Director: Karen L. Smith, MSS, LCSW

Experience More of the Full Living Philosophy

Full Living's Founder and Director is Karen L. Smith, MSS, LCSW. She is a clinical social worker with a private practice in Philadelphia, PA. She has been a speaker, educator, consultant and workshop facilitator for over 20 years. Her approach to analyzing Eating Disorders is grounded in feminism, believing it is through the lens of gender that we will decode this demographically female expression of distress.

LISTEN to an hour-long live interview with Founder/Director Karen L. Smith on WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. You will hear Karen talk about eating disorders, disordered eating, and the gender politics that support them.

•  Karen Smith on Radio Times

READ a Renfrew Working Paper written by Karen L. Smith, MSS, LCSW.

• Sexuality as Eating Disorder Etiology
  Provides an overview of sexual and gender development; a discussion of sexuality as eating disorder etiology; and an exploration of eating disorders as an expression of unconscious conflict over sexual longing and its gratification.
  
  You can order this working paper for $10 from The Renfrew Center Foundation

READ a brief article written by Karen L. Smith.

• Tyra Banks and Her "So What" Campaign
• Some Notes on Jewish Women and Eating Disorders
• Mary Kate Olsen Entered Eating Disorder Treatment:
  Will the Society She Lives In Do The Same?
• From Rubenesque to Twiggy: The Meaning Behind the Waif Aesthetic
• A Fat Activist in Defense of American Idol's Simon Cowell

LISTEN to Renfrew Center Foundation Conference cassettes with Karen Smith as a frequently invited and featured presenter.

• In OUR Community? Eating Disorders Among Gay and Lesbian Populations 
  Order cassette # FR11
  This workshop explores eating disorders among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual populations. Topics include an examination of how homophobia serves as an etiology for eating disorders, how clinicians can resolve such underlying conflicts and how eating disorders are mediated differently within these cultures.
  
  
• I'd Rather Starve than be Gay: Sexual Orientation as an Etiological Factor in the Development of an Eating Disorder
  Order cassette # F16
  This workshop offers theory research and clinical findings to support a routine clinical assessment of sexual orientation in eating disordered clients. Case studies are used to illuminate the relationship between an eating disorder and conflict/confusion over sexual orientation, provide relevant assessment tools and examine ways to promote positive sexual identity.