Treating Eating Disorders the New-Fashioned Way
Can On-line treatment be effective for treating patients with eating disorders? Yes, but the patient should be well known by the therapist and the patient’s symptoms significantly reduced or eliminated prior to making the transition. In the fall of 2014, I, for the most partclosed my NY psychotherapy practice in order to live full-time on a mountaintop […]
Body Alterations and Enhancements: Positive or Negative
Whatever the media and advertising’s role is in driving shape, weight, and appearance, western culture responds. ‘You too can look and feel more beautiful.’ ‘Lose weight and feel great.’ ‘Eliminate the appearance of wrinkles.’ Women and men buy in to media driven hype. We want to be ‘it,’ or have ‘it.’ We enhance (through cosmetics,) transform […]
Perfectionism: Inherited or A Psychological Solution?
In some ways, I am a perfectionist. On the plus side, I can count on myself to get a job done, and generally on time. I know my patterns enough to know that even when I procrastinate, particularly if I have a deadline, I will usually meet it. So, I have stopped worrying when I procrastinate. […]
Genes and Eating Disorders
Living in an eating disorder professional world and a culture that is certifiably nuts about its expectations regarding body size and shape, I push myself to read the latest research and whatever else comes to my “in box,” regarding eating disorders. Staying relevant is the key in so many things… A recent on-line article titled, “Ten Things […]
How Family Becomes Food
Most people who know about eating disorders or are familiar with someone who has one understand that there are many reasons that contribute to the development of an eating disorder. Each person is unique and therefore the constellation, which contributes to cause, is also unique. Biological, psychological, relational, media, and cultural facts can, and often […]
Food is Family
You don’t have to be an eating disorder specialist to understand the significance of food. Food plays a role in every physical, recreational and relational arena in life. Food is a representation of a family’s love and often becomes the battleground when a member develops an eating disorder. A culture is defined by its food – its […]
Compassion and Eating Disorders this Holiday Season
This blog post goes out to all of those in the thick of suffering with an eating disorder this holiday season. The Internet is not short on articles for sufferers about how to cope with or help loved ones who have an eating disorder cope with food and relationships during the holiday season. There is an abundance […]
Gratitude: What I Have Learned From My Patients
Individuals with eating disorders and their families often struggle during the holiday season. Fear of food, fat, self-condemnation, relational stress, anxiety and depression often are themes in households. Families brace themselves to deal with the awful and debilitating behaviors of their loved one as they try to maintain their compassion, empathy and non-reactive voice in their communications. On this Thanksgiving and through […]
Why Do Women Trash Other Women’s Bodies?
Why do women trash other women’s bodies? Body image and body issues continue to be ripe for conversations of all sorts. Finding fault with someone else, particularly criticizing their body size and shape, is sometimes a national pastime; the media i.e. reality TV feeds the frenzy. Sometimes, there is a genuine concern for a loved one, […]
Eating as an Eating Disorder Therapist
Noticing how others can watch what you eat as an eating disorder therapist has its downsides when it is known what you do for a living. What someone does for a living is a common topic of conversation when meeting people for the first time. Usually, in social situations, I casually avoid talking about what I do […]