2015 SUMMER SCHOOL FOR PROFESSIONALS-                                     (Earn 6 CEU's!) 

Description of workshop:  A deep sense of shame often underlies and drives eating disorders (ED) and substance abuse (SA).  When these two disorders co-occur, the level of shame intensifies.  The special challenges of treating these co-occurring disorders will be discussed and this presentation highlights shame as a key force underlying and perpetuating the cyclical nature of these disorders.  Clinicians will learn how to identify and help individuals break the patterns of shame that drive their destructive behaviors. 

 Three objectives & outcomes

1. Participants will be able to articulate and identify the special challenges in diagnosing and treating co-occurring ED and SA.

Description of workshop

 Eating disorders and Trauma are among the most challenging clinical entities to treat because they result in significant disruptions in almost every aspect of one's life, in large part because of how they impact so pervasively upon the very way in which we perceive ourselves and the world around us.  Over millions of years of evolution, during which time our primary function was survival, we have all been hard-wired for fear and threat-recognition, and it is this very hard-wiring and propensity for fear-based responses that is the evolutionary underpinning of the neurobiological pathways that appear to be involved in the development of eating disorders and of trauma.  

 Both eating disorders and trauma can be seen as pathological expressions of otherwise innate instincts wherein the connections among sensation, perception and emotion become entangled, distorting the emotional valence that becomes attached to events and life experiences.  The affected see and feel extreme threat even when none exists, and the intensity of that fear results in equally extreme responses, such as restriction or purging, even in the face of dire consequences.  When these responses become pathological, they can become entrenched and any attempts to change those responses can, in and of themselves, be perceived as threatening.  

 The connection between eating disorders and trauma is more than just diagnostic overlap.  

When they co-occur, this challenge becomes magnified and represents a marked impediment to treatment.  The nature of how emotional memories are processed also impact upon the pervasiveness of the underlying pain and anxiety of eating disorders and trauma.

 I will be presenting a summary of our understanding about the underlying connections among sensation, perception, and emotion, with a particular focus on the emerging role of memory reconsolidation, and how to apply this understanding in the service of providing safety and healing in the midst of all this threat.

 Three objectives & outcomes

1. Participants will be able to identify the mechanisms and purpose of fear, anxiety, and avoidance present in eating disorders and trauma. 

2. Participants will be able to better understand the role of emotional memory and memory reconsolidation. 

    Description of workshop

 This workshop will teach treatments providers to utilize effective assessment techniques in order to assess baseline knowledge, attitudes, and investment of supports in their loved one’s illness and recovery process. The workshop will present key information that caregivers need to know about nutrition and psychology. It will also identify ways to address ingrained patterns that maintain illness, misinformation, and lack of apparent investment and/or caregiver burnout.

 Three objectives & outcomes

Description of workshop

This workshop will discuss the research shown in the process of treating eating disorders and the long-term care that must be provided. During this care, how a provider can learn to practice self-care, self-motivation and perseverance in one’s work and how to also then teach the families and clients on how to maintain hope in a full recovery, maintain motivation for change and how to persevere with the length of time for a full recovery and the relapses that may occur.

Three objectives & outcomes

1.  Providers will be able to describe in detail what “comprehensive treatment” entails in treating someone with an eating disorder

2.  Providers will be able to list 5 ways to ensure self-care, reduce “burn out” and increase their own motivation for treating eating disorders

3. Providers will be able to describe 5 useful techniques to help their clients remain hopeful and motivated for a full recovery.