Background: Individuals desiring recovery from Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder often feel their bodies and brains are resisting recovery. And they are right! Their brain, gut and nervous system have been hijacked and rewired so that binging is the new normal. This results in both compulsive behaviors and feelings of relentless shame and despair that things can ever feel different. This presentation will discuss how to educate clients on what’s happening in the brain, body and gut, instruct on practical steps to “rewire” the brain and gut, and explore how these interventions can reduce shame and restore hope.
Objectives: 1. Understand how new neural pathways to alter compulsive behaviors can be created within both therapeutic and nutritional modalities of treatment 2. Discuss three keys points of re-connection to hunger and fullness that help heal, restore and strengthen recovery 3. Utilize two practical methods of rehabilitating the brain and gut to function in such a way to support recovery from bulimia and binge-eating
- Overview of how the brain is activated during urges to binge and/or purge
- Compulsive behaviors: physiology and psychology
- Neuroplasticity: positive and negative influences
- Creation of new neural pathways to increase response flexibility
- Client tools to increase understanding of the brain and gut responses
- Clinician skills to guide the rewiring process
- Refocusing during the urge itself as the critical factor for rewiring
- Importance of attaining distance from the urges
- Practical steps to attain distance and refocus
- Reconnection to hunger and fullness
- Importance of the three-step reconnection process
- Practical steps to practice and repeat these three steps
- Practical methods of rehabilitating the brain and gut functions
- Experiential exercises to use with clients
- Tools for long-term recovery support
- Integration of both therapy and nutrition tools within a multi-disciplinary team
- Synergistic power of a therapist/dietitian partnership to create new neural pathways
- Dual interventions to reduce shame and restore hope within recovery process
In this presentation, the presenter team will discuss how to educate clients on what’s happening in the brain, body and gut. The importance of attaining distance from the urge by refocusing during the urge itself will be explored, illustrating how these interventions can reduce shame and give clients a renewed sense of hope in recovery. Both the therapist and the dietitian presenters will instruct and demonstrate practical steps that clinicians can incorporate into their practices to help clients “rewire” the brain and gut. These dual interventions that integrate both therapy and nutrition tools with a singular purpose of rewiring the brain to create new neural pathways will emphasize the synergistic power of the multi-disciplinary treatment team to guide clients to full recovery.
As a registered dietitian, Tammy has specialized in eating disorders for 27 of her 32 years of practice. The first RD to become iaedp-certified in 1993, Tammy served as Director of Certification from 2013-2017. Tammy developed outpatient nutrition services for Alabama and Florida hospital systems, while maintaining a private practice in EDs for most of her career. She received the 2016 Excellence in Practice in Eating Disorders award from Behavioral Health Nutrition of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Tammy joined Castlewood Treatment Centers as National Coordinator for Nutrition Education in 2015, educating professionals and supporting clients in their recovery.
Dr. Nicole Siegfried is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and Supervisor. She is a Clinical Director with Castlewood Treatment Centers and their National Director of Eating Disorder Program Development. She previously served as an Associate Professor of Psychology at Samford University and is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the founding president of the Alabama iaedp Regional Chapter. She is co-developer of the Body Embrace Program.
