Today we’d like to introduce you to Jayne Mattingly.
Hi Jayne, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Jayne’s passion for helping others recover from eating disorders and body image issues was ignited by her own struggles with an eating disorder as a young woman. This led to her gaining a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, specializing in eating disorder recovery and body image struggles and forming what she now calls Body Grief.
Jayne is newly disabled and chronically ill, having been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), intracranial hypertension, endometriosis, autoimmune disease and spinal cord injury. In under six years time Jayne has undergone 19 brain and spine surgeries plus procedures, as well as, a total hysterectomy. For mobility, she relies on her wheelchair, rollator, and her service dog Wheatie. All of this resulting in an immense amount of what Jayne has coined as Body Grief.
Jayne has used her experience with Body Grief, as a young disabled and chronically ill woman to inspire her nonprofit, The AND Initiative.
The AND Initiative is a nonprofit that is about destigmatizing mobility aids to those with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses that impair their daily mobility.
Jayne talks about eating disorder recovery and body acceptance disability issues daily with her highly engaged community of 21.6k Instagram followers. She has also been featured on NBC News, Apartment Therapy, Pushing Forward Podcast, Today.com, Business Insider, The Papaya Podcast, Sober Curious, Full and Thriving: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Fox 24 News Now and more.
Jayne is also a “Say It Brave” Ambassador and Community Partner for one of the most prestigious and well-known eating disorder treatment centers in the United States, Eating Recovery Center (ERC) In addition, she has sat on numerous speaking panels and has given lectures on eating disorder recovery and mental health to students at the University of Dayton and the Alliance for Eating Disorders organization. She is now launching her debut novel, This is Body Grief, with Penguin Random House Publishing March 18, 2025 available in all places books are sold.
Jayne is a Chicago, Illinois, native and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and pets.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
If I were to describe any of this journey I would not use the word smooth! This journey has helped me build resilience, patience, and understand that healing is not linear and a constant. This journey has also taught me to lean into and find my community as my body has changed. Going from a non disabled person to a disabled person has been quite interested and has opened my eyes to ableism and my own internalized systems of oppression. My inner healing has helped me find strength. I don’t take that for granted.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an author, a creative, a helping professional, and a story teller. I have not only lived Body Grief but I have studied Body Grief for years in a professional setting and on a more intimate level. This is Body Grief, my book is all about making peace with the loss that comes with living in a body. This book shares my story, while working through the seven phases of Body Grief and tells the beautiful stories of several humans from all walks of life who share their experiences with Body Grief. From Pregnancy loss, mennopause, injury, covid, gender dysphoria, the grief caused by racial inequity, weight fluctuations, chronic illness, aging, puberty, etc Body Grief is universal. I believe that grief and gratitude can coexist, we can live with these grievances and also be grateful, not in a toxic positive way, not in a silver linnings way, but in a way where we can move forward with our grief. I don’t wish or expect to “heal” my disability instead I now know how to cope and live a better and more adaptive live with my disability and chronic pain. The more we can process our Body Grief the more connected we can be with our bodies and present we can be in our lives.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Music is always healing to me! Anything and everything Ruby Warrington writes is just golden. Finding community on social media has been wonderful as a newly disabled person, I don’t think people understand the power of social media for those of us who aren’t able to drive or get out of the house.
Pricing:
- 29.00 – Book
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/740125/this-is-body-grief-by-jayne-mattingly/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaynemattingly/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-mattingly-b6306667/
- Other: https://jaynemattingly.substack.com/
