Hi, I am Hilary Kinavey (she/her/hers).
Let me tell you a little more about who I am and what I am up to.
My path:
I have been working in the therapeutic field for the last three decades. I hold a Master’s degree in Counseling that I earned in 2000. I have spent time working in community mental health, victim services, counseling research and in private practice.I have supported people who are healing from disordered eating, body shame, and the impact of weight bias and other traumas. My work is politicized. I am interested in what interrupts our sense of wholeness and how we can return to ourselves in a culture that profits from fragmentation.
My work now has shifted from being a therapist to working as a consultant, trainer, coach and writer. The body of work you will find on this site will represent my work as a coach. What is the difference between coaching and therapy? After working as a therapist for over 20 years, I can say there is quite a big difference. You can read more about that here.
I am the co-founder of Center for Body Trust (formerly Be Nourished). I also was able to live out a big dream when I co-authored the book Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation (I also narrated the audio book!). Both of these endeavors have happened with my business partner and friend Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD. Dana and I have worked together since 2006 offering programs that encourage movement toward a compassionate, weight-inclusive model of radical care to address body oppression, heal body shame and associated patterns of chronic dieting and disordered eating. The Center for Body Trust also offers programs for helping professionals and educators interested in adopting client-centered, trauma-informed, justice-based approaches to healing—including an intensive year-long Body Trust Certification Training.
I am a white, currently non-disabled cis-woman. I identify as fat, acknowledging that my small fat size grants me privileges folks who live in bodies larger than mine do not experience. I live with PCOS and mental health struggles. I have been immersed in my own healing process since I was a teenager and I am practiced in my own process and therapeutic relationships with healers in my life. I do not go it alone, despite my inclination.
What sustains me.
My family - partner and two sons, My pets- Arrow, Stripers and Fluffers are so often the glue of family life.
My friends and the practice of friendship.
Irreverence, laughing, wit. Boundaries. Trusting my yeses and nos.
Cooking, baking, eating and cookbooks.
My corner of the world, very fortunately, is near a tiny lake where I witness an ecosystem doing what it knows to do. I love cosmology (though I understand very little) and the night sky.
I love seeking words to describe experiences. The people I work with and support. My entrepreneurial life. I also love Astiana tomatoes, A new recipe. Family in the kitchen. Getting out of dodge.
Making things with others has been the center of my life.
Here are a few of the places you can hear or see some of my work...
I am learning and unlearning:
About my privilege and power and how they impact relationships and my work.
Liberation and abolition.
How to befriend my own nervous system.
Aging, eldership and leadership.
Learning to sleep again in this stage of parenting.
I am always, always going for a C, not an A. (this is also an ethic of Body Trust work -IYKYK)
To kayak.
To make the best focaccia.
A few more things you should know about me...
I am not "type A". Even though, I work with my own perfectionism, expectations and obligations that I have inherited over many generations of striving ancestors. My work will not look perfect or be perfectly consistent. I will deliver, however, everything I say I will. Occasionally you will notice that there will be typos, mistakes, etc. I promise you that this is a sign of my evolving self, not that I do not care.
I swear often. If you don’t like that this may not be a supportive or fun program for you.
I feel feelings. I react to injustice and I name systemic harms and violence. I am not a blank slate.
I am a seasoned supporter, mentor, leader and advocate. You will also feel this in our work together.
