Dr. Millner is a licensed psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who works with people struggling with food and body issues.
03/23/2026
The next round of and my provider support group starts Monday April 6th. We meet biweekly for 6 sessions from 11am-12:30pm Pacific time.
This group is open to providers of any type (therapists, dietitians, coaches, doctors, nurses, trainers, etc.) who are struggling with an eat!ng d!sorder, d!sordered eating or want to work on their relationship with food and body.
Aaron and I have been facilitating this group since 2019 and know how scary it can be to reach out for support when you’re a provider who’s struggling.
We believe that providers can be struggling and still be excellent providers. We believe in autonomy. We trust providers.
The group is fat positive and grounded in body trust®️ principles.
Please DM with any questions or for link to register. We would love for you to join us.
03/23/2026
This conversation has stayed with me largely because of the cashiers choice of words. I know all of the judgments people have about soda and all of the fear mongering about it.
And I know what he meant by the word downfall. And I also kept thinking about it and how it is such a clear example of the way we get indoctrinated into diet culture and what we eat or drink becomes a commentary for who we are as people.
We say things like “I’m weak,” or “I lack willpower,” or “it’s my downfall.” And we say these things when we talk about what we are eating or drinking, but those things have absolutely nothing to do with who we are as people.
And especially right now with so many awful things happening in the world, drinking soda is no one’s downfall. I can name a lot of behaviors that absolutely are someone’s downfall, but soda (or any food or drink) is not a part of any of them.
And then this persons doctor is yelling at him. Shaming someone doesn’t stop them from doing the thing, it just makes them feel shame for doing it.
I don’t know this person beyond his feelings about soda, but I do know he’s not alone in thinking that something he eats or drinks is his “downfall.”
The more distracted we are by what we are eating/drinking, the less we pay attention to what’s happening around us and that’s by design.
Soda is no one’s downfall and if ever there were a time to eat and drink whatever you enjoy and whatever comforts you, this would be it. (ideally people would feel free to do that all of the time, but just saying if there ever was a time, this is it).
Image description: there is a neon pink and green background with text that includes text bubbles indicating a conversation. The text says:
I was checking out at the grocery store the other day. I was buying a new flavor of soda to try and had the following conversation with the cashier:
Cashier: Is this any good?
Me: I’m not sure. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good.
Cashier: soda is my downfall
Cashier: I just know my doctor yells at me for drinking it.
Me: can soda really be a “downfall?” It’s just soda.
Me: Maybe doctors shouldn’t shame
anyone for what they eat or drink
03/22/2026
Something I think about when I’m giving talks or educating people about fat liberation or weight inclusive care is if the information I’m sharing would be received differently if I were thin.
Would they be more open to it? Would they be more inclined to listen?
If you’re reflecting on this question and notice that you do tend to listen more when a thin person is talking or trust thin people more, especially in conversations about fat liberation, that doesn’t mean your bad or failing at this work.
If just means you’re human and have internalized the messages the culture has given you about thin people vs fat people and that you have more work to do unpacking those messages.
As someone in a fat body and as someone with a lot of fat community, I know how frustrating it is when thin people get centered and are given opportunities over fat people, even when they have way less experience.
Fat people will be given opportunities in capitalism when companies trust that including fat people will help their bottom line.
Most companies don’t care that much about representation unless it improves their profits.
And just like we were all taught to listen to thin people over fat people, company culture often mirrors that, even if there’s no conscious awareness of it.
If you have body size privilege and have the opportunity to advocate for fat representation, please do so. If you notice that you tend to listen more to thin people or trust thin people more, please do your own work.
We all have unlearning to do. And fat people deserve the same opportunities thin people get. We deserve to be paid for our work just like thin people are and our voices need to be heard.
03/21/2026
Does anyone else laugh or smile when talking about really hard things and start crying when having seemingly meaningless conversations?
I know from being a therapist and also from experiencing it myself that it’s pretty common, and it still catches me off guard every time.
03/19/2026
The recent headlines about the lawsuits against GLP-1 manufacturers are an example of exactly what I mean when I say anti-fat bias k!lls.
Pharmaceutical companies and others who profit from selling weight loss are willing to risk the lives of fat people trying to make us into thin people.
There’s an assumption that fat people would be better off dead than fat. It’s untrue and f*cked up. And as long as decisions about selling weight loss are made with anti-fat bias and profits as priorities, fat people’s lives will continue to be put in danger.
03/18/2026
I know the weight suppressed and emaciated bodies at the Academy Awards were hard for a lot of people, which makes sense.
I know we’ve been taught to compare ourselves, feel worse about ourselves, and set out on a mission to change our bodies. .
But you already know where that path leads. You already know that it becomes like groundhogs day. You already know that path never sets you free.
Fat liberation and body positivity aren’t over. Liberatory movements like fat liberation don’t have an “over” until we are all free, and unfortunately, we aren’t there yet.
Image description: each slide has a green background with gold designs on two of the corners with text that says:
If seeing the thin and emaciated bodies at the Academy Awards was hard or triggering for you, that makes sense. It may feel like we’re going backwards. It may feel even more challenging to consider any neutrality, let alone acceptance, of your own body.
Your e@ting d!sorder may be screaming at you.
The glorification of emaciated bodies, “ hero!n chic,” the constant bombardment of GLP-1 ads for weight loss, are all fads. They are reflective of the political climate.
They are not a liberation movement.
They are not a movement at all. The
“ideal,” or idolized, body will change. And then change again. It has to because there is no final destination in diet culture. There will always be another ideal to chase
I don’t know how the weight suppressed and emaciated people at the academy awards felt about their bodies, but I’m going to guess they didn’t feel free. I’m going to guess that even though they
“achieved” what we are told a body is supposed to look like, they are still trapped. I’m going to guess that they are spending a lot of time thinking about food and their body and being afraid of gaining weight back.
Continued in comments
03/16/2026
I am angry, but not surprised, that the same person who started Kurbo (the horrific app selling weight loss to kids), started and worked for weight watchers in the interim.
Heading into puberty and into menopause are the two highest risk times for developing an eating disorder in people with uteruses. And this woman created ways to prey on people during both of those times.
Image description: each slide has text and an image from a website or article.
Did you know that the same person who founded Midi Health founded Kurbo (remember that horrific app targeting higher weight kids that Weight Watchers eventually bought)? I sadly wasn’t surprised to discover this, and here’s why..
Who Is Joanna Strober?
Joanna Strober is the CEO and founder of Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause.
Prior to Midi, she founded Kurbo, described as the first digital therapeutic for childhood obesity, which was scaled to help tens of thousands of children worldwide and sold to Weight Watchers in 2018. Before digital health, she spent more than 20 years in private equity and venture capital investing in health and consumer companies,
We know that people who menstruate are at the highest risk of developing an eating disorder when they start puberty and their period and when they go into perimenopause and menopause. It’s no accident or coincidence that the same person who created a weight loss app for kids as they enter puberty, founded a company that promotes and sells weight loss for people heading into menopause
A former investor and guest lecturer at Stanford University, Strober is an entrepreneur with a track record. In 2014, she launched Kurbo Health, a health-tech startup aimed at tackling childhood obity, and sold it four years later to Weight Watchers. After the 2018 sale, she joined Weight Watchers and began
working on a new business related to weight-loss medications.
(Continued in comments)
03/15/2026
recently changed their customer of size policy. I am lucky in that I haven’t had to fly them since they changed their policy (and plan to avoid flying with them if at all possible).
I have been hearing one story after another about the horrific anti-fat bias fat people are encountering from .
It seems that it’s not just that they changed their policy, it’s that they have been given directions to surveil bodies and be rude to fat people.
I’m sure there are some gate agents or flight attendants who wish they could have been treating fat people like this all along, but I think a lot of them are being told by higher ups that this is how they have to treat fat people.
I did some digging into CEO, . It seems that he’s involved in a lot of Christian organizations that espouse the word of Jesus, but when it comes to fat customers, I guess Jesus is no longer his guide.
I also found Elliott investment management who has a significant financial stake in Southwest. They don’t seem to like Bob very much.
They also seem to be very much in favor of putting profits ahead of everything and everyone else.
On the surface, it may seem like they are going to save money by changing the customer of size policy, but I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen.
As word gets out about how poorly they are treating fat people, fat people will stop flying them. And so will our family and friends and whoever else we travel with.
Hopefully Jesus has money to invest when their bottom line suffers and their reviews tank
03/13/2026
I’m not a fan of CBT on a good day and I am especially infuriated when I hear therapists try to tell clients to use CBT in response to them talking about the impact of current events.
There’s no amount of thought stopping to stop the fall of democracy. Hopelessness and overwhelm are not cognitive distortions. All your “stinkin thinkin” makes sense.
My dislike of CBT is real and not sarcasm, but the reel itself: sarcasm. Obviously if any aspects of CBT are helpful to you, use them. If your therapist uses CBT and it’s helpful to you, that’s great.
This isn’t intended to be advice or recommendations about type of therapy. Talk with your providers about what’s most helpful to you. This is just entertainment. And hopefully offered at least a small bit of humor.
03/09/2026
It’s and given the state of the world it feels especially important to acknowledge the day and all of the women in my life who have had an impact on me.
And to acknowledge the generations of women who came before me who have contributed to who I am, and who held so much intergenerational trauma that they didn’t have any way to heal from and whose work I am now doing by breaking the cycle.
Image description: there are five slides each with a purple background and text that says:
It’s international women’s day and gender is a construct and the gender binary is harmful and women includes all women and the patriarchy and misogyny impact all women and women are still taught to be hungry and silent and compliant. (Continued in comments)
03/07/2026
I dropped Mac n cheese on my shirt while eating dinner the other night and it got me thinking about all of the things that are seen differently with thin people than fat people.
Dropping food on clothes is annoying, but not abnormal or uncommon, but when fat people have food stains it’s seen as evidence of some problem with their body and flaw in who they are.
When thin people have food stains it’s seen as a stain to clean. Nothing more. Not evidence of anything beyond a food stain.
There are so many things that are treated differently in fat people than thin people (health issues, sweating, being out of breath, smelling). Given the extent of anti-fat bias, it’s not surprising.
Fat people drop food on clothes. We get out of breath. We get health issues. We smell sometimes. We sweat. And none of it is evidence of something wrong with us or with our bodies.
03/04/2026
March 4th is “world ob*sity day.” It would be more accurate to call it “world get rid of fat people day” or “world anti-fat bias day” because there’s nothing about this day that has anything to do with the wellbeing of fat people.
The weight loss industry, and anyone who profits from selling weight loss (I’m looking at you pharmaceutical companies), likes to do a bunch of fear mongering about fatness and act like just living in a fat body is somehow a crime.
Or that showing your fatness publicly is a “bad influence,” as if people see an image of a fat person and set off trying to get fat themselves.
But, like so many fat people, I’m out here just living my full fat life. I’m happy to take on the job of “glorifying ob*sity” because I want to glorify fatness.
I want people to know there’s nothing wrong with being fat. I want people to know that fat people are out here living our lives and have friends and family and partners and have fun and laugh a lot and just exist in the world like everyone else.
Except we have the added stress of dealing with anti-fat bias, that days like this just intensify. But that has nothing to do with us. That’s about profit and eugenics and telling lies.
I love what is doing and reclaiming this day as “fat liberation day.” Because once we stop apologizing for taking up space and live our fullest fat lives, then we get to experience fat liberation.
So, depending on your lens, I’m either “glorifying ob*sity” or celebrating fat liberation in all of these photos, but either way I’m just a fat person living my life without apology or attempting to make myself small. And that’s an act of resistance. And fat liberation is what helps us be free.
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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
