Hi everyone! I’m so excited to discuss innovative approaches to binge eating treatment that’s happening right here in San Diego! I’ve interviewed Dr. Kerri Boutelle, licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Pediatrics, Family Medicine and Public Health, and Psychiatry at University of California San Diego (UCSD). She is the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research (CHEAR), and is affiliated with Rady Children’s Hospital. Dr. Boutelle is also the senior supervising psychologist at the UCSD Eating Disorder and Treatment Program. I went to a training at CHEAR by Dr. Boutelle, and I was impressed with how dedicated she is to eating disorder research and treatment. I also really appreciated CHEAR’s focus on binge eating recovery.

***Trigger warning*** This blog post interview does include the terms weight loss, overweight, and obesity in the context of explaining CHEAR’s integrative binge eating and weight loss treatment program. I do believe that Dr. Boutelle does articulate how their approach is very different than “dieting” and absolutely does NOT advocate extreme behaviors that could trigger eating disorder symptoms.