The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 92 of self-judgment, a person may not use it as a criterion toward others or in working with professionals. As a profession, we must continue supporting movements that promote acceptance of all bodies and destigmatize weight. With strong social media campaigns against weight bias, we can dispel the stereotypes about those who fall outside socially acceptable standards and replace them with acceptance. Demographics In addition to antifat attitudes, we chose to study socio-demographics because weight bias may fluctuate based on various group identities. Our results showed no statistically significant differences in age, gender, ethnicity, or BMI. These findings are relevant as they imply that weight bias may exist throughout all groups. However, we interpret these results cautiously, as the sample population was predominantly female, with fewer ethnically diverse participants, and more participation from people over 30. Notably, results for ethnicity were similar to previous research indicating that Black and White women had the same bias and weight stigma toward others who were overweight and underweight (Davies et al., 2020b). Eating Disorder Consideration Because of the nature of EDs, we added this category to the study to explore if a counselor’s weight would impact participants with an ED more. As counselors working with EDs often explore issues around weight, exercise, and eating concerns, we hypothesized that these participants might have a higher bias toward underweight and overweight counselors. We found that participants with EDs were not significantly different from participants without EDs in weight bias toward counselors in any of the variables. This finding is favorable information for counselors in this specialty, as it does not align with the findings from Moller and Tischner (2019) that suggest that the weight of a counselor is a barrier to treatment. Experience of Counseling A final surprising finding revealed in our results was that people with previous counseling experience had similar levels of weight bias to those who had not worked with a counselor. Participants who previously participated in counseling may recognize attributes, such as expertise, empathy, and compassion of a counselor, as more valuable in their relationship than weight. Because attributes such as genuineness, empathy, unconditional positive regard (Nienhuis et al., 2018) build the therapeutic relationship, it is feasible to see counselor weight as a non-factor. However, we found that prior experience in counseling did not mediate the weight bias participants demonstrated. This result gives room for concern that weight bias may diminish the initial value of core conditions and counselor attributes studied in the past. Perhaps weight bias is pervasive in the decision to work with a counselor. Implications Despite years of education and experience, weight bias may rule out competent counselors. Professionals who fall outside the average body weight are hyper-visible (Beggan & DeAngelis, 2015) and prone to judgment of their weight. This study fills a gap in the research pertaining to the way weight bias influences a client’s willingness to trust, follow counselor advice, and select their counselors. Knowing how weight bias impacts the counseling profession can help counselors become aware of an issue that may affect the therapeutic alliance. In response to the study results, we identified two key implications for the counseling profession. First, the results are indicative of a multicultural issue. Many people see weight as a medical concern instead of a social justice issue (Christensen, 2021). This idea limits the amount of education and training counseling graduate students receive on the topic of weight, leading to the request to address
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