Lisa Schlosberg embodies the new paradigm of health and healing from a heart-centered lens. She empowers her clients and global community to use their struggles with food and body image as a path to rebuilding the mind-body connection so that they can access deeper authenticity, exercise personal power, and embody a life of freedom. Having lost and maintained 150 pounds for more than a decade by healing her relationship with food (through emotional healing, somatic experiencing, mindset shifts, and more), Lisa founded Out of the Cave, LLC., where she combines her comprehensive expertise as a Social Worker (LMSW), Certified Personal Trainer, Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Teacher, and Public Speaker to guide emotional eaters and chronic dieters back to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual alignment. Over the last decade, Lisa has served more than 200 people in over 10 countries through the transformational process of healing, inspiring a revolution in mind-body-soul health and helping thousands return to wholeness.
Lisa Schlosberg, Out of the Cave, LLC
What inspired you to build your own business and work with “emotional eaters”?
My lived experience. I was morbidly obese my entire childhood and weighed more than 300 pounds at 17 years old. I spent my whole life being told, primarily by medical professionals, that the solution to my “weight issue” was simple: eat less, exercise more. When I decided to finally take that advice (to the extreme, admittedly), my rapid 150-pound weight loss resulted in malnourishment, symptoms of starvation, loss of a menstrual cycle, and a lifestyle of eating disorder tendencies. To my shock and disappointment, I found myself at the least I ever weighed as well as the least happy and least healthyI had ever been. Because I was no longer using food like a drug to numb my feelings or the pursuit of weight loss to distract me from them, I felt like I had suddenly gone from being strong, tough, and in control to a messy, vulnerable, sensitive, emotional disaster. Physically, my body was half the size; emotionally and spiritually, I felt exposed and scared without the shield of armor I used for protection my whole life. My subsequent struggles with yoyo-dieting, body image, and anxiety around food/eating inspired me to embark on a journey to figure out how I could maintain my weight while simultaneously restoring health and balance to my mind and body. I was determined to not end up like the 98% of dieters who gain the weight back (plus some), and heal from an eating disorder at the same time. Something deep within me knew it was possible. My research led me to discover ground-breaking information that changed the trajectory of my life. Finding the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study, for example, introduced me to the expansive world of mind-body medicine, the relationship between trauma and physical health issues, the correlation between abuse/neglect and obesity, and the connection among food/eating and other addictions. Armed with this information and inspired to replace the question “What’s wrong with me?” with an exploration of “What happened to me?” everything finally made sense: I was 5-years-old when my family experienced a major trauma and, without the ability, resources, or support to cope with my emotions, I stuffed my feelings down and food became my primary source of comfort. From this lens, it was no wonder why I spent a lifetime “struggling with obesity,” (it’s just not what the diet culture or Western medical model ever suggested). Stabilizing my weight and relationship with food required that I integrate this evolved way of thinking, prioritize healing the root issue of chronic dissociation, and focus on reconnecting my mind, body, and soul. In addition to supporting my body with proper nutrition and regular movement, I learned healthy ways to regulate my stress, question my thoughts, challenge my beliefs, feel my emotions, identify and express my needs, and embody my authentic self. I am grateful to say that it’s been a full decade since my weight loss and I live a life of freedom, health, balance, and authenticity I would have never known possible. My mission is to spread this message of holistic, mind-body-soul healing. My purpose is to bring this life-changing – life-saving – work to as many people as I can during my time here on Earth.
What does “Out of the Cave” mean? Why is that the name of your business?
As Albert Einstein once said, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." This means that in order to “solve” the perceived “problems'' of emotional eating, weight gain, and negative body image, it’s not just about changing what we eat and how much we move. In order for us to do this in a holistically healthy and permanently sustainable way, we need to change the way we think about and conceptualize the “solutions.” There’s a reason that addressing these concerns in the physical dimension with interventions such as dieting, weight loss programs, and exercise continues to result in “failure,” and it isn’t due to a lack of willpower, discipline, or motivation. There is nothing wrong with us. For example, if the biggest problem you have with food is that you’re an emotional eater, it’s not a problem you have with food; it’s a question about how you’re coping, or not, with your emotions. We need to reexamine the issues of emotional eating(and not eating)from a mind-body perspective and revolutionize our understanding to reconsider the root cause. Out of the Cave stands for the belief that each human deserves to be seen, heard, and understood in their uniquely individual relationship with food, and that all manifestations of “disordered” eating are an invitation to heal on a deeper level. For us to improve our collective relationship with food and individually experience a future of “intuitive eating,” body image freedom, and empowered decision-making around food within a diet-driven and fat-phobic culture, we first must raise the level of consciousness through which we see it. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave illustrates that rise of consciousness. It tells the story of prisoners who are chained together inside a cave and led to believe that shadows they see on the walls in front of them are actually dancing figures – until one prisoner eventually escapes from the cave and discovers the truth. I believe many of us, myself included, have suffered from internalizing the cultural narrative that emotional eating, for example,is bad, wrong, shameful, and a reflection of weakness, failure, and/or personal character. Without examining this societal indoctrination, we live our lives “in the cave” of judgment, fear, shame, embarrassment, and ultimately, disconnection from ourselves and our bodies. The journey of “coming out of the cave” that I support my clients with begins with learning the scientific truth: using food to cope with trauma, regulate emotion, and manage stress is a normal and appropriate function of the brain-body system, and nothing to be ashamed of. With this foundation of self-compassion, we are liberated from the outdated (and factually incorrect) way of thinking, “see the light,” safely reconnect with the body to support an intuitive relationship with food, and move toward the fulfilling life of freedom we are all worthy of.
How exactly does your coaching program work?
The comprehensive curriculum I designed for my signature coaching program delivers 12 modules over 14 weeks. Through the educational course material, homework assignments for deeper integration, live Q&A calls, and a private forum to connect with other group members, we explore and answer three questions:
1. “How did we get here?” (Modules 1-4)
a. As Dr. Gabor Mate explains, “Trauma is the separation from the body and emotions.” As a result of early stressors and/or lack of adequate emotional support, many of us live in disconnection from our bodies. As a result, peace around food and eating can feel elusive. If we’re struggling with “disordered eating” of any kind, it begs the question: what happened throughout our life that created a chasm between our mind, body, and soul to begin with? How and why did we arrive at a place where fueling ourselves became so dysregulating? In order to bring more stability to the relationship we have with ourselves, our bodies, and food moving forward, we have to understand the many biopsychosocial factors that contributed to so much dis-ease in the first place. Dedicated to examining the root of our issues, these modules unpack the cultural influences on our relationship with our bodies, the brain science of emotional eating (and compulsive dieting), as well as the fundamentals of mind-body medicine to support clients with replacing a lifetime of self-blame and judgment with validation, empathy, and self-compassion.
2. “How do we get out?” (Modules 5-8)
a. Now that it’s clear what belief systems, thought patterns, behaviors, habits, and practices aren’t working for us, we’ve cleared the space to focus on those that will. These modules explore “how to eat” as a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social being. We discuss a new mindset around food that assists the brain in feeling safe, nutrition for the sake of nourishment, shifting the focus to holistic health overweight, and the psychology of feeding a healthy family. Supported by somatic practices and emotional regulation techniques, we engage in a conversation about what it means to embody the energy of love rather than fear so that outer behavioral changes are accompanied by inner healing. This creates the safety required for shifts in the mind-body-soul system to be sustainable.
3. “How do we maintain it?” (Modules 9-12)
a. The last portion of the program is about supporting group members with building a lifestyle conducive to long-term “recovery” – including how to approach experiences of inevitable “relapse.” In order to honor the lifelong nature of our relationship with food and our bodies, we work on establishing healthy ways of feeling and integrating our emotions, identifying and questioning our limiting beliefs, and examining the many insidious “people-pleasing” tendencies responsible for perpetuating the root of our mind-body-soul dysregulation. Coping with body image and reclaiming a new relationship with exercise are also addressed, as well as the importance of integrating tender and fierce self-compassion for ongoing healing and a lifestyle “out of the cave.” Do you have any quotable taglines that can give people an idea of your philosophy and approach? A few, actually! Here are some favorites:
You are a spiritual being having a physical experience, with an animal brain in a social context surviving on food. It’s valid if it feels like there’s a lot going on.
You can’t solve an emotional problem with a physical solution.
If the biggest problem you have with food is that you’re an emotional eater, it’s not a problem you have with food. It’s a question about how you’re coping with your emotions.
Just because your hunger isn’t physical doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It just means it can’t be satiated with food.
If I feel my feelings, I don’t eat them. If I eat my feelings, I don’t feel them.
It’s not that diets don’t work. They do. It’s that diets can’t end.
My four relationship with food is emotional, we cannot be intuitive around hunger and fullness until our emotions are dealt with in a way that is not eating or dieting.
If we’re dissociating from our bodies to avoid uncomfortable emotions, we’re also disconnecting from our body’s natural hunger and fullness cues. Just like sadness and anxiety, hungry and full are feelings that live in the body.
Is there anything else you want the readers to know? If you or anyone you know is struggling with emotional eating and/or a “disordered” relationship with food, it is important that you know: you are not alone, you are not doing anything wrong, you’re not broken, and it isn’t your fault. It’s brain science. You are safe to release any shame you may be holding onto, and you no longer have to judge yourself for this very normal, human condition. Your experience is valid and you are worthy of being authentically seen, heard, validated, and loved as your true self. There is hope that you can meet yourself where you are, heal from the inside out, and embody the life of freedom you desire. I’m here with you.
If this resonates with you, please click here to apply!
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