BodyMatters is an idea whose time has well and truly come.

In the midst of the barrage of messages about ‘obesity’ and the preaching of ‘weight loss’ at any cost, comes a voice of reason, integrity and compassion.

Sarah and Lydia apply a health-based, not weight-based, approach to food and wellness. You won’t hear them recommending scales or tape measures or counting calories or magic diets. In fact, they will expose how our epidemic of disordered eating is fuelled by unhealthy – even dangerous – weight loss practices.

Sarah and Lydia are turning current messages about losing weight on their head, with an approach that is evidence-based, progressive and holistic.

I have had the pleasure of working with Sarah and Lydia for the past year in exposing the harms of the ‘thin ideal’ and homogenised establishment positions about how women should look. I appreciate that women like Sarah and Lydia have recognised that as well as treating individual disordered eating behaviours, we also need to address the broader cultural messaging that tells women especially that they are nothing if they are not ‘thin, hot and sexy’. We have to tackle these normative mainstream views if we are to see any positive outcomes at the clinical end.

I am delighted to be asked to endorse BodyMatters and commend this exciting new organisation to anyone who generally cares about healthy bodies and a healthy world.

Melinda Tankard Reist
Canberra-based journalist, social commentator & advocate; author of ‘Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls’; founder of Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) & women’s advocacy group ‘Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation.’

Dear Lydia and Sarah

I just want to thank you for your exceptionally intelligent, well-informed, up-to-the-minute contribution to the eating issues area. Your work is so powerful as you are practitioners in the area. Your knowledge of drug and surgical interventions and their concerning effects is impressive and important.

I’d love to see you in front of every high school class in Australia.

Congratulations, Maggie.

Maggie Hamilton, Member for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Federation Australian Women’s History Project, & the Office for the Status of Women; Author of ‘What Men Don’t Talk About and Why,’ ‘What’s Happening to Our Girls?,’ and ‘What’s Happening to Our Boys?;’ Publisher for Allen & Unwin

Sarah and Lydia provide great insight into the many things we do right- and the many things we could do to improve our current practices.
Being a family member of a sufferer, they made me feel confident and supported, and I leave here feeling encouraged that there is a way forward.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Family member of an eating disorders sufferer

In July 2009 I attended a University of Auckland Continuing Education Course on Eating Disorders conducted by LYDIA TURNER and SARAH MCMAHON.

With over 25 years involvement in the field of substance abuse both as an educator and therapist, and having recovered myself from both anorexia and bulimia I was extremely impressed by their presentation. Both these women had not only their academic qualifications but also personal experiences to authenticate much of what they presented. By their own self disclosures they encouraged many of the attendees to participate in the discussions which meant that the whole day was not simply an academic learning process. In my experience there are too few lecturers/presenters today that have the courage to talk about recovery from any disorders from which they or their families have suffered. Unfortunately there are many older academics that condemn people such as LYDIA and SARAH for their honesty and integrity in doing this.

I can only congratulate and encourage them to continue to present from both academic and experiential aspects. Eating disorders are a serious problem today and I believe these two women could be of great assistance in educating the public and particularly those working in schools as to the complexity of this disorder. I highly recommend them to any seeking their services.

Elizabeth A S Jamieson CNZM CAC JP
Executive Director of Substance Abuse Education Trust
and Author of ‘Still Standing – From Debutante to Detox’
4 August 2009

As the Coordinator for the Eating Difficulties Education Network (EDEN), the only NGO service provider in the North Island of New Zealand I was delighted to attend a workshop on Eating Disorders, facilitated by Lydia Turner and Sarah McMahon recently. In addition to my role at EDEN I have also conducted research and published in the field of eating disorders and am well-versed with regard to many of the issues presented at Lydia and Sarah’s workshops.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and found Lydia and Sarah’s open and relaxed presenting style created a sense of ease. They welcomed audience contributions which added to the richness of the learning experience.

The content of the workshop was informative and valuable. In particular, I was pleased to see them engage critically from service users’ perspectives on eating disorders. I was also pleased to see the inclusion of Health At Every Size (HAES) paradigm in the workshop given that EDEN works within a HAES framework and this is showing some promise for working with people with many kinds of disordered eating problems.

I recommend their presentation to members of the community who wish to learn more about eating disorders from an approach that includes both personal and academic perspectives.

Dr Maree Burns
Agency Manager of The Eating Difficulties Education Network (EDEN) & Author of ‘Critical Feminist Approaches to Eating Dis/orders’
19 August 2009

In April 2008 I attended a Community Forum on the Central Coast where Lydia Jade Turner was presenting. Her presentation on Eating Disorders was so informative and well presented that I booked Lydia with Sarah McMahon to present a workshop for Centrelink Interns and Registered Psychologists, Social Workers and other Allied Health Professionals working for Centrelink. This workshop in May 2008 was attended by 26 professionals from the Central Coast, Newcastle and Maitland areas as part of their professional training and development programme.

All feedback was positive. Those attending were impressed by the professionalism, honesty and personal accounts given by Lydia and Sarah. They were presented with many challenging questions and were able to meet the needs of the whole group. The presentation format was excellent with a good balance between serious reporting of the facts and humour to get the points across. The audience is always discriminatory and has high expectations of presenters. Their satisfaction with the workshop is a high recommendation! The participants are now much better equipped to recognise the symptoms of Eating Disorders and to recommend appropriate resources for treatment. Details of the workshop and presenters were given to the Australian Psychological Society and recognised for the awarding of Professional Development points.

Toni Eckert
Senior Psychologist
Gosford Centerlink
27 June 2008

This training course completely altered my course of thinking and future course of management in the treatment of ‘obesity’ as a general practitioner. The most illuminating education course I have attended. SUPERLATIVE presentation. Thank you!

Stephanie, GP

I cannot thank both Lydia and Sarah enough for their expert presentation on disordered eating. As a GP I regularly provide advice and support to people suffering from harmful weight-loss practices and obesity. After listening to both women, I realise that much of the advice my colleagues and I have been giving, may actually be causing harm. Their presentation was outstanding and will inform my work from here on in a manner that promotes good health and not harm. I would recommend these two ladies to any health professional in New Zealand.

Name Withheld, GP

I have only one suggestion for the improvement of this training course: consider a series!

Attendee at The University of Sydney

There was a great deal of useful information imparted, which I wanted. Often I find courses spend so much time with small group discussions, I come away feeling like I have learned very little. Here there was the right balance of small group discussions with actual teaching – so I learned a lot, which is also great value for money. The tutors were passionate and very knowledgable on the subject. They shared personal information in a courageous and appropriate way.

Attendee at The University of Auckland