Hi, I’m Rachel and I love hungers.
I think it’s awesome that we don’t have to figure out what’s right for us so much as we have to listen, with a bit of discernment and patience, for what does and doesn’t feed us.
I’ve spent somewhere between 13 and 20 years, depending on how you interpret my résumé, helping women hear and honor their very wise hungers (at and away from the table). Many people know me as “The Well-fed Woman”.
My work has taken the shape of individual coaching, leading online classes, facilitating intuitive eating groups, and leading in-person workshops and retreats all rooted in body liberation, and breaking free from diet culture.
Insert: life, pandemic, motherhood, a world in distress, the many changes in Internet culture and social media, the evolution of the coaching industry, and so forth.
These days, my work is not all that different but its shape has shifted and so have I.
My interest is less on raging against diet culture (though I still do) and more on finding quiet refuge from the noise of the world so that we can hear ourselves, reset our nervous systems, and find human connection.
The result is the same, I hope: people more able to heed the call of their wise hungers and live well-fed lives.
Currently, there are two ways I’m available to serve you: Sift (healing writing groups) and Replenish (in-person restorative retreats):
It is important I share with you that in my life and professional practice:
I value diversity, the amplification of marginalized voices, and the pursuit of a more equitable society.
I aim to provide a safe space for all people, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, age, size, or ability.
I work to acknowledge my many forms of privilege, including race, class, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and size.
I recognize that many of our struggles, including those with desire, food, and our bodies, arise from systemic oppression and thus must be addressed, not just at an individual level but at a systems level.
I seek to keep moving my allyship ever towards my own edge of discomfort and an unequivocal dedication to peace, freedom and justice for people in marginalized bodies.
I continue to pursue my own learning and welcome feedback and call-ins from POC and others who fall within these oppressed communities.
Finally, and because it can not be said often or loud enough BLACK LIVES MATTER. ASIAN LIVES MATTER. TRANS LIVES MATTER. JEWISH LIVES MATTER. PALESTINIAN LIVES MATTER. REFUGEE LIVES MATTER. THE LIVES OF PEOPLE IN FAT BODIES MATTER.
The details of my story are not uncommon…
I didn’t invent the belief that my hungers were not to be trusted. No, we’re sold this from an early age. We’re told in a million different ways that safety, love, success, and power are the reward for conquering the big, bad hunger wolf. And that makes for good business. Trillions of dollars of industry thrive on you and me not trusting our hungers. The end result for too many of us is countless rides on the diet-binge roller coaster, years of attempting to satisfy ourselves with things we don’t actually want, and a palpable unrest.
When I was told by a doctor at 20 that I had an eating disorder I was shocked. In my mind, smart feminists (which I considered myself to be) didn’t get eating disorders. From that day forward I dedicated myself to understanding how it was that I got so lost. In the process of discovering that trusting my food hungers was the way forward, I came to see that I had to trust all of my hungers. Being selective was not an option.
This epiphany, coupled with a profound awakening to the Health at Every Size paradigm, Intuitive Eating, and the ways in which The Patriarchy was disempowering and distracting women through unrealistic and unhealthy ideals resulted in, well, you being here, reading this right now.
In the span of time since I sat in that doctor’s office, I recovered, served as the Eating Disorder Prevention and Treatment health educator for a private college, earned my Master’s degree in Holistic Health Education, and wrote my thesis on how we can feed ourselves (at the table and away) with ease, and have coached and counseled other’s toward this freedom for two decades.
Welcome to the next chapter of this work.
Credentials
I bring to my practice certification in teaching Wild Writing™, Intuitive Eating Counseling, and certification in Life Coaching from The Coaches Training Institute and a Masters in Holistic Health Education. More than these résumé bullet points though, I bring exceptional warmth, intuition, candor, and agility to my clients, students, and retreat attendees.
Personal Bits
These days you can find me in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live with my husband and our daughter.
When motherhood allows for enough sleep, I love doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, working in my vegetable garden, and hitting thrift stores nearby. Perhaps it sounds like I’m practicing for retirement but our lives should be made of what brings us joy and these activities, combined with the people I get to share them with, do that for me entirely.
