Body Image, Culture, and Mental Health: Understanding Eating Disorders in Today’s Students

This presentation provides a overview of eating disorders for high school and college audiences, including students, educators, and campus staff. The session explores how eating disorders develop through the interaction of psychological vulnerabilities, body image concerns, and sociocultural influences such as peer comparison, weight stigma, and social media.

Participants will learn how eating disorders function as complex mental health conditions rather than lifestyle choices, review common myths and misconceptions, and examine research on body image dissatisfaction, stress, and self-este...Read moreem among adolescents and young adults. The presentation also highlights early warning signs and practical steps for supporting someone who may need help, emphasizing the importance of early intervention and stigma reduction. Less...

Learning Objectives

Define eating disorders as mental health conditions and describe the most common diagnoses (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, ARFID).
Identify psychological and behavioral warning signs of eating disorders, including body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with weight/shape, and changes in eating or exercise behaviors.
Discuss key psychological risk factors, such as body image disturbance, perfectionism, social comparison, trauma, and weight stigma.
Explain sociocultural influences on eating disorder development, including media exposure, social media, and cultural beauty ideals.
Recognize ways educators and peers can support early identification and referral for individuals who may be struggling with eating disorder symptoms.

Target Audience

This educational activity is intended for an interprofessional audience of healthcare providers, including psychologists, social workers, counselors, MFT's, and registered dietitians.

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Live Interactive Webinar

11:00 AM CDT - 12:00 PM CDT

EARN 1 CE Credit Hours
Click Here to Register

About the speaker

Kim LaBarge, LPCC-S, NCC

National Director of Clinical Programming for the Odyssey Eating Disorder Network

Kim LaBarge, LPCC-S, NCC serves as the National Director of Clinical Programming for Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare’s Eating Disorder Network, supporting clinical quality, program innovation, and provider development across multiple states. Kim brings extensive experience as a therapist, clinical supervisor, and program leader in eating disorder care at all levels of treatment. She is known for her collaborative leadership style, commitment to evidence-based practice, and passion for empowering clinicians to feel confident and supported in complex clinical work. Kim believes effective care blends research, attunement, and humanity — and she works to cultivate that balance in programs and teams nationwide.

CE Information - Earn 1 CE Credit Hour

CE Approvals

Joint Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Commission on Dietetic Registration

Completion of this RD/DTR profession-specific or IPCE activity awards CPEUs (1 IPCE credits = 1 CPEU). If the activity is dietetics related but not targeted to RDs or DTRs, CPEUs may be claimed which are commensurate with participation in contact hours (1 hour/60 minutes = 1 CPEU). RDs and DTRs are to select activity type 102 in their Activity Logs. Performance Indicator selection is at the learner’s discretion.

Interprofessional Continuing Education

This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change.

American Psychological Association

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.

New York Education Department's State Board for Social Work

CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #0060.

New York Education Department for Licensed Mental Health Counselors

CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.

New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology

CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #PSY-0016.

New York Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy

CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MFT-0045.

CE Process Info

Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

Complete evaluation forms for the event
Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ceactivities.com".

If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer.

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ceactivities.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.

Disclosure

DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity ― including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity’s planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

PLANNERS AND REVIEWER
The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

FACULTY
The faculty of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.