How to Support a Loved one with an Eating Disorder – by, Becky Henry

August 23, 2019 Newsletter – Eating Disorders Caregivers – Support is Game Changing

Yesterday I saw my friend Kitty Westin speak at the grand opening of another Anna Westin House location, the first in the City of Minneapolis so this is very exciting! The Mayor of Minneapolis even came and spoke! Now, those of you not from the Twin Cities might be thinking, “Wait, there were already two Anna Westin Houses in Minneapolis Becky, what are you talking about?!” Actually, the first two Anna Westin Houses are both in Minneapolis’ twin city, St. Paul. Very confusing for those not from here.

It is admirable to watch her as she continues to honor Anna, be her voice and remind us of how deadly these illnesses are. She has shared with me how things likely would have been much different if she’d had support and tools to take care of herself and Anna.

Dr. Adele LaFrance and her colleagues have thankfully done research which both shows the need for support of the parent/family caregivers as well as the differences in treatment outcomes when they have support and tools. Which is precisely what I have observed in my 1:1 coaching with family caregivers over 16 years.

They discovered concepts in their research on Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) Including:

• Caregivers have the right to support. Especially since chronic health and mental health conditions reorganize family patterns and influence caregiver styles.
• What is most detrimental to the mental health of a parent or caregiver is to witness a loved one’s suffering, and feel helpless or ineffective in the face of it (Monin, 2016).
• In EFFT we do not necessarily want the caregiver to “do more”. Rather, our first goal is to support them to “do different” and build from there.

Observing the distress levels go way down and the capacity of family caregivers go way up is not only exciting, it makes it so much easier for the treatment professionals who are working with the families to be even more effective.

Practicing these tools is a form of self-care for family caregivers. Providing tools for families at treatment centers to get their own oxygen masks firmly in place is life giving and a game changer for all.

It’s so counter to our societal messages to practice self-care. It can help to know the definition of self-care doesn’t necessarily mean spa treatments. There are many different definitions of self-care. One psychologist’s definition of self-care is,  “Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.”

Take care,

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Monte Nido & Affiliates is excited to share the opening of their newest residentialeating disorder treatment program for adults of all genders, Monte Nido Roxbury Mills.

To learn more, visit Monte Nido’s website: https://www.montenido.com/locations/glenwood-maryland/

Monte Nido & Affiliates includes three distinct eating disorder treatment
programs: Monte Nido and Oliver-Pyatt Centers, which provides residential treatment to women, and outpatient treatment for males and females; and Clementine for adolescent girls. We began offering residential treatment in 1996 having been founded by women who are fully recovered and became leaders in the eating disorder treatment field.

What binds us together is our vast overlap in mission and philosophical approaches to providing best-in-class, evidence-based treatment for eating disorders – from a medical, psychiatric, therapeutic and nutritional perspective.  We are committed to being
industry leaders and share the belief that fully recovery is possible. Additionally all of our residential programs are in home-like settings, providing an environment conducive to healing.

Monte Nido has established itself as the clinical leader in the eating disorder field being widely recognized for achieving superior clinical outcomes that show the highest levels of recovery through our peer-reviewed and published residential facility outcome study. In this study, the vast majority of patients demonstrated significant changes in symptoms and behaviors from admission to discharge, and maintained that improvement throughout the course of the study.

Our residential programs are located in Southern California, Oregon, New York, South Florida and Massachusetts, with day treatment programs offering partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programming in Los Angeles, San Diego and Newport Beach, CA; Portland and Eugene, OR; Boston, MA; Miami, FL; New York, NY; and Philadelphia, PA.