Most of us were handed a story about our bodies before we were old enough to question it. That the body needs to be controlled, corrected, made smaller - made more acceptable to the world around it. Grace Lautman has spent her career helping people identify that story, set it down, and ask what might be true instead. Grace is a therapist specializing in body liberation and eating disorder recovery, and her work is rooted in something that sounds simple but is actually quite radical: trusting the person in front of you to know what healing looks like for them. Her framework is harm reduction, not a finish line, not a protocol, but a practice of meeting people where they are and honoring their autonomy at every step. In this conversation, we trace the arc of how Grace got here. She grew up at the intersection of purity culture, competitive athletics as a lightweight rower, and family dynamics that each had their own ideas about what a body was for. She's candid about her earlier career including time spent at a teen weight loss camp and what it's meant to hold that period with honesty rather than erasure. The evolution from diet culture to weight-neutral care wasn't clean or linear, and she doesn't pretend it was. We also talk about voice... how it gets buried, and what it takes to excavate it. For Grace, calling off her wedding became an unexpected portal into self-authorship: a moment that forced her to ask whose life she was actually living. That question, it turns out, is at the heart of everything she does with clients. And then there's Stephanie (Grace's satirical "bad therapist" alter ego) which we get into at length. Humor, it turns out, is its own form of disruption. Sometimes the most effective way to illuminate what's broken in a system is to play it straight, badly, and let the absurdity do the work. This is a conversation about what it means to stop managing yourself and start inhabiting yourself. About the difference between healing as compliance and healing as becoming. Topics explored: body liberation · eating disorder recovery · harm reduction · Health at Every Size · purity culture · lightweight rowing · bodily autonomy · voice and self-authorship · humor as disruption Guest Bio: Grace Lautman is a therapist and supervisor who specializes in the intersection of eating disorders and trauma. She chose the word Honor to represent her practice because she believes it is a genuine honor to be trusted with people’s stories—and she brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to that work, having also been on the other side of the couch herself. Grace works with teens and adults navigating eating disorders, body image, and trauma, with a deep understanding of how these struggles are shaped by oppressive systems, early experiences, attachment, and the nervous system. Her approach is grounded in parts work, harm reduction and EMDR, and just as importantly, in being a real human in the room—warm, collaborative, and engaged. At the core of Grace’s work is the belief that healing happens through safety, honesty, and attunement, and that therapy should feel human, accessible, and relational rather than rigid or performative. She is known for naming hard things clearly, allowing humor, meeting people where they are, and helping them make sense of patterns that once felt overwhelming or confusing. Grace is also a Washington State–approved supervisor, supporting post-graduate clinicians as they work toward licensure. Outside of her clinical work, she’s a mom, former athlete, and can often be found lingering outside neighborhood coffee shops, and trying to pet your dog. Connect with Grace: Website: https://www.honornutritioncounseling.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honor_nutrition_counseling Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@honor.nutrition
