Health at Every Size® Healthcare Provider Listing
Margit I. Berman, Ph.D., LP
(she/her, they/them)
Psychologist
Margit I. Berman, Ph.D., LP
Saint Paul,
Minnesota,
United States
Contact Me:
Make an Appointment:
Special Instructions: Please call, email, or visit my website to schedule a free 15-minute initial consultation.
Specialties & Areas of Focus:
- Eating Disorders
- Body Image Concerns
- Weight Concerns
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma
- PTSD
- Clinician Training and Consultation
- Couples Therapy
Modalities & Theoretical Lenses:
- Feminist/Womanist
- Fat Liberation
- Intersectional Liberation
- Social Justice
- Accept Yourself!
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapies (CBT)
- Queer Affirming, LGBTQIA+ affirming
- Sex-positive, polyamory and consensual non-monogamy affirming
Age Groups Served:
- Adults (18 years old and up)
- Older Adults (65+ years old)
- Adults (18 years old and up)
- Older Adults (65+ years old)
Additional Populations Served & Allied Groups:
- LGBTQIA+ people
- Transgender and Gender Expansive people
- Women and femme-presenting people
- BIPOC people
- People with disabilities
Languages Services Offered In:
- English
- English
My Philosophy of Care
My philosophy of care is to provide you with expert, evidence-based treatment for your specific concerns, within the context of an empathetic caring therapy relationship where you feel truly seen and deeply nurtured. My practice is to make sure you understand what kind of therapy you're committing to and what evidence supports the idea that it will help you before we commit to working together. I provide evidence-based care from a social justice lens, focusing on the context where your concerns have developed and are unfolding, and both fighting alongside you and helping you fight back against systems of oppression that have affected your life.
I have been a fat liberation activist, researcher, and clinician for more than 20 years, and I practice from a HAES® perspective because the evidence is clear that weight-normative health care is ineffective at best and harmful at worst. To me, being a HAES® provider means that I believe that social and contextual factors are the main determinant of individual health outcomes; that good health is a fortunate outcome, not a behavior or a choice; and that everyone deserves both individual and systemic support to live a vibrant, enjoyable, meaningful life in the body they have. My practice actively pushes back on healthism, ableism, ageism, fat hatred, racism, sexism, and queer hatred, and I do not believe health is a moral virtue anyone must pursue.
I have been a fat liberation activist, researcher, and clinician for more than 20 years, and I practice from a HAES® perspective because the evidence is clear that weight-normative health care is ineffective at best and harmful at worst. To me, being a HAES® provider means that I believe that social and contextual factors are the main determinant of individual health outcomes; that good health is a fortunate outcome, not a behavior or a choice; and that everyone deserves both individual and systemic support to live a vibrant, enjoyable, meaningful life in the body they have. My practice actively pushes back on healthism, ableism, ageism, fat hatred, racism, sexism, and queer hatred, and I do not believe health is a moral virtue anyone must pursue.
About Me & My Practice
I came to fat liberation work via the writing and artwork of Debbie Notkin and Laurie Toby Edison in the late 1990s; I have been teaching, researching, and practicing from a weight-neutral, fat liberation, HAES® perspective since 2002. I’m a social and counseling psychologist who helps clients, does intervention research, and provides training in areas related to eating, body image, and weight stigma, as well as depression, anxiety, trauma, and other psychological concerns.
I train clinicians nationwide in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and have conducted research using ACT for eating disorders. I am the developer of and have written two books about Accept Yourself! which is a paradigm-shifting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Health At Every Size® treatment for fat women and femme-identifying people with depression, body image, and weight concerns. I'm a queer, genderqueer femme-presenting person who also makes art and supports artists in my life outside of work.
I train clinicians nationwide in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and have conducted research using ACT for eating disorders. I am the developer of and have written two books about Accept Yourself! which is a paradigm-shifting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Health At Every Size® treatment for fat women and femme-identifying people with depression, body image, and weight concerns. I'm a queer, genderqueer femme-presenting person who also makes art and supports artists in my life outside of work.
Accessibility Considerations
Most of my practice is teletherapy, but I have in-person appointments available in the North End of Saint Paul. My office space has one step to get in; I will provide a wheelchair ramp if you need one for access, just let me know. I do not have restroom facilities available at my office. My office sofa has a stated weight limit of 800 pounds; if that is inadequate for your needs, let me know and I will provide appropriate alternative seating. I am committed to making an accessible virtual and in-person space for all clients; please let me know how I can make therapy accessible for you.