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Jewish Eating Disorder Professional (JEDPRO) Conference 2026

Welcome & Opening Remarks — Dr. Joy Zelikovsky & Session 1: Holding the Holders: Pikuach Nefesh, Moral Distress, and the Mental Health of Jewish Clinicians in Eating Disorder Care

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Information

Date & Time

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least three common signs of burnout, moral distress, or nervous-system dysregulation that Jewish clinicians may be experiencing in the current professional climate.

  • Describe at least three ways clinician distress can impact ethical judgment, clinical attunement, and risk management in eating disorder treatment.

  • Identify at least three individual and collective support strategies that promote clinician regulation, ethical clarity, and sustained effectiveness in high-risk eating disorder care, and that can be applied within participants’ own practice settings.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is for participants to discover how clinician mental health, moral distress, antisemitism, and professional invalidation may influence ethical judgment and clinical decision-making in eating disorder care, and highlight the need for peer consultation, reflective spaces, and institutional support to best serve their clients.

Description

Eating disorder treatment places clinicians in a uniquely complex ethical position, requiring ongoing attention to autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, safety, and high-stakes medical and psychological risk. This presentation examines clinician mental health as an essential component of ethical practice, particularly for Jewish clinicians navigating increased antisemitism, antizionism, invalidation, and moral distress within professional and clinical environments. Participants will explore how sustained stress, isolation, and threat may affect clinical attunement, reflective judgment, ethical decision-making, and professional functioning.

Drawing on experience facilitating support groups for Jewish clinicians, the session explores moral distress, clinician burnout, and collective approaches to professional resilience. Participants will examine parallels between resisting diet culture in eating disorder treatment and navigating anti-Jewish invalidation—both requiring values-based clarity, tolerance of discomfort, and recognition of harmful narratives. Through conceptual teaching, de-identified clinical vignettes, and facilitated reflection, participants will develop frameworks applicable to supervision, consultation, and organizational practice, with emphasis on ethical risk management and collective structures that support clinician competence and patient care. In this way, supporting clinicians becomes a matter of Pikuach Nefesh, the preservation of life, not only for providers themselves, but also for the quality and safety of patient care, as clinician burnout and distress have been associated with diminished professional functioning and adverse impacts on care.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Dietitian
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Emily Gordon, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with 25 years of experience providing psychotherapy, supervision, consultation, and training. She maintains a private practice in Natick, Massachusetts, and is licensed to practice in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Vermont. Dr. Gordon specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and body image concerns, with a focus on adolescents, young adults, and the parents and families who support them. She earned her B.A. from Northwestern University and her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University. Dr. Gordon completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychology at McLean Hospital, where she subsequently served in a leadership role within the Adolescent Residential Treatment Program and was part of the founding team of the Klarman Center for Eating Disorders. She held an appointment as a Lecturer in Psychology at Harvard Medical School for fifteen years and has supervised psychology trainees at both McLean Hospital and the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. Currently, Dr. Gordon is affiliated with the Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative, where she facilitates support groups for Jewish clinicians and professionals working on college campuses. She is also an active speaker and writer on topics including eating disorders, body image, adolescent development, parenting, and mental health within the Jewish community.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Reasons Eating Disorder Center
  • JEDPro