About Appetite for Change
Hello and welcome :)
My name’s Lumen (they/them), and I’m the person behind the Appetite for Change Project.
I’m a queer (aro-ace, intersex), nonbinary, multiply neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled person, clinical psychologist, supervisor, educator, and lived experience advocate, living and working on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Boonwurrung Peoples. I recognise the immense privilege I hold as a White Australian citizen and resident (of settler background, descendant of British convicts and immigrants), from a middle-class and financially secure background, with a high level of tertiary education. I also recognise the historical and ongoing systems within psychology, psychiatry, and the broader medical model – including colonial, racist, cisheteronormative, ableist, classist, and sanist practices – which continue to silence, oppress, pathologise, and harm marginalised people, and I am committed to working in ways that resist and redress these harms.
Eating disorders, differences, and difficulties are significantly more common amongst SBLGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, chronically ill, disabled, and otherwise marginalised folk. These intersections and unique needs, however, are often overlooked by mainstream frameworks and discourse, replicating the very harms that we should be dismantling, and leaving people without access to safe, affirming care. This isn't okay, and I believe it's also a big reason why ED prevalence, duration, and relapse is so high; because people simply aren't offered support that recognises or meets their needs, and the surrounding systems further compound that issue. Appetite for Change exists to address this.
Through lived experience, professional experience, and community knowledge, I have seen firsthand the harm that comes from care that doesn’t fit. I have also witnessed the transformative impacts that come with affirming, inclusive, intersectional, depathologising support that understands the whole person, alongside the great need for – and power of – systemic change.
Appetite for Change is something I have dreamt of creating for years, deeply believe in, and am proud to be doing. It is my commitment, and our collective opportunity, to build a space where the needs, voices, knowledge, and experiences of marginalised people with eating disorders are centred and supported, creating change that welcomes everyone, of every brain, and every body, everywhere.
There’s room for everyone at the proverbial table, especially those who have never been offered a seat, and it’s an honour to have you here.
