In the premiere episode of Becoming Recovered: Body and Soul, Carolyn Costin shares the personal recovery story that shaped her career as one of the most influential voices in the eating disorder field.
Throughout her career Carolyn has championed the concept that people can be “Fully Recovered” from an eating disorder. Due to her own experience and consequently helping thousands of others, Carolyn continues to challenge the widely held idea that, even when people get better, they are “in recovery” or “recovering” forever with this illness.
Carolyn continues to say, “If I did it, so can you”, and describes what being recovered means, including: accepting one’s natural size and shape, no longer using eating disorder behaviors, and no longer compromising your health or betraying your soul to look a certain way or reach a certain number on the scale.
The conversation explores Carolyn's own experience developing anorexia nervosa as a teenager after her father left her mother for a fashion model and a doctor told Carolyn she was overweight. The praise she got for losing weight spurred her on even more as her perfectionistic temperament kicked into gear. Carolyn reflects on the progression of her illness, struggling with anorexia before most people even knew it existed, and pivotal "aha moments" that helped her recognize that a separate part of her, she now calls The Eating Disorder Self, had taken control.
Listeners are introduced to Carolyn's foundational philosophy, the Healthy Self versus Eating Disorder Self model, a framework that is central to her treatment success.
Carolyn describes how her illness led to her lifelong career helping others recover and teaching clinicians how to do the same. She discusses the various influences that contribute to eating disorders, the importance of addressing both behavioral recovery and deeper soul-level healing. Carolyn shares her current passion, training eating disorder recovery coaches at the Carolyn, Costin Institute, and the emerging role of coaching in the eating disorder field.
Throughout the conversation, Carolyn offers hope, practical wisdom, and a powerful message: full recovery is possible, and people can reclaim both their bodies and their souls. In this podcast series she brings proof of this to her audience, interviewing people from all walks of life who are recovered.
Carolyn Costin is a world-renowned eating disorder clinician, author, and speaker. Recovered from anorexia, she pioneered the belief that being fully recovered is possible. Founder of Monte Nido, she transformed treatment with a holistic, home-based model. She later founded the Carolyn Costin Institute, training coaches and clinicians worldwide. She has authored seven books, including 8 Keys to Recovery From an Eating Disorder.
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