When Food Is Family: A Loving Approach to Heal Eating Disorders - Softcover

Scheel, Judy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1882883888 ISBN 13: 9781882883882

Publisher: Idyll Arbor, 2011

Synopsis

This is the first book to illustrate how the eating disorder is used as a metaphoric voice -- sometimes the only voice available to a person with an eating disorder -- when relationships break down. It is a hands-on, working guide to eating disorder recovery that will help families understand causes of eating disorders and the impact they have on relationships. They will learn ways to work together to heal, repair, and rebuild positive interactions.

Exercises and examples throughout the book demonstrate what to do that will help the entire family change patterns of communication, establish trust and empathy for each other, and learn how to listen to and understand the person with the eating disorder.

About this title

About the Author

Judy Scheel, Ph.D., LCSW, has been treating eating disorders for more than 25 years. In her years of providing treatment she has found that mutual respect, empathy, and trust provide the foundation for familial and relational repair and recovery from an eating disorder. Helping patients live authentically is the cornerstone of her approach.

Dr. Scheel is the Founder and Executive Director of Cedar Associates, a private outpatient program specializing in treatment of eating disorders and other self-harm behaviors. She is a member of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), and the Eating Disorders Coalition, Inc.

Review

An expert in treating eating disorders for more than 25 years, Scheel believes that these disorders serve as a metaphoric voice for their sufferers. She argues that healing can be achieved if families under­stand the causes of eating disorders, change their patterns of communication, establish greater trust and empathy, and learn how to listen to the person with the disorder. In fact, she goes on to say that eating disorders develop when there is no room for painful or negative emotions to be expressed. Scheel uses case studies to discuss typical failures in attachment, which include trying to fix daughters' problems rather than listening to their feelings, parents confusing their own needs with their children's, and insisting that daughters always act "right." She also helps parents express their own feelings and create healthy boundaries. VERDICT Written primarily for parents, therapists, and care­givers, the book offers questions that prompt thoughtful reflection and provides insight that can ultimately heal a client or daughter with an eating disorder. Scheel adds a valuable resource to literature on this disorder.--Deborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., NJ --Library Journal, October 2011

Families coping with clinical eating disorders have hungered long and hard for a book like When Food Is Family. Based on her decades of experience, Judy Scheel has written the clearest, most user-friendly guide to understanding and addressing the complex emotional and relational issues underlying these frightening and mysterious problems. No shame or blame games here just information showing how disruptions in relationships or attachments have affected the individual and how these can be healed. Clearly, concisely, and compassionately, When Food Is Family conceptualizes the eating disorder as a metaphorical quest for comfort through food and provides exercises to help families and patients develop a language of emotions so feelings can be expressed directly instead of through self-destructive behaviors. When Food Is Family fills a gaping hole in the eating disorder literature this is the one book I will recommend to all family members facing an eating disorder. --Margo Maine, PhD, FAED, CEDS

Eating disorders create and deepen disconnection within families. Parents often struggle to understand their child's inability to change behaviors that are often life threatening and intractable. Eating disorders also thrive in disconnection and full recovery usually involves not only nutritional and weight restoration but real relationship repair and restoration as well.

When Food is Family provides clear and sophisticated exercises for rebuilding attachment and connection. Grounded in the science and research of attachment theory, these guided self-explorations will help families re-establish the empathy, security, and connection necessary for lasting recovery from these complicated illnesses. --Douglas W. Bunnell, Ph.D., FAED

About this edition

• Publisher: Idyll Arbor
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1882883888
• ISBN 13: 9781882883882
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 179