Emotional Eating and Self Compassion by Dr. Sarah Hastings & Dr. Tracy Cohn

It is commonly recognized that people respond to stress in a variety of ways. Emotional eating has recently come to the attention of researchers who are interested in understanding the role of using food in regulating mood. Self-compassion, a concept based in Eastern thought, focuses on the care of the person--being gentle, kind, and flexible in regard to self. Only recently have researchers started to examine whether self-compassion (self-kindness) may influence the degree to which people engage in emotional eating. The current research attempts to explore the relationship between emotional eating, self-compassion, and body satisfaction in order to understand the dynamic interplay between theory and clinical application.