MindBodyPlate’s Sarah Kit Farrell On Overcoming Eating Disorders, Helping Others Get Well & Finding Home In Ditmas Park

With National Eating Disorder Awareness Week upon us, there may be no more relevant moment to meet Ditmas Park-based health coach, yoga teacher, and writer Sarah Kit Farrell. During an admittedly busy time for her at work, Sarah (who writes wellness blog MindBodyPlate) took a moment out to discuss her struggles with and triumphs over eating disorders, the power she’s found in sharing her story, the media’s role in how we view our bodies, and the ongoing Wednesday night NOURISH Recovery Yoga workshops she’s doing in conjunction with Mental Fitness, Inc. at Family of Light Holistic Center (717 Coney Island Avenue between Cortelyou Road and Slocum Place) — right in a neighborhood that she, for the first time, can really call home.

How long have you lived in Ditmas Park? Where were you before, and what drew you to the neighborhood?

My husband and I moved to Ditmas Park from Astoria, Queens exactly one year ago, in late February 2014. Having previously lived in upper Manhattan and then Queens, we felt it was finally time to try Brooklyn on for size (we saved the best for last), but we knew little of the neighborhoods in our price range.

We happened to stumble across an online article mentioning the family-friendly neighborhood of Ditmas Park – which was supposedly attracting an increasing number of young artists – and that piqued my interest. When I Google-mapped the area and discovered the abundance of healthy food options, not to mention the Sacred Vibes Apothecary and Third Root Community Health Center, that sealed the deal.

The first time I walked down Cortelyou Road, I felt like I’d landed right at home; I had never felt that way before.

What are some of your favorite things about the neighborhood?

After just two weeks of living in Ditmas Park, I realized that I felt more connected to the people in this community than I did after two whole years in Astoria. And that richness, that connection to the people who make up our community, is by far my favorite thing.

I love that I know the people who make my coffee, who serve me hummus, who help me pick out a bottle (okay, a box) of wine. I may not know every single person by name, but I am always delighted to recognize my neighbors at the farmers’ market and the library.

I am truly in awe of the entrepreneurial spirit of our local businesses and the quality of their goods and services. I’ll always cherish the picture I snapped when John’s Bakery closed its doors and the whole neighborhood came together to pin love-notes to the front gate. I could go on and on – this is a wonderful place to call home.

On MindBodyPlate, you mention that you have suffered from anorexia and bulimia in the past. Can you pinpoint the feelings that lead you towards eating disorders from the age of 12? Have you found, through your training, any common themes in the feelings or back stories of those suffering from such disorders?

Eating Disorders are incredibly complex illnesses that can arise from a whole host of biological, psychological, and social factors, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable making generalizations about individual experiences. That said, I am always more than happy to share my own story.

I grew up in a very fat-phobic, Jazzercise-fueled, Weight Watchers culture, and it was pretty early on that I internalized a thin ideal, not to mention a value system based largely on aesthetic appeal. A sensitive perfectionist with low self-esteem, I came to believe that I would be more worthy of love and success if I were thin – the thinner the better. And the widespread acceptance of dieting culture made it easy for me to take measures too far. Because my dear, loving parents knew little of eating disorders, my adolescent anorexia was arrested but never properly addressed, and by the time I entered college, my tendencies resurfaced in the form of bulimia.

You describe recovery as a gradual process, but do you remember any moments or catalysts that made you decide to seek help? What about any real turning points in your recovery?

I once ended up in urgent care because I accidentally sliced my epiglottis with my finger nail while purging, though I didn’t notice until I started vomiting blood. I remember being so embarrassed and feeling like it might be one of those “rock bottom” moments you hear about, but of course that wasn’t even close to the last time I ever binged and purged. It took me five more years of relentless self-care.

A huge turning point for me was when I found my voice as an activist. I had a professor of media literacy at San Francisco State University named Michelle Wolf who spoke openly about her own eating disorder recovery, and she inspired me to write a research paper on the correlation between thinness-depicting-and-promoting media and the incidence of eating disorders in college-aged women.

That paper taught me how empowering education can really be, and it started me on a journey of learning – first about my own eating disorder, then about whole foods nutrition, then about the mind-body connection – the very same learning that led me not only to recovery, but to the work I’m doing today.

When and why did you decide to start MindBodyPlate?

I’ve shared my story very freely over the years, and each time I do, I notice it gives permission to others to do the same, whether they have an eating disorder or not. After all, an untold number of people don’t have diagnosable eating disorders yet struggle each and every day with food, diet, body image, and self-esteem. When I graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition health coaching program in 2013, I wanted to build a practice around having that very conversation.

I chose the name MindBodyPlate because I thought it appropriately encapsulated the biopsychosocial breadth of eating disorders and related issues. One of my own personal tests for self-care is the MBP Daily Three, in which I make sure I’ve done something nourishing for my mental health, physical health, and nutritional health (mind, body, and plate) each and every day.

MindBodyPlate is a blog and the online hub for my private practice, which currently offers private and group mindfulness-based nutritional coaching, private yoga, and eating disorder recovery peer counseling, in which I collaborate with the client’s treatment team to provide appropriate and safe care.

Can you speak a bit more about your interest in examining the media’s depiction of, and influence on, bodies?

I think that media literacy is so key in addressing the epidemic of unhealthy dieting and body dysmorphia in today’s youth. We are constantly inundated with advertisements, learning self-objectification at every turn.

San Francisco-based About-Face is doing an incredible job of educating young people about the ways that our views are shaped by the media we consume. When we learn how to dissect that information and process it in a mindful way, we empower ourselves to identify beauty on our own terms, instead of leaving it to the ad executives.

How did the NOURISH workshops come to be?

For the last two years, I’ve been working with Mental Fitness, Inc., a national non-profit that collaborates with experts in medicine, nutrition, and mental health to bring together (and create new) evidence-based programs that improve the seven protective categories of mental fitness: community connections, self-esteem and social-emotional skills, media literacy, mindfulness, body image, stress-management, and nourishing body and mind. MFI’s auspiciously named founder and CEO, Robyn Hussa Farrell MFA, E-RYT. (no relation), has been such a role model and a great support to me.

I also have the pleasure of teaching public yoga classes at Ditmas Park’s very own Family of Light Holistic Center, which opened in the fall of last year. Much more than a crystal shop, FOL offers yoga, meditation, essential oils, Ayurvedic consultations, Reiki and other modalities of holistic healing, as well as workshops and community events. The owners of Family of Light have generously donated space to Mental Fitness, Inc. so that the NOURISH Yoga for Recovery workshops can have a home here in Brooklyn.

Located in North Carolina, Veritas Collaborative provides comprehensive, evidence-based care for young men and women with eating disorders. Their generous support of Mental Fitness Inc. allows us to provide these workshops for little to no cost – admission to our NOURISH Recovery Yoga workshops are a suggested exchange of $5-10, though all are welcome, regardless of ability to pay.

You mention that MBP is “a blog for anyone who has ever felt out of balance in the areas of food, body image, self-esteem, or mental health.” In this vein, who all would benefit from your forthcoming workshops, and what can attendees look forward to?

The NOURISH Recovery Yoga workshops are intended for those in recovery from eating disorders, but all are welcome. The 75-minute workshops utilize many different aspects of the Eight Limbs of Yoga – in other words, it’s not strictly about making shapes with the body. We do stretch, of course, and experiment with some traditional yoga poses, but we also explore therapeutic breathing practices, journaling exercises, and silent and guided meditations, along with arts-based techniques for self-exploration and building mental health, all in a safe and relaxing environment. Robyn Hussa Farrell has developed an approach that utilizes evidence-based techniques to increase healthy coping and stress-management skills, and I am honored to continue her work here in Brooklyn.

Sarah’s NOURISH Recovery Yoga workshops are scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future, with the next event to be held tomorrow (Wednesday, February 25) from 6-7:15pm. Think you’d benefit from Sarah’s guidance? Then she encourages you to “Put on some comfy clothes, grab a yoga mat and a journal, and get ready to cultivate serious self-care.”