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Throughout this presentation, the following will be shared:
-Overview of how a shared meal as perceived boundary crossing may enhance clinical goals, connection, and self-directedness while being consistent with behavioral, humanistic and cognitive-behavioral orientations.
-Discussions regarding the struggle ED patients experience with food and their bodies as an attempt to feel better, numb the pain, and cope with feelings.
-An explanation of food rituals which can create severe emotional, physical, and nutritional symptoms, from over 25 years of patient therapy work.
-Sharing the benefits of stepping outside our traditional roles of face-to-face talk therapy and joining our patients for a meal.
-Looking at food as a symbol to see the patient’s ability to give and receive nurturance, sustenance and connection.
- Measuring where the patient is in this process by joining the meal experience rather than relying upon a verbal report.
-Discussing boundary violations in meal therapy in relation to role, place and space.
-How a dietician can be used in the meal therapy process.
-Information regarding food as a communication tool.
-Overview of the ethical dilemmas surrounding eating a meal with a patient.
-Dining together in public—minimizing fear of being shamed by our colleagues.
-Working with staff therapists who claim they won’t eat with patients because of boundary issues, professional qualifications, dietary restrictions.
-Discussion regarding brining mealtime drama into individual therapy sessions.
After the lecture, the team will conduct an experiential by sharing an actual food item with each member of the audience. We walk participants through the experience so participants can be both the therapist and the patient. Discussions and feedback will be executed in order for the audience members to share their experience.
This workshop addresses how the therapist and patient can create meal therapy guidelines for a constructive clinical effect.
The struggle ED patients experience with food and their bodies is generally understood to be an attempt to feel better, numb the pain, and cope with feelings. They frequently become entrapped in extreme rituals creating severe emotional, physical, and nutritional symptoms. How often do we step outside our traditional roles of face-to-face talk therapy and join our patients at the proverbial kitchen table? If food is truly symbolic of the patient’s ability to give and receive nurturance, sustenance and connection than is there value in measuring where the patient is in this process by joining the experience rather than relying upon a verbal report? When a patient brings up a fear of carbohydrates and refuses to eat a bagel, do we refer the patient to the dietician and then begin exploring what the dreaded bagel represents? Do we ask the patient whether it would help if we both ate a bagel or shared a bagel? Do we dare? Does this present an ethical dilemma? And, if we do dine together, do we do it secretively for fear of being shamed by our colleagues? What do we say to staff therapists who claim they won’t eat with patients because of boundary issues, professional qualifications, dietary restrictions, etc? What happens when we bring the mealtime drama into individual therapy sessions? Is this a boundary crossing of role, place and space? Is it a justifiable boundary crossing with clinical value? This workshop addresses how the therapist and patient can create meal therapy guidelines for a constructive clinical effect.
Dr. Pryor has worked most of her career in the field of Eating Disorders. Since 2005, she had been the Clinical Director at the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, prior to spending 25 years in the eating disorder field in Wichita Kansas. She has presented hundreds of presentations on all topics related to eating disorders, both nationally and internationally. She has completed over 30 peer revied publications and works the University of Colorado Health Science Center on several research projects in the field of Eating Disorders. Dr. Pryor has held academic appointments at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
Christina has worked at the Eating Disorder Center of Denver for over 7 years. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has been an outpatient therapist for over 6 years. She has had extensive experience in the field of eating disorders, both with patients and professional lectures. She has been instrumental in developing an extensive educational outreach program at the Eating Disorders Center of Denver, coordinating educational events in a multi-state area for both professionals and patients. As a milieu Therapist, she had extensive experience sharing meals with patients, leading them through the therapeutic experience.
