Margit Berman, PhD, LP

About

  • Pronouns: they/she

  • Occupation and Specialty: Psychologist

  • Location (Clinic/hospital): Private Practice

  • Location (City): Twin Cities for in-person clients, but I accept clients for telepsychology from all PSYPACT participating states.

  • Offers Telehealth: Yes

  • Contact Information: https://margitberman.com/ 651-212-5328

  • Bio: 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 related concerns. I work from a Health At Every Size®, body liberation, social justice, multicultural, feminist/womanist, non-diet lens. I work primarily with adults. 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.

Approach to care

  • What does it look like for you to provide care to patients in larger bodies? How is, or isn’t, your approach different from how you care for patients in smaller bodies? If you work with children, how is or isn’t your approach different when working with children?

    My philosophy of care is to provide clients of every size with expert, evidence-based treatment for their specific concerns, within the context of an empathetic caring therapy relationship where clients feel truly seen and deeply nurtured. My practice is to make sure clients understand what kind of therapy they're committing to and what evidence supports the idea that it will help before we commit to working together. I provide evidence-based care from a social justice lens, focusing on the context where client concerns have developed and are unfolding, and both fighting alongside clients and helping clients fight back against systems of oppression that have affected their lives. My experience has been that clients of all sizes may have experienced weight-based abuse and discrimination at various points in their lives, and the evidence is also clear that clients in the largest bodies experience more discrimination than those in smaller bodies. I seek to customize therapy to clients' individual experiences, while creating an accessible, productive therapy experience for clients at every size.

  • What is your perspective on how weight is or is not related to health?

    I believe that social and contextual factors are the main determinant of individual health outcomes, and that these factors are what explains associations between health and human traits like body size, race, or gender. I believe 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.

  • Finish this sentence: “Fat people are…” 

    not obligated to meet anyone's expectations.

  • How do you, your clinic, and the healthcare system you work in use BMI (i.e BMI cutoffs for accessing certain services, BMI on charts and printouts, etc)? Is this flexible?

    I generally do not use or assess weight or BMI in my practice.

  • If a patient declines to be weighed, how do you and/or your staff proceed?

    N/A

  • If a patient declines to discuss weight loss, nutrition, and/or exercise, how do you proceed?

    There's no need to discuss any of these topics in my practice unless you wish to. I am not able to help clients who are seeking behavioral weight loss strategies, and I am happy to discuss with clients why this is not a service I provide.

  • What does the physical accessibility of your office space look like? What kinds of accommodations are present for people in larger bodies? Are there things you wish were in place that are currently not? 

    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, and I am hopeful to have these in the future. 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.

  • What do you do to allow fat people to feel comfortable and welcome in your office? 

    My office has a range of seating choices including sturdy, comfortable sofas and chairs with and without arms; the artwork (e.g., paintings, candles) in my office features large-bodied, mostly femme-presenting people; books and magazines in my office are curated with a fat-liberation lens. There are plants, a fireplace, plenty of tissues at hand, hot tea and plenty of chocolate at the ready to create a cozy, warm, space for your healing work.

  • If you’d like to use this space to talk about any identities (gender, race, size, sexuality, etc.) you hold and how this relates to your care, please do so. 

    I am a middle-aged, mostly femme-presenting queer and genderqueer white Jewish person in an average-weight, short body with no visible disabilities.