The Power of Enlightenment in Healing an Eating Disorder

A 5-Part Educative Webinar Series

Presented by
Abigail Natenshon LCSW, Psychotherapist, Eating Disorder Expert, and Author

This 5 part workshop and training series will provide you the know-how, impetus, permission and confidence you need….in yourself, and in a convoluted recovery process… to make your way effectively through this most pivotal and transformational time. Having gone through this process, you will not only have discovered how to be thin and fit without being ill, but having been reunited with your core self, you will be better prepared to cope with ease and efficiency with all of life’s challenges. 

Eating disorders are difficult diseases to detect and to understand. Even more perplexing is how to respond to them and to heal. It may feel as though you don't know yourself anymore…that in seeking better control of yourself, you have lost it completely, having been taken hostage by the dictates of a tyrannical eating disorder. What may have started out as benign enough quirks or habits around eating and weight management may have morphed into dangerous and lethal dysfunctions that impair your capacity to learn, to interact with others, and to healthfully develop and mature emotionally.

Perhaps you've heard that eating disorders cannot be cured, that "once anorexic, always anorexic" Don't believe it. When help is optimal and effective support is forthcoming, eating disorders are completely and fully curable in 80 percent of cases. The most complex cases can be vastly improved and managed effectively with on-going care.

Eating disordered individuals need to:

·          Become knowledgeable

·          Become proactive

·          Take charge by letting others intervene to help you until such time as you are capable of resuming self-care, self-regulation and self-control.

The sooner you define the problem, the sooner you will be able to find lasting solutions. In seeking health professionals to work with you, seek professionals who are eating disorder experts and who support the notion that enlightened parents, families and/or spouses can become MVPs on any treatment team, in some ways and at some times. The therapist you choose needs to understand the importance of the family system process and the potential for that process, either present in treatment or in absentia, to support your recovery.

This workshop will offer you insights into:

• Your self, if you are struggling with an eating disorder or on the verge of developing one.

• The eating disorder with all of its ramifications for you and your loved ones.

• The workings of the multi-disciplinary treatment team.

• The role of specific family members, who bear witness to the effects of the ordeal of disease and/or recovery, alongside of you.

The workshop series describes what you need to do and to learn, why, and how, as a person suffering from an eating disorder who is looking towards the prospect of recovery. 

·          It will teach you to become an astute observer of your self.  

·          It will help you to refine your instincts and problem solving skills in supporting your self and in learning to care-take yourself responsibly.   

·          It will help you prepare yourself to take action.

A person recovered from an eating disorder is a person better prepared to handle life. 

Stepping Up to the Plate:
The Power of Enlightened Parenting in Healing a Child's Eating Disorder

A Webinar Series

Session One

Facing the Challenge: Diagnosis…  Is this an Eating Disorder?

Preparing yourself to heal

Segment goals:

·         To prepare patients to prepare themselves to understand and face the eating disorder, and the effects of this illness on his/her life and family.

·         To teach patients to identify what they see in themselves and to recognize signs that   may not be readily observable or that may appear to represent normalcy.

·        To help patients gain the internal resources they need to become effectively responsive to signs and symptoms, and to recognize the need for professional care.

·         To refute myths and misconceptions about eating disorders and how they heal.

Session Two

Expanding your Eating Disorder I.Q.

Educating yourself prepares you to anticipate and handle the experience of treatment and recovery.

Segment goals:

·        To educate patients about eating disorders and their implications in order to understand more fully the complexities of their healing experience.

·        To educate patients about what to anticipate upon entering the treatment process, and how to work within the process, with therapist and treatment team.

·         To inform patients about what qualities to seek in procuring the most expert professional care for themselves.

Session Three

Treatment Nuts and Bolts

Treatment needs to be timely, diverse, integrative, motivational, collaborative and respectful of the patient and family system.

Segment goals:

·        Learn what needs to happen in eating disorder treatment, how, when, why, and at what pace.

·         Discover the unique obstacles to eating disorder recovery.

·         Understand the unique nature of eating disorder change in an integrative process

·         Determine whether your ED treatment is as effective as it could be.

·         Understand what treatment progress looks like.

·         Learn whether there may be more you could be doing to enhance more effective and   timely recovery outcomes.

Session Four

A Patient’s Personal Journey

Parents and families suffer from the existence of an eating disorder within the family system, in tolerating its effects on the child, as well as impact on every member of the victim’s family and social system.

Segment goals:

·         To become knowledgeable about if, whether and how to involve supportive others in your treatment.

·         Dealing with your own fear and resistance to healing. Discover how your own remaining attitudes about food, weight and exercise might in some respects, affect your recovery.

·         A patient’s continual emotional and behavioral self-appraisal provides an opportunity for personal growth, as well as a deeper connection with one’s own self.

·         Identify your own counter transference issues throughout the recovery process.

Session Five

Recovery and Beyond

Recovery from an eating disorder is a complex and on-going process that occurs on many levels over time.  A deceptive process, it fluxes and varies throughout its natural course, and at times may become hard to read and assess.  It is not unusual for behaviors that appear to signify “failure” to actually reflect growth and progress.

Segment goals:

·         To recognize and repair a stuck recovery process.

·         To recognize when a successful recovery progress may take on the appearance of failure.

·         To recognize that anything less than a complete recovery from an eating disorder is not a sustainable or lasting recovery and is not good enough for you.

·         The many faces of recovery: recounting recovery stories

Dates to be determined.

Cost per session:  $50

For individuals who are unable to attend a live broadcast of these educational webinars, for the same cost, arrangements can be made to offer hard copies of any or all of these lectures and the PowerPoint presentations.

Contact Abbie to register for the full course or specific segments.