Background: Recognizing that eating disorder clients have been strongly influenced by family dynamics, and that recovery is a "family affair" Claudia Black Ph.D. will offer a dynamic presentation that speaks to a host of therapeutic considerations in working with this client and family.
The introduction of The Family as a System
a. Genogram/3 generations
b. Dynamics learned that perpetuate the next generation
c. Protective factors
2. Trauma
a. Trauma in the context of families
b. Emotional regulation/dysregulation
c. Blatant Big T traumas
d. Small t traumas/abandonment
3. Cyclical defenses
a. Control
b. Distorted anger
c. Victimization
d. Depression
e. Perfectionism
f. Procrastination
g. Addiction
4. Baggage Cart Analogy
a. Metaphor for carried feelings, beliefs, and skills
b. Manifestation of carried feelings, beliefs, and skills
c. Manifestation of carried feelings, beliefs, and skills into eating disorders
5. Closing Summary
a. Reminder of Bottoms Up/Top Down therapies
Claudia Black will address a host of therapeutic considerations in working with the eating disorder client. She will discuss the impact of relational trauma and ensuing emotional dysregulation that is often perpetuated within the family system. Cyclical issues such as perfectionism, control, victimization that are a part of the unhealthy family dynamics and central to many clients' self-defeating beliefs will be identified. The presentation will conclude with a visual reinforcement, the use of the Baggage Cart metaphor, reinforcing a treatment approach being eclectic - affective, cognitive and behavioral.
Claudia Black’s seminal work with children impacted by substance abuse in the late 1970s created the foundation for the adult child movement. Today Claudia is a renowned author and trainer internationally recognized for her pioneering and contemporary work with family systems and addictive disorders. She is Senior Fellow and Addiction and Trauma Program Specialist at The Meadows Treatment Center in Arizona. Claudia is the author of several well known books; most notable It Will Never Happen to Me and the latest title being Intimate Treason: Healing the Trauma for Partners Confronting Sex Addiction.
