Episode 266: Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti, PhD - Why Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm

In this episode, Molly and Clarissa welcome back Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti for a rich, grounded conversation on body forgiveness and why it can be a turning point in embodied healing. Drawing on her clinical work, research, and lived experience, Ann shares that "forgiving your body" isn't a mental exercise or forced positivity—it's a felt shift that helps move people from control and correction toward listening, trust, and reconciliation with the body as an ally.

Ann also introduces themes from her upcoming book, Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm: A Somatic Guide to Forgiving and Healing Your Relationship With Your Body, and revisits the foundation of her work from Befriending Your Body—offering an informed, non-pathologizing approach for anyone healing from disordered eating, chronic dieting, trauma, shame, illness, or body distrust.

What you'll hear in this episode

• How Ann's postpartum autoimmune illness became a doorway into deeper embodiment—and body advocacy
• The difference between interoceptive awareness (noticing signals) and standing up for your body when you're dismissed
• Why embodiment is a psychospiritual construct—and how "being beside your body" can be a practical starting point
• How to tell the difference between mind fear-stories and what your body is actually communicating
• Entry points for people who feel body connection is inaccessible: curiosity, regulation, and "giving your body a chance"
• What it means to find your center—and why being "off-center" fuels critical thoughts and body war
• How diet culture targets predictable times of day when people feel more vulnerable in body image
• A clear breakdown: body forgiveness vs body acceptance vs body neutrality
• Why pushing the body to "comply" before safety and trust are built can feel re-traumatizing
• The clinical risk of "behavioral recovery" without embodiment—and why unresolved embodiment work can look like "relapse" or "symptom swapping."
• Ann's powerful reframe for "my body failed me" (and the deeper words that often live underneath that phrase)

Memorable takeaways

• Body forgiveness is not forced forgiveness. It's a mind–heart shift that often arises from understanding, regulation, and compassion rather than effort.
• Curiosity is an access point. It creates space where judgment collapses and new options become possible.
• Words land in the body. Shifting language (from "failed me" to "became unwell," "changed," "declined," "disappointed," "let me down") can soften the adversarial stance and open an embodied conversation.

Mentioned in this episode

• Befriending Your Body (Ann's book and the evidence-informed compassion-based program)
• Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm (Ann's forthcoming book on somatic body forgiveness)
• Embodiment as a "container" for recovery (not just behavior change)
• Self-compassion components (mindfulness, common humanity, kindness) as supports for body repair

For listeners who want to go deeper

If you've ever felt like your body is the problem—or you've done everything "right" and still feel distrust—this conversation offers a different path: not fixing the body, but rebuilding relationship with it. Ann's approach emphasizes safety, steadiness, and the kind of compassion that can hold grief, regret, and shame without getting stuck there.

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The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.