Jayne Mattingly
Author, Disability Advocate & Founder of The And Initiative
As the author of her debut book, This Is Body Grief (Coming Spring 2025),
Jayne Mattingly defines and conceptualizes the under recognized grief experiences that come with living in a body. Through her lived experience with an eating disorder, as well as navigating life with a physical disability and chronic illness, Jayne invites individuals to wonder about their own experiences with body grief.
Meet Jayne
Jayne’s passion for helping others recover from eating disorders and body image issues was ignited by her own struggles with an eating disorder as a young woman. This led to her gaining a
master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, specializing in eating disorder recovery and body image struggles.
Jayne is newly disabled and chronically ill, having been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, intracranial hypertension, endometriosis, autoimmune disease and spinal cord injury. In under four years time Jayne has undergone 14 brain and spine surgeries plus procedures, as well as, a total hysterectomy. For mobility, she relies on her wheelchair, rollator, and her service dog Wheatie. All of this resulting in an immense amount of what Jayne has coined as Body Grief.
Jayne has used her experience as a young disabled and chronically ill woman to inspire her nonprofit, The AND Initiative. The AND Initiative is a nonprofit that is about gifting AND destigmatizing mobility aids to those with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses that impair their daily mobility.
Jayne talks about eating disorder recovery and body acceptance disability issues daily with her highly engaged community of 20.3k Instagram followers. She has also been featured on NBC News, Apartment Therapy, Business Insider, The Papaya Podcast, Sober Curious, Full and Thriving: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Fox 24 News Now and more. Jayne is also a “Say It Brave” Ambassador and Community Partner for one of the most prestigious and well-known eating disorder treatment centers in the United States, Eating Recovery Center (ERC) In addition, she has sat on numerous speaking panels and has given lectures on eating disorder recovery and mental health to students at the University of Dayton and the Alliance for Eating Disorders organization.
Jayne is a Chicago, Illinois, native and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and pets.
This Is Body Grief
The universal experience of disillusionment, sorrow, and loss that comes with simply existing in a body.
From a rise in chronic illnesses, to increased incidents of addiction, eating disorders, and self-harm,
to growing gender dysphoria, to discrimination against bodies deemed “other” in a racist, sexist,
and ableist society, it has never been harder to feel at home in one’s body.
It’s no wonder that our world is awash with unprocessed “Body Grief".
We experience Body Grief each time our body gets sick; every time we feel betrayed by our body;
and in the moment we realize how little control we have over our biology.
We grapple with Body Grief with the changing of our bodies; with each loss of bodily autonomy;
and each time our body fails to live up to the airbrushed standards of our social-media saturated world.
The Book
Coming Spring, 2025, Jayne's debut book - This Is Body Grief explores the experience of body grief across lived experiences and perspectives
The Podcast
Discover body grief through interviews from individuals from different backgrounds who recognize the grief associated with living in a body
Presentations
Learn about Body Grief from Jayne first-hand by bringing her in to speak to your organization. View a sample of this offering below
Social
Follow Jayne as she navigates being newly disabled woman living with a chronic illness as she shares her experiences with her community
