Complex Trauma, Self-Sabotage, Diet Culture, and Eating Disorder Recovery with Iris McAlpin

NARM Practitioner and coach Iris McAlpin specializes in eating disorder recovery, complex trauma, and self-sabotage. Iris also hosts a podcast called Pure Curiosity which seeks to facilitate nuanced conversations about the human experience and de-stigmatize mental health challenges. Iris shares that NARM has changed her life in being able to notice the ways that she puts pressure on herself and the ways that she tells herself that she ‘should’ be showing up in the world. Her intention for this episode is for listeners to also notice and be able to soften around the pressure that they place on themselves.  Sarah and Iris dive into how Iris began her work in eating disorder recovery, which began with her own healing and recovery from bulimia. Iris found that as she progressed in her recovery and was able to get control of the behaviors of her eating disorder, she began to turn her attention to her unresolved trauma, which was mostly relational in nature, that was at the root of the behaviors. NARM helped her to see this theme in a new way, as she came to understand that not only binging and purging, but “many other behaviors that we... throw under the umbrella of self-sabotage are really just coping tools,” for unhealed relational and attachment traumas. Iris takes listeners through a deeper look at the trauma of diet culture, in which clients deal with intense self loathing and self hatred, shame of their bodies and body image, and obsessive thinking about food. Iris acknowledges that doing this deeper level of work can feel really scary at times. She shares about her own experience of confronting her triggers, and how NARM has taught her to work with her fear by using curiosity to guide her. “I really see those triggers as an invitation to open.” This ability to see that nothing is ‘wrong’ with our survival styles, and instead look at our growing awareness of ourselves as an opportunity to learn and make different choices is central to the NARM process.    Contact: https://irismcalpin.com Instagram: @irismcalpin  Twitter: @irismcalpin    Bio: Iris McAlpin is a NARM Practitioner and coach specializing in eating disorder recovery, complex trauma and self-sabotage. She has both a private and group practice, and works with clients all over the world. Iris also has a podcast called Pure Curiosity, which seeks to facilitate nuanced conversations about the human experience and to destigmatize mental health challenges. To read the full show notes and discover more resources visit http://www.narmtraining.com/podcast *** NARM Level 2 Online Training begins January 2021. REGISTER NOW: https://narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma/level2/ *** NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute