What is Eat Breathe Thrive?

Eat Breathe Thrive is an integrative program that helps people eat mindfully, build resilience, and connect with their bodies.

Eat Breathe Thrive (EBT) is a structured intervention focused on four core skills or “pillars” (functional action, embodied intimacy, inner awareness, and self-regulation).  EBT includes many modalities — yoga, meditation, psychoeducation, and peer support.  You work on the skills with a facilitator and peer support group in a course through a series of sessions.

There are two versions of the EBT intervention — a seven-week program aimed at eating disorder prevention and a four-week program focused on eating disorder recovery. The sessions are two hours in length; one hour of discussion and activities, followed by a yoga and meditation practice. The yoga practice is designed to help you embody and integrate your insights. You also receive at-home exercises to help you apply what you learn in your life.

EBT is an evidence-based intervention. It was developed by people who have recovered from eating disorders to help others improve their relationship with food, body, and self. It includes practices to help you tune into hunger and fullness signals, cope with difficult emotions, build healthy relationships, and foster a healthy relationship with your body.  It is offered in schools, treatment centers, schools and universities, and anywhere people gather to connect, learn, and grow. 

You can join an EBT course virtually or in person. Our facilitators offer courses in more than fifty cities, on almost every continent around the world. Some courses are offered for free, and some courses are offered at a fee determined by the facilitator. 

All facilitators have completed extensive training with the EBT organization. Facilitators represent a wide array of professional backgrounds — counselors, yoga therapists, nutritionists, and health professionals. EBT is always done in groups, and for those with active eating disorders must be accompanied by individual treatment.  In a clinical setting, EBT may be offered as a twice-weekly (rather than once-weekly) group.  

EBT is premised on the idea that eating disorders are not just cognitive disorders — they have somatic components that are often unaddressed in psychological therapies. EBT focuses on somatic skill building — helping you identify hunger and fullness signals, cope with emotions, connect with yourself, and appreciate and enjoy your physicality. EBT also includes a service component, designed to help you build a sense of purpose, honor your growth, and offer it as a gift back to others. 

Eat Breathe Thrive is one of the most studied somatic interventions for eating disorders and has gained traction among researchers and clinicians as evidence of its clinical effectiveness continues to accumulate. 

There have been five significant trials of EBT to date, including two randomized controlled trials. The evidence shows effectiveness in reducing symptoms of eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Importantly, EBT has also been shown to bolster protective factors that reduce the risk of eating disorders and prevent relapse (e.g. interoceptive awareness, self-care, body appreciation, social connection, mindful eating, and emotional coping).