Nicole McDermid is a Social Worker, Counsellor (Australian spelling) and an Eating Disorder Recovery Coach, with over ten years experience working in the mental health field. Not only does Nicole practice in the clinical sphere, she is also a speaker and a fat activist with a strong sense of social justice. She writes prolifically on issues such as weight stigma, size acceptance and eating disorder recovery across a number of different social media channels.
In all facets of her work, Nicole practices from, and is informed by a Health at Every Size and Non-Diet framework. She also has a lived experience of an eating disorder, whilst living in a larger body and believes that we simply do not see enough representation of ALL people, in ALL bodies across the current eating disorder recovery narrative. Nicole is a visionary as both a clinician and an activist in the Eating Disorder sphere, drawing on both her professional expertise and lived experience to inform her practice.
Nicole has had the recent honor of presenting at the Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders in Melbourne, Australia on the issue of Weight Stigma in Eating Disorder treatment. This has been the pinnacle of Nicole’s career thus far, and she hopes that this is the start of significant systemic shifts across this space. We discuss her experiences of speaking her truth in this setting and the effect it's had on her morale and strength in continuing forward to spread awareness and solutions for Nicole came on the podcast to discuss privilege and why it matters when we're talking about health, nutrition, social justice and more. We talk about trends on social media and ideas for how each of us can explore our own privilege and how to move forward with awareness and our eyes wide open. Links mentioned: - Nicole's website: https://www.theeatingdisordercenter.com/nicole-mcdermid-eating-disorder-recovery-coach.html)