Signe Darpinian, LMFT, CEDS-S
Website: www.signedarpinian.com
Book: www.signedarpinian.com/no-weigh
Instagram: @noweighguide
Podcast interviews: www.signedarpinian.com/speaking-events
Short Bio:
Signe Darpinian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist iaedp™ Approved Supervisor (CEDS-S). She is also a public speaker and a co-author of No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom with Jessica Kingsley Publishers in London. Signe has been treating eating disorders for over 15 years and has private practice offices in two California locations: The Central Valley and The SF Bay Area. She is also the President of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals SF Bay Area Chapter and she serves on The Body Positive Partnership Council.
What is your current position?
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist iaedp™ Approved Supervisor (CEDS-S) in private practice. I have offices in two California locations: The Central Valley and The SF Bay Area. I am also a co-author No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom with Jessica Kingsley Publishers in London, as well as the current President of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals SF Bay Area Chapter.
How did you get started in your career?
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a therapist. I have to admit that I didn’t truly know what that meant until I started to do my personal growth work with my own therapist. As an intern, I worked as a School Based Mental Health Clinician, and while I loved working with a team at a school site, it wasn’t the population I wanted to be working with. I wondered if maybe I made the wrong career choice, and around that time is when I discovered the field of eating disorders. My colleague’s daughter had been experiencing medical complications that, at the time, no one understood (approximately the year 2000). She later found out the complications were the medical consequences of Bulimia Nervosa. Eating disorders were supposedly in our “scope of practice,” but neither of us remember this being covered, at any length, in grad school. We turned to the non-profit we worked for at the time, and asked if they would consider sending us to some national eating disorder conferences. They responded to us and made it possible to attend our very first NEDA and iaedp™ conferences. This was the beginning of our work in the field of eating disorders, and we have been treating them ever since.
What advice would you give to someone new to the field?
If a clinician finds that they have an interest in the field of eating disorders, I would advise initiating the process of iaedp™ Certification early on (CEDS, CEDRD, CEDCAT, or CEDRN): www.iaedp.com/certification-overview/. Certification promotes a standard of excellence within the field of eating disorders and a commitment to stay abreast of current developments in the field through continuing education.