Exercise & Eating Disorders: A Practical Application 20 July 2023

Exercise and Eating Disorders: A Practical Insight, presented by Alanah Reilly, Ellen Masson and Jessica Luke, Accredited Exercise Physiologists.

Alanah, Ellen and Jessica talk exercise in eating disorder recovery and how parents and carers can help to support their loved ones with skills and strategies around managing movement, exercise, over-exercise and exercise addiction during recovery. The webinar includes a 30 minute Q&A with the audience.

Alanah Reilly (nee Dobinson) AEP, AES, ESSAM (she/her) is an advanced-scope Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP Hons.), clinical mentor, and the founder and director of Autonomy in Movement (AIM) in Brisbane, Australia. She is also a cofounding director and current board member of the Safe Exercise at Every Stage (SEES) clinical guidelines for exercise in eating disorder recovery. Alanah‘s passion is to help people explore and experience an autonomous, brave and life-enhancing relationship with movement.

Alanah has completed specialised training in Maudlsey Family Based Therapy (FBT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for eating disorders (CBT-e).

Alanah works primarily with people in recovery from an eating disorder, individuals who compulsively exercise or completely avoid it, people living in bigger bodies, the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, people with a history of trauma, and people who are navigating complex physical and/or psychological conditions. Alanah practices from a “whole-person”, social justice, trauma-informed, size-inclusive and evidence-based framework, and positions the individual as the expert of their experience and herself as a collaborator walking alongside them.

Ellen Masson (she/her they/them) is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP), personal trainer, and strength and conditioning coach with over 8 years of experience in the fitness and health industry. Ellen is passionate about supporting individuals through eating disorder recovery, with training in motivational interviewing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and persisting pain management.
Ellen has completed specialised training in navigating the complexity of movement in the eating disorder space. Ellen is a strong advocate for the use of intuitive movement, Health At Every Size (HAES), and the Fat Positive framework of care during eating disorder recovery.

Ellen founded the “Your Movement Space” studio in 2022 with the sole purpose of assisting individuals in reclaiming their relationship with movement.

Ellen also acts as an educator to help other exercise physiologists navigate the space of weight and shape concerns and size inclusivity. This comes in the form of mentoring, creating educational content online, and via her podcast “Into The Red Zone”.

Jessica Luke is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) based in Perth, WA, who specialises in safe exercise intervention for those living with eating disorders. Jess works in both public and private health across WA, and has developed a number of inpatient and outpatient programs targeting safe exercise participation for those living with an eating disorder: including the inpatient eating disorder and exercise program, exercise education component of the eating disorder day program and binge eating disorder day program at Ramsay Clinic Hollywood. Jess also developed the Eating Disorder Outpatient Exercise Program (EDOPEP) at Ramsay Health Plus which aims to empower individuals with the knowledge and skills to increase safe exercise behaviour, increase healthy associations with exercise that don’t revolve around weight loss and increase ownership of ongoing treatment.

Jess also works from Fremantle Hospital Mental Health Services (FHMHS) where she has developed the inpatient Exercise, Education and Eating Disorder program that focuses on increasing understanding and developing skills to promote safe exercise participation upon discharge. She has also had the opportunity to train Exercise Physiologists in the field of eating disorders, is involved in a series of research projects targeting exercise behaviours in those with eating disorders, and is passionate about increasing awareness and understanding of the positive impact of exercise therapy for those eating and feeding disorders.

Jess is a part of the Western Australia Exercise Physiology Advisory Group, serves on the Western Australian Eating Disorder Sub Network Steering Committee and is a member of the Australia New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders (ANZAED) and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC).

The slides from this webinar are available here.