https://feast-ed.org/

FEAST flyer:
https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/