Fat Joy Wisdom Circle
Break Free From Diet Culture Using the Wisdom of the Enneagram
A 3-month, online group coaching program
Diet culture studied you, manipulated you, and sold you body shame.
Identify the sales pitch diet culture used to target you.
Disrupt it alongside a group of fat folks who are in it with you.
You already know diet culture is a con.
But… diet culture targeted that con to your personality.
Every con starts with research on the target.
Diet culture researched you.
It studied how you're wired, then built the hack that fits you exactly.
Diet culture learned what you fear, what you long for, what you're proud of, what you're ashamed of…
and what you would do anything to protect.
Maybe the pitch sounded like keeping the peace.
Maybe it felt like love, looked like winning, promised safety, or disguised itself as goodness.
Different pitches.
Same diet culture machine working in the background.
The belief that your body is the problem.
Then diet culture built a custom pitch for each of those tender places and delivered that pitch until it sounded like your own voice.
We're unhacking ourselves from diet culture.
We've got the map, a plan, and good company.
What Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is:
Six gatherings, two hours, live, online
Three months of brave conversations in a circle where you belong
A cozy group of about 12 fat folks who are in it with you
Customized resources: a professional Enneagram report and the Diet Culture Wants You workbook
$1200 USD, or three monthly payments of $400 USD
This is for you if:
You're fat, by which I mean you live with size-based marginalization
You know diet culture is a con, you can hear its pitch in your head, and you want to know why it works so well on you
You're tired of doing this work alone on your couch
You excited for your actual Enneagram type in a 40-page professional report, instead of a free quiz that gave you a different answer three times
You want three months with people who already know what it is to live in a fat body
You long for a brilliant, supportive group cheering you on, celebrating your wins, and lifting you through the tough spots
Three months of powerful conversation, coaching, and community.
-
Details
Dates & Time —
Tuesdays, 7- 9pm Eastern Standard Time
January 19, February 2, 16, March 2, 16, 30
Join via Zoom
Resources —
iEQ9 Enneagram Assessment + Report
Diet Culture Wants You Workbook
Small group of twelve participants
-
Investment
Pay Once —
One payment of $1200 USD
Pay Installments —
Three monthly payments of $400 USD
5% of all profits are donated to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)
My Individualist hack feels like it speaks directly to parts of me I've struggled to put into words.
I remember being a kid in the locker room at school looking at the other kids and feeling sick to my stomach and like I could never have a normal life because of my body.
When I learned that envy was a compass for my longing, I realized that it was confidence, relationships, and joy that I was really envious of all those years ago in the locker room.
The unhacking reframe will help me let go of the shame I feel around envy, and instead have it guide me toward what I'm really wanting.
That’s a real shift in my life.
– C. JonesKind Words
What we actually do.
Our group is designed to be engaged, collaborative, and live, and the wisdom in the room belongs to all of us. Each gathering has a focus, and I'll bring questions and prompts to open it up. From there, you discover what's true for you, sometimes in quiet reflection and often in conversation with the circle.
We build this together. In our first gathering, we'll commit together to a set of community agreements, and from there we experiment, play, and learn as we go, even when it gets messy.
We'll draw from many ways of knowing. Enneagram insights, coaching frameworks, neuroscience tools for behaviour change, creative and writing practices, mindfulness, and the lived fat wisdom every person brings through the door (or through the Zoom link).
We bring in real moments from our lives, because unhacking happens in the doctor's office and the family group chat. At the end of each gathering, you'll choose one practice to carry into the next two weeks, and we'll hear how it went when we're back together.
We go slowly. This is a spacious circle, built through an anti-oppression lens and shaped by care and accessibility. We rest, we reflect, we laugh. We make room for your nervous system to catch up with everything you're learning.
Which of your personality types did diet culture hack?
Hint: there are probably at least three!
Peacemaker
· · ·
Helper
· · ·
Loyalist
· · ·
Achiever
· · ·
Enthusiast
· · ·
Individualist
· · ·
Investigator
· · ·
Challenger
· · ·
Perfectionist
· · ·
Peacemaker · · · Helper · · · Loyalist · · · Achiever · · · Enthusiast · · · Individualist · · · Investigator · · · Challenger · · · Perfectionist · · ·
‘I’m here, that is enough.’
Such important words for me. Sophia is so astute about how we come to see ourselves, what underlies it, and how this all gets interwoven with diet culture.
I found her to be spot on in describing so much of how I (as a Helper) react, but so full of kindness and compassion, with a strategy for the path forward.
– Melissa C.Kind WordsOur GatheringsstackList
-
Circle One: Placing Ourselves On The Map
We'll begin by building the foundation for a community of belonging, with group agreements and time to get to know each other.
The Enneagram is the map for our work together in this circle, and we'll use it to spot exactly where diet culture hacked you.
-
Circle Two: Our Main Pattern
Each of us has a primary type, and diet culture built its pitch to exploit it.
We'll explore what this looks like in our lives, talk through real situations, and begin to see where we can interrupt the pattern and choose differently for ourselves.
-
Circle Three: Body, Heart, Head
Our three centers of expression are powerful allies against diet culture.
We'll connect to each one and practise turning up the volume on the ones that have gone quieter over the years.
-
Circle Four: Stressed Vs. Resourced
Each of us leans into a predictable type when we're stressed, and reaches for another when we're resourced. Both are useful.
We'll map ours against an ordinary week, notice where diet culture throws us off, and practise regaining our balance.
-
Circle Five. Our Two Neighbours
Connected to our primary type are two neighbouring patterns we can learn to reach for.
They support us, grow us, and make great allies against diet culture. We'll learn how to invite them in.
-
Circle Six: Where It All Lands
By now you'll know your main pattern, your three centers, where you go when you're stressed and resourced, and your two neighbours.
Now we put all of it together into one picture of you, unhacked. We'll reflect on and celebrate what we've done, and plan how we keep moving forward.
A ‘hack that felt like a fight,’ my entire life could be summed up in that phrase.
I've been trying to build my own army, one woman at a time who could "ignore" diet culture along with me by refusing to be controlled. Knowing now that I retreat as an Investigator type and heal as a Helper type really shows me the cycles of harm and healing that I have been on throughout my life.
I really think the step to "activate my own protection detail" will be a life changer, and that absolutely will be my focus in the coming months. You have given me beautiful insights and gentle acceptance.
– Mel T.Kind WordsA bit about Sophia
Hello lovely! For over a decade, I’ve been creating joyful, rebellious spaces for fat folks, from naked spa experiences, writing workshops, virtual craft gatherings, and the Fat Joy Podcast.
I'm also in this with you, diet culture hacked my personality early. Therapy, my coach training, and the Enneagram all helped me to significantly divest from diet culture and live more liberated than I knew was possible.
For the past twelve years, my professional coaching work has been about inviting folks to align with who they really are and move past whatever stands between them and their bigger dreams. And I especially love doing that work in fat community.
For a listing of my credentials, see below.
I live on the lands of the Anishinabek Nation, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (what is now called Ontario, Canada). At home, I share life with my husband, two teenaged step-kids, and a doodle named Beatrice.
What makes Wisdom Circle different
-
3,500+ hours of individual coaching & thousands of hours of group facilitation experience
Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from the International Coaching Federation
Accredited Enneagram Practitioner from iEQ9 Integrative Enneagram
Certified NeuroTransformational Coach (CNTC) from BeAbove Leadership
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) from the Co-Active Training Institute
Group Coaching Fundamentals Certificate from Verve Coaching
Adult Training and Development Master's Certificate from York University
Master of Information Science from Western University
I also run creative writing workshops with Firefly Creative Writing and am a Leadership Coach with corporate clients.
Here's my LinkedIn…let's connect!
-
I’m a large fat person who’s been doing this work from the inside out.
I’ve worked in startups, built fat liberation offerings that have changed lives, and now run my own thriving coaching business.
With over 3,500 hours of coaching and thousands more facilitating groups, my life’s work is to create brave, joyful spaces where people show up fully.
-
Everything inside the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is grounded in research, coaching mastery, and lived fat wisdom, but we don’t grind here.
This is a slow, spacious space built through an anti-oppression lens and shaped by practices of equity, care, and accessibility.
We rest, we reflect, we laugh.
We make room for your nervous system to catch up with your dreams.
-
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all program.
Together, we weave a rich tapestry of tools and practices: professional coaching frameworks, leadership development, Enneagram insights, inner critic and saboteur work, visibility and influence exercises, time and energy flow strategies, neuroscience tools for behaviour change, creative and writing practices, mindfulness, and so much more.
Every modality is chosen to support your unique way of being and knowing.
-
In over a decade of fat liberation work, I’ve never seen a practitioner who uses the Enneagram for fat liberation.
Having used the Enneagram with many clients, I’ve seen how impactful and even life-changing it can be. Which is why I knew I wanted to bring it into fat liberation coaching.
Fat joy is our birthright, and the Enneagram can helps us reclaim it.
A ‘hack that felt like a fight,’ my entire life could be summed up in that phrase.
What struck me most about the Investigator episode was the section about compulsive tracking. I have recently thought a lot about how the need to track and control is bound up in past survival strategies that have now become a burden for me. Letting go of the need to track is proving very difficult and I'm glad that this podcast adds to my motivation to resist the urge to box myself in with stats and numbers. I am trying hard to work against the notion that my productivity is the one reason I can legitimise my existence as a fat person. Just "being" is extremely difficult while being fat, but I am reframing letting go of the need to track as resistance and the expression of my right to exist as I am.
- Carlie K.It was so eye-opening to listen to Sophia explaining diet culture and the Enneagram 9, The Peacemaker.
It finally hit me how my personality so easily got hijacked by diet culture!
Sophia’s storytelling style made it so easy to understand how the Peacemaker’s desire for harmony and belonging, paired with a world that has normalized diet culture, make it so easy for us to come to the (incorrect) conclusion that our bodies are what’s wrong in the world.
The question she poses - who am I making things easier for? - was a game changer for me and something that I will be thinking about for a long time as I continue to unpack how diet culture has hacked my personality and work toward my own body liberation.
– Sabrina G.Kind WordsYour questions.
My answers.
-
You'll get a short intake form and a link to book a 30-minute call with me. We'll talk about what you're hoping for from the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle, and I'll answer every question you've got.
Not sure yet whether it's the right fit? Email me before you join (sophia@fatjoy.life), and we'll figure it out together.
-
Nope. The iEQ9 Integrative Enneagram assessment and report are included, and you'll have your results before our first gathering.
The Enneagram provides a map of what motivates people, and diet culture has been using our motivations against us for a century.
So, we're going to get to know our motivations even better than diet culture does. Then we can spot the hack as it happens, interrupt it, and choose for ourselves.
-
The Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is built for fat people, especially for those of us who rarely find spaces that center our experiences, bodies, and brilliance.
That said, "fat" isn't a number or a size cut-off, it's a lived experience. If you move through the world in a body that's marginalized because of size (whether you call yourself fat, plus-size, mid-fat, superfat, or you're still figuring out what language feels right), you belong here.
This space is intentionally centered around fat folks' realities: our joy, our challenges, our hopes. It's not the right space for people who don't experience size-based oppression. It is the right space if you're seeking community, learning, and liberation alongside others who know what it's like to be treated differently because of their bodies.
If you're unsure or feel "in-between," please reach out before you join. I'm always happy to chat and help you discern whether the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle feels like the right fit for you.
-
Let's talk more about this together because what matters is how you're holding it.
If you're pursuing weight loss and also questioning it, noticing the pull, curious about where it came from and what it's costing you, then perhaps the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is for you. All of us arrive having spent time in the grey area of diet culture.
One of our community agreements is that this is a fat positive space where we believe all bodies are good bodies. We resist cultural body, beauty, and wellness standards. And we welcome and celebrate body diversity and fatness.
So, if you're mid-protocol with a goal weight and you want a supportive place to talk about your weight loss, the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is not for you. You're always welcome as a person. The whole point of unhacking is to stop chasing the body standards diet culture set for us, and a goal weight pulls in the other direction.
If you're not sure, email me before you join (sophia@fatjoy.life), and we'll talk it through.
-
Such a good question, I'd be wondering the same thing!
Here's what I can tell you: if you're drawn to the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle, you're likely thoughtful and committed to divesting from diet culture. That shared vision is our starting place, and it means we're already connected by something powerful and important.
And, because this is a real, human space, there will be differences. We each bring our own lived experiences, identities, and ways of thinking. Sometimes that means we'll bump into discomfort or misunderstandings. Growth and community are messy, and nothing has gone wrong when that happens.
You won't have to navigate it alone. I've designed this space to hold both safety (as much as possible) and stretch, with community agreements, repair practices, and gentle facilitation so that care stays at the center.
-
I'd love to! We're all impacted by diet culture, no matter the size of our bodies, and I'd like to create a group for folks who aren't fat but want to end their own body shame and not pass it on to others.
Email me if this is you. sophia@fatjoy.life
-
Nope. The series is a great resource, and you may find you want to watch a few specific episodes once you get your Enneagram report.
You'll also receive the Diet Culture Wants You workbook, which has key information from the series in it, including the unhacking practices.
-
Yes, I’ve got options for Canadians. Let’s talk in our intake call, or you can email me first (sophia@fatjoy.life)
-
I get that, deeply. Many of us live with real financial limits and long histories of being told we're not worth investing in. The Fat Joy Wisdom Circle offers a monthly payment plan with no penalty for paying in instalments, which I hope makes it more accessible. I'm also open to suggestions that may help you participate. Please reach out (sophia@fatjoy.life), and we'll talk.
If the cost isn't something you can manage right now, then this isn't the right time to join, and please know that's okay. I hope you can return when it is the right time or explore other ways to build fat joy in the meantime. For instance, if you're wanting inspiring stories from other fat folks dreaming big, check out the Fat Joy Podcast or come hang out with other fat folks at the Fat Joy Silent Book Club.
-
Because the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle is a small, intimate group experience, there are no refunds after the program has begun.
If you need to withdraw before we start, we'll talk it through, and maybe find someone to take your place.
-
The live gatherings are where the connection happens, and where most of the unhacking happens too.
That said, life also happens! Should something unexpected arise, my hope is that you'll listen to the recording and share your insights at our next gathering.
If you know you might miss a gathering, reach out ahead of time, and I'll work with you to make sure you can stay fully engaged and part of the group.
-
There isn't traditional "homework" here, no busywork or assignments for the sake of proving yourself. Most exercises and reflections are optional, designed to support your exploration and learning.
At the end of each gathering, you'll let us know what practice you want to carry into the next two weeks.
-
I feel this way too, a lot. It's easy to look around and feel like joy and hope are luxuries right now. The world feels heavy, unjust, and uncertain. But that's exactly why this work matters.
The Fat Joy Wisdom Circle isn't about ignoring what's happening, it's about responding to it with clarity and care. When fat folks gather, joy follows…we're refusing erasure. We're building futures where we not only exist but thrive. And I want to be part of creating that future!!
Your unhacking is an act of resistance. Your joy is a map for the world we're trying to build. And together, we make that map real.
-
I hope so! Running the Fat Joy Wisdom Circle takes a lot of time and energy, so I may need a break, and the next circle might not be until next year.
-
I’m honoured! Here are some places to learn more about me and the projects I’ve created:
Fat Elders & Teachers
A non-exhaustive list of the people who have helped me navigate my way out of diet culture and anti-fatness, develop liberatory practices, and have fat joy while doing so:
Jes Baker
Sonya Renee Taylor
Ragen Chastain
Tricia Hersey
Octavia Butler
Every person I interviewed on the Fat Joy Podcast
Elise Loehnen
Kaveri Patel
Dan Simmons
Emily Nagoski
Sabrina Guerin
Co-Active Training Institute (CPCC)
BeAbove Leadership
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)
Lindy West
Aubrey Gordon
Virgie Tovar
adrienne maree brown
Dr. Brene Brown
Chris Kay Fraser and the whole team at Firefly Creative Writing
Danusha Lameris
Naomi Shihab Nye
Prentice Hemphill
Sabrina Strings
Tarzan Kay
International Coaching Federation (PCC)
Verve Group Coaching
iEQ9 Integrative Enneagram Solutions
This does not equate with an endorsement of the entire body of work of any of the names listed above, rather, each of these folks have deeply impacted me in some way.
Let’s do this – together
