Background: Eating disorder behaviors serve physiologic, psychological, and emotional purpose, affecting cognitive processes and emotional regulation, causing metabolic and physical injury. This workshop builds on mindfulness meditations and exploration of embodied cognitions to introduce body based substitute strategies, engaging the client from the “bottom-up".
Introduction: Away from Dualism
Embodied Cognition
Embodied Emotion
Embodied Self
Mind-Body in Health - Bottom-Up Processes
Parasympathetic / Sympathetic Nervous system
Sensory
Neuromotor pathways
Neuroendocrine pathways
Body and Feelings - Bottom-Up
Conscious emotion regulation
Non-conscious emotion regulation
Lessons from Social Psychology
Priming
Embodied Cognition
Mind Body Connection: Body Dharma
Yoga
Mindfulness meditations
How Different Exercises Can Shift Neuro-Hormonal Responses
7. Eating Disorders: Pathways of Dysregulation (Mindlessness)
1. Eating Disorder Behaviors
2. Anxiety
3. Vagal response
8. Body-Based Mindfulness Exercises
9. Sensory: Internal and External
1. Focus on the Body
2. Proprioception / Interoception
3. The Five Senses
10. Demonstration of Techniques
1. Solid as a Rock- Rock Holding, Rock Stacking, Rock Moving “Grounding”
2. The Power of Posture- Taking up Space, Power Stances, “Go with the Flow”
3. Thinking Outside the Box- “Moving Toward” Solutions
4. Opposites Attract - Hard/Soft, Cold/Warm, Rough/Smooth “Feeling the Body”
5. Creating an Alternate Body Ritual/Ceremony
11. Treatment Targets/ Common Clinical Situations
1. Shaking Leg/Anxiety
2. Stuck/ Disempowered
3. Relapsed Patient
4. Comparing Mind
5. Over-exercising
6. Binging/Purging- Ritual Behavior
7. Rigid Mind
8. PTSD/ Body Based Trauma
Eating disorder behaviors such as restricting, binge eating, purging, and over exercising have profound effects on the body, causing metabolic and physical injury. Clients suffer from negative energy balance, impaired hormonal function, poor sleep, and problems regulating pulse and blood pressure. When these patterns are established they are also associated with changes in cognitive function, depressed mood and overwhelming anxiety. Sufferers lose skills to self-regulate effectively and become trapped in mindless loops of thought and behavior: eating disorders change brain function and brain function affects mind. Yet, these behaviors serve physiologic, psychological and emotional purposes for the eating disordered client and become reinforced automatically as the brain attempts to use the body to regulate the mind, and deliberately as the individual experiences the reinforcing effects of restriction, exercise and purging in the face of not having other skills to self-regulate. Patients know intuitively the power of these “bottom-up” body based coping mechanisms.
The presenters will propose a non-dualistic framework for conceptualizing eating disorders. They will describe research studies which explore use of body based interventions to improve coping and well-being including: mindfulness meditations and exercises for well-being, lessons from the social psychology, embodied cognition and yoga. Using an experiential format, participants will practice mindfulness techniques which are body based. Presenters will discuss common clinical situations that challenge clients such as shaking leg, feeling stuck, comparing mind, over exercising, and ritual behavior and will introduce bottom-up processing strategies to help clients build new pathways for healthy self-regulation.
Kimberli McCallum, MD, CEDS, FAPA is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University and is board certified in adult, child, and adolescent psychiatry. She graduated from Yale School of Medicine, completed her general psychiatric training at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, and child and adolescent training at Washington University. She co-founded the Missouri Eating Disorder Association, is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Eating Disorders Association and an Advisory Board Member of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. Her current programs include McCallum Place St. Louis and Austin, The Victory Program, and Webster Wellness Professionals.
Mary Laffey Adams, RN, MSN received her BSN from St. Louis University, her MSN in Holistic Nursing from Jewish Hospital College of Nursing, and a Certificate in Pastoral Care from Aquinas Institute of Theology. In addition to working as a pediatric nurse for 35 years, she has studied/trained in over 800 hours of bodywork therapies including Zen Shiatsu, Healing Touch, and the Trager® approach. Mary is a Kripalu Yoga instructor and certified as a Trauma-Sensitive yoga instructor. Mary has integrated her multi-faceted background into a dynamic body-centered approach to group therapy at McCallum Place for the past 11 years.
