Starting "Impermanence" (2009)

 

Leigh Cohn is a self-trained oil painter from Carlsbad, CA who has given away more than 275 paintings for walls in homes and offices throughout the United States and a few foreign countries. Twenty of his canvases decorate the walls of Forever Balboa Park in San Diego, one of which was used as the artwork for the 2016 Balboa Park Explorer Pass. His work has also been shown at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts and the Charity Wings Arts & Crafts Center in San Marcos, CA. In 2022, he solicited $13,617 in donations to the Ocean Conservancy from his artwork's enthusiasts. A large representation of a local landmark hangs in Carlsbad City Hall, and a nine-foot wide seaside triptych is on display in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

In addition to painting, Leigh Cohn, M.A.T., CEDS is the retired publisher of Gürze Books, a company that has specialized in eating disorders education and publications since 1980, which he owned with his wife, Lindsey. They have two sons, Neil and Charlie.

During his professional years, Cohn coauthored 18 books, spoke at scores of colleges and universities, and received numerous awards. His travels brought him to most major cities in the United States and many internationally. He and Lindsey are regarded as pioneers of the eating disorders field.

 

Professional Accomplishments

 

Leigh Cohn, M.A.T., CEDS was the Publisher of Gürze Books, a company that has specialized in eating disorders education and publications since 1980. Before retiring, he was also founder and Editor-in-Chief of EATING DISORDERS: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (Routledge) and publisher of Eating Disorders Review, a clinical newsletter, and Eating Disorders Recovery Today, a newsletter for individuals in recovery and their loved-ones.

Since the early 1980's, he has spoken about eating disorders at colleges and universities, hospitals, to community groups, and at professional conferences for the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals, American College Health Association, Massachusetts Eating Disorders Association, and The Elisa Project, among others. In 2013, he was a plenary speaker on males and eating disorders for the Academy of Eating Disorders at the International Conference on Eating Disorders in Montreal. He has also been a featured speaker at such universities as Notre Dame, Duke, Penn State, Ohio State University, the University of Calgary, University of Nebraska, Universtiy of Georgia, and University of California, San Diego, among many others.

The co-author of several books (see list), he is best known for Making Weight and his work on men's issues, as well as BULIMIA: A Guide to Recovery, the first ever publication on bulimia, which he co-authored with his wife, Lindsey Hall, and which has sold more than 175,000 copies. This book, their classic Self-Esteem Tools for Recovery, and others have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, and Czech. His co-edited clinical books include Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, Self Harm and Eating Disorders, and Current Findings on Males and Eating Disorders, The Last Word on Eating Disorders Prevention, and others.

Gürze Books, which was owned by Leigh and Lindsey until 2018, has released such important titles as Eating in the Light of the Moon (Johnston), Father Hunger and Body Wars (Maine), The Rules of "Normal Eating" (Koenig), The Body Betrayed (Zerbe) and many others. They founded the Gürze Eating Disorders Resource Catalogue, the most widely-used resource in the eating disorders field and bulimia.com, both of which they sold in 2013.

Leigh is also a past president of Publishers Marketing Association (PMA)-now called Independent Book Publishers Association-a non-profit trade association of 3500 publishing companies throughout the United States. An authority on publishing, he has been a featured speaker at conferences in New York, Alaska, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Arizona, and London.

As members of the Founder's Council, in 2008, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) presented Leigh and Lindsey with the Lori Irving Award for Excellence in Prevention and Awareness. In 2013, they donated a thousand-book library to NEDA, the "Lindsey Hall & Leigh Cohn Gürze Books Collection 1980-2013." In 2007, Leigh was given an honorary Certified Eating Disorders Specialist designation by the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals; and in 2005, Leigh and Lindsey received an Award for Service by the Eating Disorders Coalition in Washington DC; and, in 2016 they were recognized by the General Service Board of Eating Disorders Anonymous.

Leigh was also the subject of a feature story on WGN-News, which was televised nationally in 2005.

Leigh Cohn coauthored the following books (partial list):

(All books published by Gürze Books except where noted.)

2017 The Last Word on Eating Disorders Prevention – Routledge, New York & London
2016 Stories I Tell My Patients (with Arnold Andersen)
2016 Innovations in Family Therapy for Eating Disorders (with Stuart Murray and Leslie Karwoski Anderson) – Routledge, New York & London
2013  Current Findings on Males with Eating Disorders (with Ray Lemberg, PhD) – Routledge, New York & London
2011  Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery – 25th Anniversary Edition (with Lindsey Hall)
2004  Self-Harm and Eating Disorders (with John Levitt, Ph.D. and Randy Sansone, M.D.) – Brunner/Routledge, Philadelphia, PA.
2001  Cómo entender y superar la bulimia (with Lindsey Hall  [Spanish edition of Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery]
2000  Making Weight: Healing Men’s Conflicts with Food, Weight & Shape (with Arnold Andersen, M.D. and Thomas Holbrook, M.D.)
1999  Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery – Fifth Edition (with Lindsey Hall)    also in Italian and Czech
1999  Eating Disorders: A Reference Sourcebook (with Ray Lemberg, Ph.D.) – ORYX Press, Phoenix, AZ.
1996  Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders (with Mark Schwartz, Sc.D.)  – Brunner/Routledge, Philadelphia, PA.
1990  Self Esteem: Tools for Recovery (with Lindsey Hall) also in Japanese, French, and Chinese
1987  Recoveries: True Stories of People Who Have Overcome Addictions and Compulsions (with Lindsey Hall)
1986  Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery – First Edition (with Lindsey Hall)
1980  Eat Without Fear (with Lindsey Hall) [The first of 3 booklets which were the first publications ever written on bulimia.]