Friday, March 23, 2012: 10:40 AM-12:10 PM
Opal One (The Charleston Marriott)
This experiential presentation will provide attendees with a toolbox of assessments and interventions for when their client has gone “through the looking glass” of the eating disorder and “down the rabbit hole” of suicidality. Interventions for suicidal clients with eating disorders will be included with video excerpts from therapy sessions.
This workshop will be presented in a combination of didactic and experiential formats. We will begin the presentation with a description of the scope of the problem of suicide in eating disorders, including research on prevalence rates, risk factors, and protective factors. We will also correct myths related to suicide and eating disorders to provide an accurate conceptualization of suicidality in this population. We will take a journey into the suicidal mind with written and videoed excerpts of therapy sessions with suicidal clients with eating disorders, utilizing Schniedman’s concept of psychache as a foundation. Joiner’s (2005) Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide will be used as a framework for understanding the path to suicide in eating disorders with a focus on research indicating that thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capacity mediate the relationship between eating disorders and suicide. Instruction will be provided in assessment of suicide in eating disorders, including assessment measures that may be particularly useful in this population. Documentation guidelines will be included. Evidence-based interventions for suicide will be reviewed with a focus on adaptations for eating disorder populations. The experiential portion of the workshop will include practice of specific interventions for suicidal clients with eating disorders, including guided imagery, safety plans, increasing positive emotions, and crisis coping cards. These activities will be demonstrated in video excerpts and practiced in role-plays during the workshop.
Research has demonstrated high suicide rates in eating disorders. In fact, some studies have indicated that the high mortality rate in anorexia is more a function of suicidality than of a compromised medical status (Crisp, 2006). Individuals with eating disorders may be at particular risk for suicide based on their unique experience of the combination of perceived burdensomeness, isolation, and capacity to engage in a lethal act (Joiner, 2005). Despite the high prevalence of suicide in eating disorders, suicidality is under-researched in this population, and consequently, not well understood. The majority of practitioners have had less than two hours of training in suicide, and fifty percent fail to ask about and adequately assess suicidal ideation (Foster & McAdams, 1993; Peterson, Luoma, & Dunne, 2002). Because suicidality is so common in eating disorders, eating disorder professionals need to be better equipped than the general therapist in treating these symptoms and related behaviors (e.g., self-harm). This didactic/experiential presentation will provide attendees with a toolbox of interventions for use when their client has gone "through the looking glass" of the eating disorder and "down the rabbit hole" of suicidality. The workshop will include a journey into the suicidal mind as it pertains to clients with eating disorders (Shneidman, 1998). Instruction on suicide risk assessment and suicidal crisis intervention, including documentation guidelines, will be covered. Additionally, treatments found to be effective in working with suicidality will be reviewed, with a focus on Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Problem Solving Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy. Adaptations for clients with eating disorders will be included, with video excerpts from therapy sessions involving suicidal clients with eating disorders. Specific interventions, such as guided imagery, safety plans, crisis-coping cards, behavior chain analysis, and increasing positive emotions will be reviewed and practiced during the workshop.
Primary Presenter:
Nicole Siegfried, PhD, CEDS
Dr. Nicole Siegfried is a Clinical Psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist. She is a Co-founder and Clinical Director of Magnolia Creek Treatment Center for Eating Disorders. She served as an Associate Professor of Psychology at Samford University from 2001-2008 and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UAB. She has published research, magazine articles, and book chapters in the field of eating disorders. She and Magnolia Creek Suicide Risk Consultant, Dr. Mary Bartlett, are investigators on a current research study with Dr. Thomas Joiner from FSU investigating risk factors of suicidality in eating disorders.
Co-Presenter:
Mary Bartlett, PhD
Dr. Bartlett is the Suicide Prevention and Risk Consultant at Magnolia Creek Treatment Center for Eating Disorders. She is an ad hoc faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a licensed professional counselor. She coordinates the Magnolia Creek research projects on suicide, resiliency, and eating disorders with Dr. Thomas Joiner, an internationally-renowned suicidologist. Dr. Bartlett has a variety of research publications in the field of suicidology and extensive clinical experience treating self-harm and suicide. She speaks internationally, and is an authorized trainer for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the American Association of Suicidology.
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