Multitude of Counselors

Eating Disorders

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jennifer Jill Schwirzer Robert Davidson (Host), Nivishi Edwards, Paul Coneff, Shelley Wiggins

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Series Code: MOC

Program Code: MOC000003A


00:26 Welcome to a Multitude of Counselors.
00:29 We're so glad you came to our program today.
00:32 We're gonna be talking about mental health issues
00:34 which is what we do on this program
00:36 and we talk about solutions
00:37 and how God can helps us to become healthier.
00:40 I've got my illustrious treatment team here today.
00:43 I've got Paul Coneff, he is from Texas,
00:46 he is a marriage and family therapist
00:48 by training.
00:50 But he also has a prayer and discipleship ministry
00:53 called ''Straight 2 the Heart'' and through that ministry,
00:56 he ministers to people that are struggling with loss,
00:59 trauma, addictions, and he points them to the Cross
01:01 in the most really beautiful and redemptive way.
01:05 We've also got Shelly Wiggins from Michigan
01:08 and she runs a private practice called...
01:11 Driftwood... "Driftwood Counseling.''
01:13 And she is very, very broad
01:16 in what she does through that practice,
01:18 but she likes to do things
01:20 to focus on things like addictions, anxiety,
01:23 and recovery from abuse.
01:25 And she uses not only talk therapy,
01:28 traditional talk therapy but also equine therapy,
01:31 working with horses
01:33 and we're gonna be talking about that during the show.
01:35 We've also got Nivischi Edwards.
01:38 Dr. Nivischi is a private,
01:40 virtual private practice counselor.
01:43 She has, she teaches
01:44 at Southern Adventist University,
01:46 she's an inspiring author and she likes to focus
01:49 on developing good relationships
01:52 even relationship,
01:54 good relationship with your self,
01:55 because after all we have a relation with ourselves,
01:58 so she is a relationship expert.
02:00 We also have my co-host, Rob Davidson.
02:03 He works with me as a private practice counselor
02:07 through Abide Network.
02:08 He is from the DC area and one of the things
02:11 that's really close to my heart
02:12 that Rob likes to specialized in is,
02:14 he helps man built biblical manhood integrity
02:18 and learn how to be servant leaders.
02:20 I'm so thankful for that.
02:22 Today, we're going to be talking about eating disorders.
02:26 Eating disorders by definition are not surprisingly disorders
02:29 that have to do with eating.
02:32 But there are three main eating disorders
02:35 in diagnostic manual
02:36 and I'm just gonna give those briefly
02:38 and with the brief description of what they look like.
02:40 First of all, there is Anorexia.
02:43 Anorexia is characterized by underweight.
02:45 Person has to be, I believe it is 15% underweight
02:48 to qualify to be anorexic.
02:50 They must be unduly focused on food and diet
02:55 and figure and weight
02:57 and their self-esteem in particulars
02:59 is unduly tied to those things.
03:02 Bulimia is the same in that regard,
03:04 the self worth is unduly tied to weight.
03:07 However, people with bulimia are not underweight,
03:11 they are typically normal weight
03:12 or a little higher sometimes
03:14 and they engage in binging and purging.
03:18 Binge eating disorder
03:19 is the basically the binging without the purging
03:22 and binge eating disorder is not surprisingly
03:25 the most common of the eating disorders.
03:29 The prevalence of eating disorders,
03:31 there's a very interesting question from my study,
03:34 most eating disorders are found in wealthy countries.
03:38 It's kind of a rich man's disease.
03:40 It tends to be that in the places in the world
03:42 where people ever have a scarcity of food,
03:45 they don't mess with food, you know,
03:46 they have this kind of sense that it's sacred somehow.
03:50 And it's interesting because women are of course
03:53 much more inclined toward eating disorders.
03:55 Here is a little illustration about little graph.
03:58 So what's the prognosis?
03:59 Well, all eating disorders are treatable
04:02 and they do respond to treatment.
04:04 But I want to insert a caveat here
04:06 and that is that when an individual
04:08 has what we call ego-syntonic disorder,
04:13 that means a disorder
04:14 if that is in sync with the ego,
04:16 it feels good to them
04:17 as opposed to an ego-dystonic disorder
04:19 which they don't like to have.
04:22 This person actually enjoys having that disorder.
04:25 And anorexia is just such a disorder
04:28 and people with anorexia tend to like to be underweight,
04:32 even though they don't consider themselves underweight,
04:34 because they have a distorted body image.
04:36 And so it can be difficult to treat
04:38 someone who doesn't dislike their illness.
04:42 So it's going to be very challenging
04:44 but I want to give a praise report here.
04:46 I'm sort of recovered person with anorexia.
04:49 I had anorexia when I was 19.
04:52 My mother sent me to a couple of different counselors.
04:55 One of them told me, I scared him,
04:58 was really interesting.
04:59 But anyway, I got passed it and God healed me
05:02 so even though for that period of time
05:04 I really clung to my disorder.
05:06 Ultimately, I was freed and thank God for that.
05:09 So the treatments include of course, counseling,
05:11 particular group therapy, psycho education.
05:14 Sometimes meditation can take the edge off the urge to binge,
05:17 and of course, lifestyle can improve brain chemistry as well
05:21 and equine therapy.
05:23 So let's talk about equine therapy, Shelly?
05:25 Where I find out about equine therapy
05:28 is from doing some extra training
05:30 at Remuda Ranch in Arizona,
05:33 actually they locate in Wickenburg.
05:35 And they did 20 years of data research
05:39 with the treatment that they were doing for adolescence
05:42 and women in their mid 20s.
05:45 They found that the team approach
05:48 that included family therapy,
05:51 a faith portion of their treatment plan
05:55 and the use of equine therapy
05:57 was what got them the greatest outcome.
06:00 So can you define equine therapy for us?
06:02 Yes, it's equine assisted growth and learning.
06:07 What's an equine?
06:08 An equine is equest, which means horse.
06:12 So working with horses and people together.
06:17 I guess the easiest and quickest way
06:19 to explain it is a horse never lies,
06:23 it functions like a mirror to a person's emotions.
06:26 And every time we do these sessions,
06:30 you would think that we handed the script to the horse
06:32 on how to respond to a certain client
06:35 or patience disorder.
06:38 It is phenomenal how awesome God
06:41 and His creation
06:43 and how He has created this particular animal
06:46 to serve us if we'll spend the time.
06:49 So you talked about Remuda Ranch.
06:52 And by the way,
06:53 I've heard they've the best treatment cutting edge
06:55 but you do equine therapist yourself, right?
06:57 Yeah, the model
06:59 that I'm certified in this called Eagala,
07:02 which means equine assisted growth and learning.
07:05 So it doesn't always have to be just psycho therapy,
07:07 some people come and do like a retreat,
07:10 a leadership team building, you know,
07:12 like the old ropes course
07:14 that can do different activities with horses.
07:19 I've done an eating disorder group
07:22 where the entire group is there working with the horses.
07:27 It's just really a phenomenal modality.
07:31 I have worked with a patient
07:34 who is struggling with anorexia,
07:36 and she was pretty much non-verbal
07:39 for the first four months and I thought you know...
07:42 What do you mean non-verbal? She wouldn't talk?
07:44 We would sit for 45 minutes
07:47 and I'd ask her few questions now and then,
07:50 embrace that beauty of silence
07:51 as we know as counselors sometimes that time happens
07:54 and we don't always have to talk and feel the air
07:57 but she was literally silent and I thought, you know,
08:01 I can't keep taking her money.
08:05 We're just sitting here and I'm thinking,
08:06 what am I doing to help her?
08:08 Wow.
08:09 And it was one of those amazing moments of she said,
08:12 you know, "Thank you for being patient."
08:14 Wow. "And just being with me."
08:16 And here you were feeling guilty.
08:18 Yeah, I was thinking, I've to produce something or,
08:20 you know, do something, right.
08:22 And we did just a few sessions of equine therapy
08:25 and I'll never forget she was just brushing the horse
08:29 and then all of a sudden she just started to sob.
08:32 Oh, that's amazing. It's a very powerful modality.
08:37 It's nothing like new agey voo-voo that kind of stuff.
08:41 Lot of people ask me, you know, as a Christian,
08:43 "What are you doing dabbling in this?"
08:46 The way I look at it is...
08:47 Oh, what's airy-fairy about a horse.
08:50 Nothing, that's why I'm bringing it up
08:52 The Bible talks about horses.
08:54 Yeah, I think the most phenomenal part of it
09:01 like I said is a horse can't lie.
09:04 They meet you right where you're at.
09:07 And they sense what's going on,
09:09 if you need space, they stay away.
09:12 Yeah.
09:13 If you've too much going on, this was a...
09:16 I'll share one more quick story.
09:18 There was a girl who had not talked
09:20 about the traumatic death of her father
09:23 in over five years.
09:25 And we had done in the office cognitive behavioral therapy,
09:29 and she was just, you know,
09:31 being light hearted and just giggly
09:33 about a whole bunch of things going on in high school.
09:35 And weren't ever getting to it,
09:37 so we go out to the ranch, one session, one session only
09:41 and the horse could not stand to be in her presence
09:47 and it busted through the fence.
09:50 Because she was being so fake?
09:52 No, what we kind of concluded was that she wasn't ready
09:59 and that horse picked up on the fact that,
10:02 "I'm not ready, I'm out of here."
10:04 And that was kind of what she was doing in therapy
10:07 is avoiding, avoiding, avoiding.
10:09 And then the horse avoided her.
10:11 Yeah. That's interesting.
10:12 It was really quite phenomenal.
10:13 Yeah, I used to ride horses as a child
10:16 and then I always told, "They'll know if you're afraid.
10:19 They'll know what you're feeling in that moment."
10:21 So they are highly sensitive animals is what you're saying
10:24 that our reflectors become reflectors of the client
10:27 and help the client, kind of see their own emotions
10:30 projected on to a screen so to speak.
10:33 If people want to know more about this particular modality,
10:36 they can go to eagala.org.
10:38 It's G-A-L-A...
10:40 Yeah.
10:42 Egala.org and it tells you whole lot more about it.
10:45 Yeah, I understand that they're working with equine therapy
10:49 with the young people with addictions too,
10:50 isn't that the case?
10:52 So it's a very broad application for that therapy.
10:55 Yeah.
10:57 And you know, didn't God give us animals for purpose.
11:00 I mean if you think about it, he could have created us,
11:02 in His image there in the Garden of Eden
11:04 with just trees and flowers and fruits
11:06 and all kinds of nice stuff and no animals.
11:08 Yeah. But what did He do?
11:10 He created us in the midst of this whole,
11:13 all these other species and what did He do that for?
11:18 For our enjoyment and in a fallen world
11:22 for our healing.
11:23 You know, another metaphor that we use
11:25 when people are ready to include the faith process
11:29 is just the concept that a horse is a prey animal.
11:33 Okay, they are worried about somebody...
11:35 Preying upon them.
11:37 Yes, so even though they are large and majestic creatures,
11:43 when a client gets to realize that they are not a threat,
11:46 that they are, they can be a modality of change
11:49 and progress.
11:51 When the client realizes that the horse himself...
11:54 Can carry their burden. Oh, I see what you are saying.
11:57 Okay, a horse is built to carry.
11:59 I say, but what, can you connect that to the fact
12:02 that the horses are prey animals as you said?
12:05 Do they feel for the horse,
12:07 because the horse has fears and threats of its own?
12:10 Yes. Yeah, okay.
12:11 That was what I was wondering. Yeah.
12:13 A lot of times people are afraid of the horse.
12:16 But the horse is just afraid of us
12:19 and it's about their rapport building.
12:20 We talk a lot about as counselors that,
12:22 if you don't have the rapport and that connection,
12:25 therapy doesn't work.
12:26 Well, it's the same thing
12:28 when they're out working with the horse
12:29 if they don't give that opportunity
12:31 to reach out and connect.
12:35 But it's more tactile, you know,
12:37 they can just be brushing
12:38 and there is not a lot of verbal
12:40 that a client has to engage in
12:43 and there's a lot of processing going on underneath.
12:45 That's powerful.
12:47 So the reason why this modality works well
12:49 for eating disorders is what specifically.
12:53 Well, you can't hide from it.
12:58 I think the way relationship play out, for example,
13:04 in anorexic type behavior
13:06 is going to be more like pushing away, okay.
13:10 With bulimia, we see more of, you know,
13:15 I'm gonna pull in a relationship fast,
13:16 but then I'm gonna push it away afterwards.
13:18 You know, and so we look at their relationship
13:21 and how they are reacting to the horse
13:23 and with the horse.
13:24 And we get them to kind of apply that to themselves.
13:28 Do you think that eating disorders aren't necessarily
13:31 the results of suppressing emotion?
13:34 You think there's a lot of that
13:35 in the development of an eating disorder?
13:38 I know for me, that was the case,
13:39 I didn't know how to process all my many emotions,
13:43 and really anorexia for me was a program
13:48 where I could shrink myself down
13:49 and my life down to one simple thing.
13:51 I only had one goal,
13:52 I didn't have to face all the issues,
13:54 relationships, life purpose, you know,
13:58 being content with who I'm, content with my body.
14:01 I didn't have to deal with any of that,
14:03 all I have to do is lose weight.
14:05 My goal, my life was boiled down to one simple thing.
14:07 It was one thing you could control.
14:09 So it was a way, exactly it was a control issue
14:11 and it was a way of blocking off my emotions
14:14 and what I was facing as a young adult
14:17 trying to figure out where I belong in this world,
14:19 you know, which was a huge question.
14:21 I really think that at that age range
14:23 from like 17 to like 24 is a very vulnerable.
14:28 Would you agree with that, Nivischi?
14:29 Absolutely, the client that I've seen
14:30 who struggled with eating disorder,
14:32 the females in particular.
14:34 It's been I'm struggling with relationships
14:37 and other areas of my life.
14:39 I don't know how to sort them through.
14:41 But I can manage this relationship
14:43 here with the food.
14:45 Yes, exactly it's a way of simplifying life
14:48 to where you don't have to deal with all the stuff
14:50 and so, you know, connecting with an animal
14:52 would perhaps give you a sense of release
14:55 to where you could start to process
14:57 those difficult emotions.
14:58 Sometimes we'll give client a piece of chalk
15:01 and they'll write their emotions
15:03 or their burdens,
15:04 the things that they need to leave with the horse
15:07 and then they'll the watch the horse
15:08 go back out to pasture.
15:10 Oh, that's powerful.
15:12 Another really interesting difference
15:14 between anorexia and bulimia
15:17 is anorexia tends to be more towards
15:20 wanting to control emotions
15:23 and bulimia leans more towards body image.
15:26 Not accepting of how God has created you so.
15:32 It's really crazy and toxic how in western culture
15:36 the things that are coming through the media
15:39 about women are two basic things,
15:41 be thin and food, you know,
15:43 we're constantly bombarded with images of food
15:47 and drawn into like sensual longing as a result of.
15:50 If you watch television, the commercials
15:53 are all about food, sex and violence.
15:56 Or the programming really is,
15:58 because it's all lower brain stuff,
16:00 because there is so much competition
16:02 for watchers and viewers
16:04 that they have to get those lower brain messages in
16:06 at closer and closer intervals so that...
16:10 and because the lower brain engages more quickly
16:13 than the higher brain.
16:14 So we're seeing more and more of that kind of thing.
16:16 So we have constant bombardment with food images
16:19 and with women needing to be, you know,
16:21 thin or having just a perfect figure.
16:23 Do you work with eating disorders
16:25 with your program that you have, Paul?
16:27 Yeah, we had one girl that I had known...
16:29 her parents were involved and I think it was about,
16:30 partly about control but she have been teased
16:33 and so her solution was being teased,
16:35 she interpreted as being fat.
16:37 It wasn't an abuse
16:39 but they just had a nickname for her Kelly Belly
16:41 and so she interpreted on fat,
16:42 I believe she said, "Now, I'm gonna make sure,
16:45 I'm not fat, I'm rejected,
16:47 my parents aren't in the picture,
16:48 I'm gonna make sure."
16:50 So she ended up being anorexic and so and at to the point
16:54 where she was sick of decide her food,
16:55 she live with her grandmother,
16:57 she didn't have money for, you know,
16:58 send her to an expensive treatment program.
17:00 So we're able to pray with her,
17:01 address some of those negative thoughts,
17:03 she was able to get some healing,
17:05 do some forgiving and she was able to get some freedom.
17:07 That's powerful.
17:08 I love the horse ministry, that's very,
17:11 it's a very powerful holistic component too...
17:15 Well, let's look at our presenting problem here.
17:17 Go ahead, Rob, and why don't you read that?
17:19 Already.
17:20 22 year old, single an Asian American, Blanche
17:24 comes to the session swimming in a long dress,
17:27 thick sweater and boots.
17:29 Her wealthy mother and father have insisted on her
17:31 attending counseling
17:32 and are paying for the sessions.
17:34 Blanche is friendly and engaging,
17:36 willing to banter about various topics,
17:39 particularly religion.
17:40 She is a recent convert
17:42 to the Seventh-day Adventist church
17:44 and loves to talk about spiritual things.
17:46 Because Blanche's mother has indicated
17:48 that Blanche is under eating
17:50 and weighs only 95 pounds at 5 foot 6,
17:53 you broach the topic.
17:55 Blanche cheerfully says,
17:56 she eats huge piles of food at every meal.
17:59 You ask her, if she think she is underweight
18:01 and she says, "No."
18:02 That she is healthy. How do you help Blanche?
18:06 We have to go with a treatment team approach.
18:10 It's not just one counselor.
18:13 When we're dealing with eating disorders
18:14 especially when we get into those dangerous zones
18:17 where like with bulimia
18:19 the electrolytes are all thrown off,
18:20 her potassium is off.
18:22 You can't look at a person
18:23 and see that those things are happening.
18:25 Anorexia, the brain shrinks.
18:27 So depression is prevalent...
18:29 That's right.
18:30 So we really need a team, we need a MD,
18:32 we need a registered dietician, family therapy,
18:36 psychiatry sometimes, and then the individual therapy.
18:40 So it can become very expensive, very fast.
18:44 But if you're gonna be the individual counselor,
18:47 you need to draw in these other people
18:49 as a part of the wheel.
18:51 And it's worth it, given the fact
18:53 that 10% of the people with anorexia end up dying,
18:56 it's the most,
18:58 often fatal psychiatric disorder so it's worth...
19:03 I mean, what would you want to have spend
19:04 if the person does pass away.
19:06 So how tragic is that? Right.
19:08 I have a question, if a client comes to us
19:11 and we detect that something like this is going on,
19:14 what would be to,
19:15 how do we get them involved in the team treatment mode
19:18 that you are talking about.
19:20 Is this something that's in patient?
19:22 How to out patient?
19:24 Number one, I have them go to their primary care
19:28 and get a baseline physical to start somewhere.
19:31 You know, electrolytes, potassium, there's, you know,
19:35 and to have an idea of a doctor in your area
19:38 that has some extra training in this.
19:41 Not every primary care is not gonna, you know,
19:43 have the thousands vessels attached to treat this.
19:46 Right.
19:47 But a registered dietician for the accountability
19:50 in regards to the food because when you're doing the therapy
19:53 you can't really be the case manager.
19:57 But in one side of it, you kind have to.
20:00 But if you're wanting to do just the therapy,
20:04 get a family session in.
20:06 There's dynamics that started at the table
20:10 around the issue of food,
20:11 or like you mentioned that girl got a pet name somehow
20:16 and then that snowboarded from there.
20:20 Do you think recognizing the impact
20:24 that the disorder is having on your family
20:26 and seeing how deeply they care
20:28 and kind of almost an intervention kind of context
20:31 or bringing them into counseling is helpful?
20:34 Well, there was another interesting part
20:36 of on the research that was done at Remuda Ranch.
20:39 They did what was called Family Week.
20:41 And so they would have like a circle of families
20:45 around a family
20:47 watching the therapy take place.
20:49 Wow. For a truth and love session.
20:52 So there is a place for truth and love.
20:55 How is this impacting us as a family?
20:59 You know, just like you would have an addiction intervention,
21:02 you know...
21:03 So the families would all watch
21:04 the one family that was having the therapy
21:06 and they see them working through some of things
21:08 that probably laid the foundation
21:10 for the eating disorder to begin with.
21:12 Now that's sounds
21:13 like a lot of accountability on the family.
21:16 I would be intimidated that people would, you know,
21:19 say I was neurotic and co-dependent.
21:21 Yeah, but they've done, you know,
21:23 the 20 years worth of the research
21:24 and have the highest recovery.
21:28 I'm just curious as with someone like Blanche,
21:31 she seems to be 95 pounds 5 foot, 6 inches and says,
21:34 I eat lot, I'm fine.
21:36 What she's eating? I'm fine, I've got no problem.
21:39 So and she says, she's healthy too.
21:41 How do you help someone like that
21:43 to see that there is a problem?
21:45 Okay, that's what psycho education
21:47 you talked about, Jennifer, the psycho education
21:48 is a part of the treatment process also.
21:51 And educating them and it's a slow process
21:54 and if I think that everything is "normal",
21:57 then it's hard for me to see anything other than what is.
22:01 You know, and as he did said that physical examine
22:03 and they see everything is off and there is a serious problem.
22:06 Do they tend to accept that or they rationalize away?
22:09 It depends.
22:10 Yeah, depends on the client but that's a part of our goal,
22:13 it's to help them accept what is real
22:16 versus what they've told themselves is true.
22:18 Let me share from my own experience
22:19 'cause I don't know if you figure this out
22:21 but Blanche was me.
22:22 I was 5 foot 6 and 95 pound and I was, believe it or not,
22:27 dating my husband at this time
22:29 and my mother was very worried about me.
22:31 She would pressure me,
22:32 so her psycho education was ineffective.
22:35 It was just really all about how worried she was.
22:39 My husband on the other hand took a more gracious approach
22:43 'cause he had been through anorexia himself
22:45 before he became a Christian.
22:47 He got involved in eastern religions
22:49 that emphasized very rigid diet approaches
22:53 and he ended up starving down to like 120 pounds
22:56 and he is like big frame 5 foot 8 or something.
22:59 So he went through it
23:01 and he had this like caring approach to me
23:03 and so he would drop things,
23:05 he would say things like I had in the middle of me,
23:09 you know, struggling with this thing,
23:11 I had sore appear on my leg out of nowhere.
23:14 A black sore with bumps, it was disgusting.
23:17 And I mentioned it to him and he said, oh,
23:19 that's because you're not well nourished,
23:21 and your body can't fight it up.
23:22 But he didn't like, "see", you know,
23:24 he was very gentle
23:26 and but very matter of fact about it
23:27 and that kind of thing did get through to me
23:30 and what finally happened
23:31 if you want to hear the story is we did get married
23:34 and we moved to Montana and he was a tree planter,
23:37 and I had to wash my clothes in the creek,
23:40 I had to cook over a fire.
23:42 I had to carry trees up to him on the mountains
23:46 in these backpacks and I started to realize hey,
23:50 I like the idea of being strong.
23:51 I'm over this being all skinny and frail.
23:53 I like being strong
23:55 and I busted out of it, it was a miracle.
23:56 But I think it was a lot of,
23:58 it was feeling the security of that relationship.
24:00 That love and support. Love, yeah, exactly, exactly.
24:03 So that's my story.
24:04 I don't know if you guys figured it out
24:06 that I was Blanche but I was, I'm not Asian though.
24:08 But go ahead as you could see.
24:11 But go ahead and give us a quick recap here, Rob.
24:15 Okay, so we started talking about equine therapy
24:18 and how Remuda Ranch
24:20 is not were you work, is that correct?
24:22 Correct, I just went and did some extra training there.
24:24 Yes, but that is one place
24:26 where individual could get excellent treatment.
24:29 So equine therapy is all about a team approach.
24:32 Bringing the family in, bring faith into the picture
24:36 and send it around horses
24:38 because horses as you say cannot lie.
24:40 They are very in tune
24:42 to what's going on with an individual
24:43 and I could actually be have a testimony about that
24:46 when I was younger and I try to ride a horse myself
24:48 and I was afraid so the horse just nudged me up
24:50 against the fence and stepped on my foot
24:52 and said, "You are afraid,
24:53 I'm gonna put you in your place."
24:56 So I know horses are amazing creatures.
25:00 So you also mentioned eagala.org
25:05 and this is where an individual can go to get information
25:08 and you also mentioned that horse,
25:13 the therapy there is very tactile,
25:15 which is much different than counseling in the session.
25:19 And the horse actually can act like the counselor
25:21 because this is the safe place for the individual
25:23 to just sit with and be accepted,
25:26 and this is what is very important in counseling
25:28 is to accepted.
25:31 With anorexia there is a control issue
25:33 that we've talked about, control over the emotions
25:35 because in life there are so much that's out of control
25:38 and this is one area
25:40 where an individual can have some control.
25:42 And they can manage their life stressors
25:45 through this one modality which is food.
25:47 Bulimia on the other hand is about focusing on body image
25:51 because body image is, it's just so prevalent
25:54 in terms of what a body should look like.
25:57 And we emphasized the treatment approach must be holistic.
26:00 We're talking about bringing the medical doctor
26:02 into the picture,
26:04 registered dietician, family therapy,
26:06 individual therapy and was there another?
26:09 Group. Group therapy, yes.
26:13 And what we can do as individual counselors
26:16 is the psycho educational piece is very important
26:19 and it's a slow process,
26:21 because individuals are not always...
26:23 There's that aspect of denial, and so as we can continue
26:27 to bring psycho education into the picture,
26:30 we could be probably piggybacking
26:32 on what our parents have been telling us all along,
26:34 but maybe they will be open to what we have to say now
26:37 as the professional.
26:39 Yeah, so on.
26:41 So the Lord tells us, I want you to prosper
26:46 and be in health even as your soul prospers.
26:49 And that's why we need to deal with our emotional issues
26:52 because we can't truly prosper
26:55 and be healthy just eating the right food
26:57 and getting enough exercise.
26:59 We've got to deal with our emotional issues
27:00 and eating disorders are good example
27:02 of what happens when we don't adequately
27:07 and correctly process our emotion.
27:09 So God has promised us that he will give us,
27:13 he will strengthen us and lead us with his right hand
27:16 and he has also told us that perfect love cast out all fear.
27:20 Amen.
27:22 And so God is by our side, willing and wanting to help us
27:25 through these difficult passages.
27:27 If you know someone with eating disorder,
27:29 if you yourself are struggling with an eating disorder,
27:31 seek help first and foremost from God
27:34 but don't hesitate to get professional help as well
27:36 or group help because it can help.
27:38 Thank you for joining us on a Multitude of Counselors.
27:41 We do hope you will join us for future programs.
27:44 And until then, I want you to remember the love of God,
27:47 that He is the healer and He says
27:50 that we should cast all our cares on Him
27:52 because He cares for us, that's 1 Peter 5:7.
27:57 May God bless you.


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Revised 2016-10-10