2025 Conference Schedule

The 2025 JEDPro Conference will be on Friday, September 5 2025 Virtually on CE-Go, CEUs pending

JEDPRO Schedule

JEDPRO Schedule

Session 1

8:30a - 9:45a

Break 10:00a-10:15a

Opening to the conference by Dr. Joy Zelikovsky

Presenter: Presenter: Halina Brooke, LPC

Session 2

10:15a-11:30a

Break 11:30a-11:45a

Title: Wait.. that’s Kosher?

Presenter: Elizabeth (Libby) Parker, MS, RD, CDN, CEDS-C

What does it mean to “keep kosher”—and how can clinicians distinguish between culturally or religiously rooted food choices and disordered eating? In this presentation, dietitian Libby Parker will demystify the laws of kashrut, from traditional kosher food rules to the wide range of observance among Jewish clients, including secular or cultural Jewish identities. Attendees will explore how kosher preferences may manifest in treatment, how to honor spiritual or identity-based practices, and when to appropriately challenge potentially harmful rigidity.

This session will also address the clinical importance of not pathologizing kosher-style preferences, including abstaining from shellfish or pork, when they are part of Jewish cultural identity—not eating disorder behavior.

Attendees will leave with an improved ability to create inclusive, culturally responsive care for Jewish clients—whether they keep glatt kosher, identify as culturally Jewish, or fall anywhere in between.

Session 3

11:45a-1:00p

Lunch 1:00p-1:30p

Session 4

1:30p-2:45p

Break 2:45p-3:00p

Session 5

3:00p-4:15p

4:15p-4:30p Closing Remarks

Title: Bringing Family and Community to Inpatient Eating Disorder Care: Treatment Adaptations for Jewish Patients

Presenters: Rebecca Boswell, PhD & Jenna Deinzer RD, Princeton Center for Eating Disorders

There are many barriers to inpatient eating disorder care, including few treatment options, social stigma, and worries about separation from family and community. In this presentation, we will explore barriers to care for Jewish patients and discuss ways to create adaptation in treatment protocols to support the integration of family and community into case conceptualization and care. We will explore nutritional and therapeutic approaches that can build a bridge between hospital-based care and family and community, as well as present a series of case studies with patients across the lifespan who incorporated family and community into their inpatient care in individualized ways.

Title: Navigating Jewish Holidays with the Unified Treatment Model

Presenter: Sarah Bateman, LCSW

Holidays can be joyful—but for many clients in eating disorder recovery, they can also bring heightened stress, food-related anxiety, and complex family dynamics. In this presentation, therapist Sarah Bateman introduces the Renfrew Center’s Unified Treatment Model and how it can be applied to support Jewish clients navigating the challenges of holiday seasons.

Participants will learn how to integrate this transdiagnostic, evidence-based framework to help clients align recovery goals with their values and faith. Sarah will explore specific ways Jewish holidays—such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover—can trigger eating disorder behaviors, and how therapists can respond with cultural sensitivity and clinical skill.

Attendees will leave this session with practical tools from the Unified Treatment Model and a deeper understanding of how to help clients balance religious observance, family expectations, and recovery needs.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand core components of the Unified Treatment Model

  • Learn tools to support clients during high-risk holiday periods

  • Enhance cultural responsiveness when treating observant Jewish clients

Title: Stories of Survival: Jewish Identity, Trauma, and Eating Disorders

Presenter: Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, MD, FAED, CEDS, F.IAEDP

For many Jewish individuals—especially children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—eating behaviors are shaped not just by cultural and familial practices, but also by intergenerational trauma and inherited survival narratives. In this powerful session, psychiatrist and renowned eating disorder expert Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt explores the complex relationship between Jewish identity, trauma history, and disordered eating.

Drawing from decades of clinical experience and her own Jewish background, Dr. Oliver-Pyatt will discuss how clinicians can recognize the nuanced ways that food, restriction, and caregiving may reflect legacies of fear, scarcity, and resilience. Attendees will examine how identity, trauma, and family dynamics show up in the therapeutic space—and how to approach these dynamics with clinical wisdom and cultural humility.

This session will include real-world case material, reflections on clinician countertransference, and discussion of strategies to support Jewish clients in making peace with food and body.

Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of:

  • The intergenerational impacts of trauma within Jewish communities

  • How historical and cultural narratives shape eating behavior

  • Therapeutic approaches that integrate cultural identity and trauma-informed care