81 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 toward any size body (Christensen, 2021), whereas antifat attitudes describe dislike and discrimination toward people perceived as overweight (Meadows & Daníelsdóttir, 2016). Antifat attitudes have created a marginalized group that faces external stigma throughout society, with some individuals feeling internal stigma due to personal experiences. Despite encounters with prejudice, some clients who are overweight will still prefer an averageweight counselor because of their own bias toward being overweight (Moller & Tischner, 2019) and will have similar antifat attitudes as average-weight individuals (Schwartz et al., 2006). Contingencies of self-worth encompass the domains in a person’s life that create self-esteem (Clabaugh et al., 2008). When body weight is a domain, success or failure in their ability to lose or gain weight can lead to lower self-worth. Because of weight bias, working with a counselor who mirrors the client’s undesired body weight may impact the client’s willingness to work with the counselor. Examining weight bias across the spectrum and correlating BMI with antifat attitudes will give us further insight into these findings and if they influence client bias toward counselors. Purpose of the Study This study examined if client weight bias influences a client’s trust in a counselor’s competence, willingness to follow a counselor’s advice, and desire to select a counselor for therapy. We further examined if a client’s antifat attitudes are associated with their weight bias toward counselors. The following research questions guided this study: 1) Does a counselor’s weight impact a client’s decision to trust, follow advice, and select the counselor? 2) Is there an association between a client’s antifat attitudes and weight bias toward counselors? 3) Are there differences in weight bias toward counselors based on the socio-demographics of the clients using their services? and 4) Do participants with eating disorders have similar perceptions of counselors due to weight bias as those without eating disorders? Methodology Recruitment At the time the research was conducted, the researchers—Amy Biang, Clare Merlin-Knoblich, and Stella Kim—were affiliated with the same university; as such, IRB approval was obtained from that university before recruiting participants. People were eligible to participate in this study if they were 18 years or older and signed an electronic consent form indicating their willingness to participate. We recruited participants through purposive and snowball sampling in three ways. First, Biang emailed a compiled database of counseling professionals within their acquaintance to request they send the survey to previous clients in an effort to obtain sufficient participation from people who have received counseling. In addition, requested participation through two research boards of counseling associations (Academy of Eating Disorders and International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals) allowed us to recruit sufficient participation from previous clients with EDs, as well as other diagnoses, as we requested they send the survey to their former clients. Second, to obtain participation from people with and without experience in counseling, Biang posted calls for participation on social media accounts (i.e., Instagram and Facebook). Third, to further increase participation, Merlin-Knoblich forwarded a participation request to their university’s counseling program listserv. After 2 weeks of data collection, we sent a second follow-up call for participation and then continued data collection for an additional week.
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