Fatmisia and Clinical Counseling Decision-Making in Master’s-Level Counselor Trainees

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have documented an increase in fat people in recent decades, which is being met with a backlash of anti-fat biases, or fatmisia. Fatmisia is prevalent in most aspects of society, especially among fat people who have internalized fatmisia. Utilizing a diagnostic questionnaire in combination with the Fat Phobia Scale–Short Form and the Weight Bias Internalization Scale, this study explored the relationship between client body size, the presence of a major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis, and if applicable, the severity of MDD symptoms assigned by counselor trainees (N = 113). Results were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and covariance. This sample (N = 113) significantly differed in diagnoses assigned to obese clients by assigning more severe MDD. Study limitations and implications are discussed.