|
For
Nutritionists
and Registered
Dieticians
The Unique Use
of the
Nutritionist’s
Self in the
Treatment of
Eating Disorders
Eight goals and
objectives
qualifying this
lecture for CEU
status:
·
Understanding what eating disorders are and their full implications
for individual
and family.
·
Dispelling myths and misconceptions
·
Assuming diagnostic responsibility; recognizing an elusive
diagnosis
·
The nutritionist’s unique use of self in the face of unique and
complex
disorders
·
The nutritionist's role as member of the out -patient treatment
team; putting a
team together
·
Including parents as recovery advocates for child patients
·
The Nuts and Bolts of eating disorder treatment; The Nutritionist’
Tool Box
·
Facilitating a committed recovery and aftercare
Treating eating disorders as a specialization is surely not
for the chicken-
hearted; my
professional
colleague and
co-founder of
Eating Disorder
Specialists of
Illinois, a
talented
nutritionist,
cites a
conversation
with her advisor
in graduate
school about
treating these
diseases. The
argument of her
superior was to
beware of this
specialization…
“the work is
tough, the
clients
resistant, the
changes minimal,
and the
liability risk
enormous, as
people die from
these
disorders.”
Despite the fact that ED are the most lethal of all the mental
health
disorders, their
treatment has
fallen through
the cracks of
formal
education, as
most graduate
schools for
health
professionals
fail to include
ED courses in
their
curriculum. As a
result,
there are
not enough
adequately
trained
specializing
professionals
available to
meet patient
numbers and
demands, and
patients and
families are
being deprived
of the quality
of treatment
they need and
deserve.
Comprehensive and integrative diseases require comprehensive
and integrative
care.
As care-givers, educators, mentors, cheerleaders, therapists,
and role models,
nutritionists
are as important
to the cure of
life threatening
eating disorders
as is the
psychotherapist
and physicians.
Agenda Outline
Nutritional
Treatment
Challenges
-
Understanding
ED; what
they
are...and
what they
are not.
-
Eating
disorders
are not
primarily
dysfunctions
of
eating
or
weight
management
-
How the
eating
disorder
works
-
Busting
myths
-
Capturing an
elusive
diagnosis
-
It is
for
nutritionists
to
diagnose
what is
often
missed
in the
medical
evaluation
-
A look at
how the ED
patient
heals
-
The unique
use of the
nutritionist’s
self
-
Human
connections
heal.
-
What sets ED
treatment
apart?
-
The
nutritionist’s
roles
-
The
parent
connection
-
The
nutritionist's
role as
member of
the out
-patient
treatment
team;
putting the
team
together and
functioning
within it.
-
ED Treatment
Nuts and
Bolts:
Getting down
and dirty in
the trenches
-
The
Nutritionist’s
“Tool
Box”
-
Healing
through
Action
-
Doing
what
works
-
Facilitating
Recovery and
Aftercare
Psychotherapist Abigail H. Natenshon has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders with individuals, families, and groups for the past 36 years. She is the author of When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder, A Step-by-Step Workbook For Parents And Other Caregivers, Jossey-Bass, 1999. 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.
|
