Lori Kucharski – Disordered Eating Behaviors: Identify and Treat the Underlying Trauma

Outline

Prepare Yourself for Every Stage of the Therapy Process

• Intake Strategies for Successful Therapeutic Intervention
  • Looking beyond anorexia, bulimia and bingeing
  • Conclusive questions for improving your client intake
  • Red flags of disordered eating
  • Address common issues that may not be in DSM-5®: Orthorexia, compulsive overeating, diabulimia
  • Digging for the roots: is the disordered behavior a result of previous trauma?

Implement Comprehensive Clinical Assessments

• How to choose the right assessment for your client
  • Specific assessments for the spectrum of disordered eating and trauma
  • Additional tools for depression, trauma, or other comorbid conditions
• How and when to use assessments for tracking progress
• Frequency considerations – get what you need without client burnout
• Collaboration within the treatment team

Techniques and Interventions to Transform Your Therapy

• Non-diet paradigm to transform your client’s relationship with food
  • Health at Every Size (HAES)
  • Intuitive eating
  • Respect, love and nurturance for self
  • Reframing your approach as the clinician
• Trauma-informed tactics for each stage of counseling
  • Trauma Specific Evaluation of Intake Procedure: what NOT to say/do
  • Process and treat trauma and dissociation
• Determine the appropriate order of interventions
• Avoid re-traumatization
• Therapeutic techniques that assist in stabilization
  • EMDR
  • IFS Mapping: Address the various mindsets of each patient
  • Attachment focused work: Self and others
  • Art and sand tray interventions, journaling/logging
• Therapeutic approaches for stabilization
  • Evaluate the Window of Tolerance
  • Incorporation of Polyvagal Theory to increase client stability
  • Prevent overwhelming trauma symptoms

Put It All into Action: Considerations for Implementation Into Your Practice

• Overcome common blocks in therapy
• Systemic vs. individual: When to include family/partners
• Self of the therapist exercise: Countertransference, bias
• Case discussions and video demonstrations
• Effective documentation for ongoing treatment
• Risks and limitations