Expert Advice for Clinicians
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Remember that with effective
treatment, ED are curable in 90% of
cases.
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This sub-specialty demands unique
requirements for care, standing
apart from generalist practice or
other specialties. Recognize and
respect this.
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Highly skilled clinicians need to be
open to an integrative treatment
perspective (modes, methods and
milieus) in response to an
integrative disorder; and to using
oneself with mindful versatility
(and sometimes courage),
particularly in the face of counter
transference issues.
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Keep expectations for recovery
changes realistic; the process of
achieving recovery feels worse
before it feels better, and
sometimes the best learning is
camouflaged in behaviors that may at
first appear to represent failures.
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When a clinician and client sit down
together face to face, he or she
needs to become aware of the
presence of three separate entities;
you, the client, and the eating
disorder. All must be respected,
addressed and managed.
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When the individual ED client walks
through your door, it is safe to
anticipate that effective treatment
will address a virtual "crowd,"
including families and loved ones,
members of the professional team
inpatient as well as outpatient, the
school, etc.
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There is hardly a more fulfilling
specialty. Nothing is more
gratifying than creating hope where
none exists, where recovered clients
declare that they have "their life
back" or that they are now "the very
best self they can be."
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Doing What Works: An Integrative
System for the Treatment of Eating
Disorders from Diagnosis to Recovery
by Abigail Natenshon is a robust and
comprehensive resource for all
members of the treatment team.
Natenshon teaches courses online;
See www.empoweredparents.com for
details.
Psychotherapist Abigail H. Natenshon has
specialized in the treatment of eating
disorders with individuals, families,
and groups for the past 40 years. She is
the author of When Your Child Has An
Eating Disorder, A Step-by-Step Workbook
For Parents And Other Caregivers,
Doing What Works: An integrative system
for the treatment of eating disorders
from diagnosis to recovery. Based on
hundreds of successful outcomes, this
book shepherds concerned parents
step-by-step through the processes of
eating disorder recognition, confronting
the child, finding the most effective
treatment for patient and family, and
evaluating and insuring a timely
recovery. A guide to eating disorder
prevention, this book is useful to
parents, health professionals and school
personnel alike in countering the
pervasive epidemic of unhealthy eating
and body image concerns, and destructive
media and peer influences. Her work can
be reviewed further at
www.empoweredparents.com and
www.empoweredkidZ.com.
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