Background: Individuals with eating disorders often “talk the talk” while simultaneously detaching from their feelings. They may demonstrate this lack of connection with their “true self”, not only by continuing to engage in emotionally driven behaviors but by using actions that reveal the extreme discomfort of living in their body. This presentation will promote shared expression and collaboration that will influence attendees' ability to increase engagement with eating disorder clients. BYOB (Bring your own body) and participate in a synergistic experience that will introduce bottom -up techniques to assist in inserting freshness and new life into your own therapeutic process.
Objectives: • Explain the role of creativity in the treatment of eating disorders. • Identify the main element of a bottom up approach to ED treatment • Explain how creative, embodied approaches can increase conscious awareness and develop insight.
- Identification of Objectives
- Explain the role of creativity in the treatment of eating disorders.
- Identify the main element of a bottom up approach to ED treatment
- Explain how creative, embodied approaches can increase engagement for and with clients, increase connection and develop insight.
3. Definitions and Concepts: ( didactic & experiential)
- Creativity
- True Self
- Embodiment
- Rhythmic Synchrony
- Kinesthetic Awareness
- Kinesthetic empathy /clinical intuition
- Decoding feelings from the experience of the body
- Adapting approaches for work in office
Individuals with eating disorders often “talk the talk” easily enough, while they are simultaneously detaching from their feelings. They may demonstrate this lack of connection/engagement with their “true self”, not only by continuing to engage in emotionally driven behaviors (EDBs) but by using physical actions that reveal an extreme discomfort of living in their bodies. This may include leg and body shaking, pacing, picking at and on their bodies, etc, to cope with the overwhelming problems underlying their eating disorder that remain buried inside of them.
As clinicians, when faced with these difficult therapeutic situations, we often look to outer techniques rather than trusting our own sense of self, to determine meaningful interventions-- actually, any intervention aimed at engaging the client’s “true self” in authentic communication may seem unattainable. Our own experience of embodiment, ability to access unconscious material and way of being in our own body plays an important role in the healing process between client and clinician.
This presentation will address creative, embodied means to reach and engage clients in authentic communication. BYOB ( Bring your own body) and participate in a synergistic experience that will introduce bottom –up techniques to assist you in inserting freshness into your own therapeutic process. This experiential presentation will promote shared expression and collaboration that will influence attendees’ ability to increase authentic engagement with their eating disorder clients. As part of their own embodied participation in this presentation, attendees will be inspired by the transformation that can ensue from the authentic interventions that unfold.
Susan Kleinman, MA, BC-DMT, NCC, CEDS, is creative arts therapies supervisor and dance/movement therapist for The Renfrew Center of Florida. Ms Kleinman is a trustee of the Marian Chace Foundation, Past President of the American Dance Therapy Association, and a past Chair of The National Coalition for Creative Arts Therapies. She has published extensively, presented widely, and is the recipient of the American Dance Therapy Association’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award and The International Association of Eating Disorders Professional’s 2014 Spirit of iaedp Award. Her work is featured in the documentary entitled Expressing Disorder: Journey to Recovery.
