Tamie Gangloff, MA, MFT

Presentation Title:

“Eating Disorders & Chronic Illness: The Overlap Clinicians Can’t Ignore (MCAS, Ehlers-Danlos, Crohn’s, POTS, & the Mental Health Connection)”

Presentation Overview:

This interactive workshop will move beyond lectures into experiential learning. Participants will engage in guided activities that demonstrate how clinicians can help clients externalize their illness — a technique commonly used in eating disorder treatment — and apply it to chronic illness experiences. Through discussion, reflective exercises, and role-play, clinicians will explore how separating identity from illness can reduce shame, increase self-compassion, and strengthen resilience. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies to help clients navigate food anxiety related to medical symptoms, distinguish eating disorder behaviors from illness-related responses, and support patients in rebuilding trust in their bodies while living with chronic conditions.

Learning Objectives:

1. Attendees will be able to identify at least three chronic medical conditions (e.g., MCAS, EDS, POTS, Crohn’s disease) that commonly co-occur with eating disorders and describe two overlapping symptoms.
2. Attendees will be able to differentiate between eating disorder psychopathology and medically-driven food avoidance using at least two clinical assessment indicators.
3. Attendees will be able to describe the role of medical trauma in shaping food anxiety, body mistrust, and avoidance behaviors in clients with chronic illness.
4. Attendees will be able to demonstrate one externalization technique adapted from eating disorder treatment to help clients separate identity from chronic illness.
5. Attendees will be able to apply two clinical strategies to support clients in rebuilding trust with food while accounting for legitimate medical symptoms.

Speaker Biography:

Tamie Gangloff, MA MFT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist and National Business Development Representative for Healing at Hidden River. She is also an adjunct professor at West Chester University, where she teaches Eating Disorder Psychology. Tamie earned her Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in Santa Barbara and has worked across all levels of care for eating disorders and substance use treatment. She is Founding President of the Southwest Philly IAEDP chapter, Medical Trauma Advisor for Root to Branch, and author of Chronic Illness and Eating Disorders: Assessment, Clinical Skills and Lived Experiences, integrating lived and clinical expertise.