1 CE hour; $45
Overview.
MED-DBT Module 3 builds on the biological foundation of the adapted biosocial theory in Module 2 by examining the role of environmental, relational, and systemic invalidation in the development and maintenance of eating disorders.
Participants will explore how invalidation operates across multiple levels, including family systems, treatment environments, cultural messaging, and broader societal structures; and how these experiences interact with biological vulnerabilities to shape eating disorder behaviors.
Emphasis is placed on how well-intentioned interventions (e.g., weight-focused care, dismissal of symptoms, misattribution to willfulness) can inadvertently reinforce shame, avoidance, and symptom persistence. The module also addresses how systemic inequities, stigma, and cultural norms influence access to care, diagnostic accuracy, and the interpretation of eating disorder symptoms across diverse populations.
Clinicians will learn to apply a phenomenological, non-pejorative stance to reframe behaviors as understandable within context, and to use this framework to reduce blame, improve alliance, and guide effective intervention within MED-DBT.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Describe multiple forms of invalidating environments relevant to eating disorders, including familial, clinical, cultural, and systemic contexts.
- Explain how pervasive invalidation interacts with biological vulnerabilities contribute to the development and maintenance of eating disorder behaviors.
- Analyze how invalidation shapes cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological processes (e.g., threat system activation, self-invalidation, reduced learning capacity) in individuals with eating disorders.
- Apply a phenomenological, non-perjorative framework to reframe eating disorder behaviors as understandable responses to the interaction of biology and invalidating environments in clinical scenarios.
Instructor Credentials
Anita Federici, PhD, CPsych, FAED, is a Clinical Psychologist and the Owner of The Centre for Psychology and Emotion Regulation. She serves an Adjunct Faculty position at York University and is a distinguished Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED).
Wisniewski and Federici have co-authored a book on MED-DBT that is scheduled for 2025 release by Guilford Press.
Lucene Wisniewski, Ph.D., FAED, is a recognized clinician, trainer, researcher, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, who has taught over 150 workshops on Cognitive Behavioral and Dialectical Behavior Therapies internationally and has over 40 publications in peer reviewed journals and invited book chapters. She specializes in complex, co-morbid eating disorders, and is the Owner and Chief Clinical Officer of the Center for Evidence Based Treatment serving clients across the United States and Wisniewski Psychology Services, PLLC in New York.
Recommended readings
Downs, J., Adams, J., Federici, A., Sharpe, H., & Ayton, A. (2025). Equity in eating disorders: A dialectical approach to stigma, expertise, and the coproduction of knowledge. Journal of Eating Disorders.
Lawrence, B. J., Kerr, D., Pollard, C. M., Theophilus, M., Alexander, E., Haywood, D., & O’Connor, M. (2021). Weight bias among health care professionals: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity, 29(11), 1802–1812.
Sonneville, K. R., & Lipson, S. K. (2018). Disparities in eating disorder diagnosis and treatment according to weight status, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sex among college students. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 51(6), 518–526.
Strings, S. (2019). Fearing the Black body: The racial origins of fat phobia. New York University Press.
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