Heather Baker, LCSW-S, CEDS-S

For me, success has never been about the money or fame - there's not a ton of money in this field if you're taking insurance. It's really about making an impact and having a legacy. I would never say it's a financial success like having 3 houses and traveling the world - that to me is not success, though of course that would be an added bonus. Success for me is about client satisfaction - when clients leave here saying they got so much out of the program, they accomplished all their goals, and they're able to go out and live their life to the fullest. It's about being able to pass it on, to go out in the community and hear somebody talking about their diets and say, hey, you know, let's talk about something else, because that's so not important. Success is also training doctors who get zero education in eating disorders - only 20% of medical schools teach any classes on eating disorders, and yet that's the go-to first person people see. If I'm one person but I can train up a lot of people, then the more I can do. Having a bigger stage beyond just my small community would be really helpful.

Dream bigger than what you think you can do. Then do one thing today that will get you one step closer to that dream or goal.

It is easy to feel scared that you might fail, make mistakes or not be good enough. This can take hold of you and prevent you from excelling at what you love to do and really go at it. Make the mistakes, be less than perfect - as this happens and you ask for help, seek guidance and learn to be more proficient, you will eventually be the one that others come to for help in being the best they can be.

I think in this world we live in, mental health is going to continue to be a major issue and major struggle. I don't think anybody's trained growing up on how to manage this amount of stress, this amount of grief and hardship in the world. Eating disorders are not going away - they're just increasing with the normality. You have both ends of the spectrum - parents who are hyper-focused on their kids eating the healthiest foods and not gaining weight, doing 3 sports at the same time, making sure they're eating really healthy food and don't eat that cookie. Then you have the other end where maybe there's parents who are more neglectful and the kids are doing a lot on their own. But an eating disorder is a coping mechanism, an adaptation to whatever else might be going on. When you think about how rampant sex abuse is right now and how that's normalized, and mental health is rising in young adults and in males most right now - males have anorexia but there's also this pressure where they're not okay unless they're in a big body and super muscular, so they're taking steroids and creatine and forcing themselves past fullness to gain weight. It's the same thing as somebody trying to be underweight. We all have a design body that our body thrives at, but if it doesn't fit what you think is socially acceptable, then you're kind of at a fight with your body to be something that it's not, and that's not sustainable and causes health consequences and psychological consequences.

I value humility. I show my human side of not being perfect and asking for help. After 26 years in my field, there is always something to learn, someone I can learn from and can still sharpen my skills.