Dr. Millner is a licensed psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who works with people struggling with food and body issues.
12/15/2025
Amidst so much grief and hate and loss, it can be hard to find the light. And then comes Hanukkah bringing us eight nights, in which each one is brighter than the night before.
Thank goodness for the candles burning brighter each night. Thank goodness for the joy that Hanukkah brings. For the family time or time with friends or community. For games. For yummy food. For miracles.
I hope anyone celebrating Hanukkah is able to find some light in the dark. To remember that you matter, your story matters, your healing matters, your being here matters even when things are so hard. You still matter.
Sending love, hope, light, all the delicious Hanukkah foods, laughter, meaning, and whatever else is needed to anyone celebrating. Happy Hanukkah.
Image description: there is a background with a menorah, Jewish star, blue flowers and text that says:
Feeling grateful that each night of Hanukkah the menorah burns brighter than the night before.
When each day seems to bring more heartbreak and sorrow, it is even more meaningful that each night is a little brighter than the last
Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate
12/09/2025
The conversations about how bodies are shrinking is important, and I really appreciate how many reminders to focus on the systemic issues and not on individual bodies I have seen.
What’s happening in this moment in our culture is not about any one persons body and commenting, no matter what size the person is, is harmful and takes the focus off of where it belongs.
And, the impact of commenting on thinness and fatness are not the same, no matter what your intention is. We can hold both- don’t comment on bodies. Period. And anti-fat bias makes commenting on thinness and fatness different. And still don’t comment on bodies.
Image description: there are blue shapes and designs on the outside with text in the center that says:
Don’t comment on people’s bodies
&
Commenting on someone’s thinness is not the same as commenting on someone’s fatness
Thinness and fatness are not morally equivalent in our culture.
Body size isn’t neutral. So no matter what your intention is with the comment, they will not be received in the same way. Even if you are expressing concern or being critical of someone’s thinness, it will still be heard and received differently than if you were saying the same things about fatness
Thinness, even thinness that gets referred to as “too thin” or that gets assumed to be an eating d!sorder, typically opens doors and increases access, especially in Hollywood. Fatness typically decreases access. It’s messed up and toxic and part of the problem, and it also means commenting on someone’s thinness is not the same as commenting on their fatness.
We are all impacted by weight stigma, but fat people are impacted exponentially more.
Commenting on someone’s thinness may be rooted in weight stigma just like commenting on someone’s fatness may be, and the fat person will be more harmed by it.
Please don’t comment on people’s bodies no matter what size they are. It’s hurtful and harmful and reinforces stereotypes and may be reinforcing an eating d!sorder or triggering one and there’s no reason for it.
And no matter what your intention is, commenting on someone’s thinness is not the same as commenting on their fatness.
11/27/2025
I am so thankful you are here. Holidays are complicated. Be kind and gentle with yourself.
Image description: there are eight slides. Each has leaves in the four corners and text that says:
Twenty five years ago I was heading home from grad school in California for Thanksgiving. I was deep in anorexiaa and my family hadn’t seen me for a while. I was still fat, but thinner than I had been the last time they saw me. My family praised me. They told me how great I looked. They said how proud of me they were.
Twenty three years ago I was heading home from grad school in California for Thanksgiving. I was deep in anorexiaa and my family hadn’t seen me in a while. I was wearing straight sized clothes for the first time in a long time. My family praised me again. They told me how great I looked. They said how proud of me they were. Asked how I was losing weight.
Twenty one years ago I was heading home from my internship in Buffalo for Thanksgiving. I was deep in anor-exia and my family hadn’t seen me for a while. I was emaciated when I got home for the holiday. My family was terrified. They thought I was going to die. They begged me to go to treatment. I refused.
There were many Thanksgiving’s between when my anorexiaa started and when I finally agreed to get help. I was restricting and exercising compulsively and obsessing about food and my body the entire time. I refused foods the entire time. When my body was bigger, refusing food was seen as willpower. When I was emaciated it was met with panic and concern.
Thanksgiving is already a challenging holiday for many people when it comes to food. Don’t make it harder by making assumptions about how people are doing based on body size. Don’t praise weight loss. Don’t comment on weight gain. Focus on your own plate and let others focus on their own. Don’t talk negatively about your own body or what you’re eating. No comments. No judgment. There are so many more interesting and important things to talk about.
(Continued in comments)
11/25/2025
I know a lot of people will be with friends or family or community they haven’t seen in a while this week. Given the increase in GLP-1s for intentional weight loss and diet culture constantly bombarding us, it is likely you will be exposed to people who have lost weight.
I know how hard it is to be with people who have intentionally lost weight and hear others praising them or talking about how great they feel.
I have seen so many posts with helpful tips on how to navigate these situations whether to leave or to speak up or other options. It’s super helpful to read those posts and see what strategies resonate for you.
I also wanted to offer a reminder that the claim that weight loss is all positive and brings all good things is a lie. I have sat at Thanksgiving and not eaten anything because I was afraid and it was not fun.
Intentional weight loss is temporary the vast majority of the time. People are cranky and hungry and missing out on foods they enjoy.
I have been at Thanksgiving in a fat body and freely eaten whatever I wanted and it was so much more fun and pleasurable. .
Remember diet culture tells lies. Weight loss isn’t the dream it’s sold as and weight gain isn’t the nightmare it’s promoted as.
Freedom will not be found in intentional weight loss, but it can be found when we move away from dieting and stop trying to control our bodies.
Good luck this week. Remember you are not alone.
Image description: there are two images. They each have leaves and pumpkin in fall colors on the top and bottom with text in the center that says:
You may be with people this week who are pursuing intentional weight loss. And you may be exposed to weight stigma. You may be around people praising those who have lost weight, or people who have lost weight talking about how “great” they feel. And it’s easy in these situations to get pulled into the narrative that weight loss brings all good things and to forget all the negative. Weight loss may (temporarily) increase access or privilege, but it also brings hyper-vigilance, fear, hunger, crankiness, not participating in social activities, potential eating disorders….(continued in comments)
11/16/2025
I totally get that if you are someone who has binged or felt like you always had to finish all of your food whether you were hungry or not or whether you wanted it or not, stopping and not finishing everything, can feel like a miracle.
And if you are someone who had certain foods that anytime you had in your living space or around you, you felt ‘out of control’ and ate all of it and felt like you couldn’t “have this food around me,” feeling free to have the food around you and not immediately eat all of it, may be something you never thought possible.
And it’s easy to think that that’s the reason that eating intuitively or not dieting or eating freely is a positive thing or that it’s “working” or you’re “getting it right.”
But ultimately valuing leaving food on your plate or not finishing everything above finishing everything is still a dieting mindset. Even if it’s not about weight loss, it’s still valuing eating less of something over eating more of it.
It’s ultimately not about what you leave behind or what you finish, it’s about having the choice to do either and not valuing one over the other.
It makes sense that when you are first healing your relationship with food, not finishing something you used to feel compelled to finish can feel freeing.
And having the choice to finish or not and not valuing one more than the other or seeing one as “better than” the other, will likely feel even more free.
Image description: there is a grey background with black lines on each side with text in the center that says: one of the positive things about not dieting or intuitive eating or eating freely is not that you can eat something and not finish all of it. it’s that the choice to finish it or not finish it are both available to you and one isn’t seen as a better, more valued, or more “successful” option than the other.
11/11/2025
The menopause summit hosted by starts tomorrow! I have been so frustrated by there being so many more conversations about menopause only to follow someone and realize that nearly everything they are saying is rooted in stigma.
I have been so wanting to understand more about menopause without having to be subjected to weight stigma and pathologizing conversations about “belly fat,” and I know that I can trust this summit will have none of that.
If you’re interested, I put the link in my bio. I know it starts tomorrow which doesn’t give a lot of time for planning, but most of the sessions are recorded and can be watched later, which is definitely what I’ll be doing since I neglected to block my schedule for it 🤦🏻♀️
I hope that all of the so called menopause experts out there who are writing books and have millions of followers, but are pathologizing bodies, tune into this summit. There’s a lot they need to learn.
Image description: there is an image with head shots of each person speaking at the summit with text surrounding the pictures that says:
THE MENOPAUSE
SUMMIT
by Center for BODY TREST
FREE and ONLINE
November 12-14, 2025
11/10/2025
There is so much more to say than this. Way too much for any instagram post, but here are some thoughts.
Image description: there are 6 slides. Each has a grey border with text that says:
T-rump has decided that fatness (among other things- all eugenics) is a reason someone’s visa application to the US can be denied.
It took no time for people to start pointing out that T-rump himself is fat and would be banned from entering the country based on his own policy. Using anti-fat bias to argue against an anti-fat policy, just reinforces the message that there is something wrong with being fat and supports the eugenics that T-rump is so readily implementing. There is a very long list of things that are wrong with T-rump. An endless list. And fatness isn’t on there.
What I do think is important to point out is that while I don’t think T-rump has insight, nor do I care, fat people in general do and it is common to have internalized weight stigma in which fat people believe they don’t deserve access or equal treatment or respect. There will be fat people denied visas, who think they deserve to be denied or that it’s their fault. And that is devastating.
As many of us in the fat liberation community have said, fat people’s lives are viewed as expendable. The culture and systems of anti-fat bias, are fine with fat people dying in attempts to get thin and see no harm in selling weight loss methods that put fat people’s lives in danger. If you are someone who thinks “it’s about health,” let what is happening be evidence that it is about violence and power and control and anti-blackness and it has never been about health. (Continued in comments)
11/06/2025
I have been thinking about this dress since I wore it the other day and enjoying fashion that breaks all of the “rules” we’ve been taught about what to wear when you’re fat.
There was a time when my body was the size that the culture deems acceptable to wear a dress like this. And during that time I never would have worn this dress.
I didn’t wear anything that was fitted, or showed skin or body parts. I hated my body then. I was constantly critiquing it and picking it apart. I was in constant shame.
My body was held up by the culture as desirable and a “success story” and a body worthy of being visible, but I hid more than I ever would today.
I was in the depths of anorexia during that time and was so focused on being as small as possible, there was nothing else in my life that mattered.
We are told that if we lose weight, we will find freedom. We will feel better. We will have access to any clothing we want. It will all come in our size.
And, yeah, I could have walked into any store and found my size back then, but what good are a bunch of clothes in your size if you have so much body shame and judgment, that you won’t wear them.
Now there aren’t as many clothes made in my size. There are a lot of stores that don’t carry my size. But, I have so much more freedom and will actually wear clothes I like.
Remember that the culture tells us a bunch of lies about what thinness brings. Dieting and restricting and obsessing over your body doesn’t bring freedom or mean you’ll suddenly start wearing clothing you like.
Freedom isn’t found in thinness. And it’s not found in knowing that more clothes exist in your size.
11/02/2025
I had so much fun yesterday and loved getting to speak on a panel about weight stigma. Of course I neglected to take any pictures while I was there, but I did manage a pic before I left and I was loving the dress I wore, so I’m glad I have photo evidence.
Philly Fat Con is so powerful. It is a reminder that even with everything going on in the world, fat community is so full of hope.
With all of the assaults on fat bodies, fat community is more important than ever. Taking up space and speaking up, when possible, is even more important than ever.
Thanks for having me and for an amazing day. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Image description: there are two photos of me. In the first one, I am standing outside. I am wearing a dark green dress. The dress is long and has a cut out on the belly. In the second picture, I am wearing the same dress, but the picture is a close up of just my face with makeup on.
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Rachel Millner, Psy.D., CEDS-S, CBTP is a psychologist in PA and NJ, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor, and Certified Body Trust® provider. Dr. Millner has been in practice since 2005, working with people struggling with all forms of eating disorders and disordered eating as well as those working to break free from diet culture and work toward body liberation. Since 2014, Dr. Millner has worked in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she treats children and adolescents struggling with eating disorders using a family-based approach.
Dr. Millner is a trauma-informed, Health at Every Size®, fat-positive provider who works from a weight-inclusive lens. She works with people across the weight spectrum from a non-diet perspective. Dr. Millner believes in body autonomy and recognizes that weight stigma and diet culture impact all of us and the decisions we make about how to care for our bodies.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Millner serves on the board of the local International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals chapter. She is the co-chair of the Weight Stigma and Social Justice special interest group in the Academy of Eating Disorders, where she also serves as a member of the Awards and Scientific Review committee. Dr. Millner speaks nationally about weight stigma, weight-inclusive care, anorexia in higher-weight bodies, and her own eating disorder recovery. Dr. Millner has shared her expertise on popular podcasts such as the Food Psych podcast and the Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast. She has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Mercer County Community College and Gwynedd Mercy College.
Lynne Henderson Welsh, M.S., has been practicing in Doylestown, PA for over 25 years. She holds a Master in Science in Counseling Psychology and trained for four years postgraduate, studying psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
In severe adolescent cases with a great deal of acting out, Lynne acts as a mental health advocate/liaison to assist families through the confusion and maze of mental health treatment options so they can find the best fit for care. She engages in a collaborative team approach with a wide network of psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, family doctors, guidance counselors, nutritionists, and massage therapists, utilizing many healing modalities.
Lynne’s passion is working with adolescents to help them find their way in a confusing and difficult world. She takes an interactive, interdisciplinary and personal approach to therapy, with the goal of providing a confidential, nurturing and safe environment for her patients to explore and heal their issues.
Specialties:
Women and Adolescent/Teen Eating Disorders/Disordered Eating
