Self Soothing Techniques, by Intern Anna
Today’s blog post is brought to us by my summer intern Anna. She shares her insights on how both a person in recovery and their family members can soothe ourselves during the many moments of distress. ~ Becky Henry, CPCC Self Soothing Techniques, by Intern Anna ...
Parallel Process & Believing in our Adult Child’s Capacity – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
A family caregiver’s role is important no matter the age of the child. We don’t stop loving or caring about our child just because they hit the magical age of 18. See my photo here of Dr. Adele LaFrance's slide on the research on involving caregivers in treatment....
Navigating Boundaries through the Eyes of an Individual Who Had an ED, by Intern Anna
Today our Hope Network, LLC summer intern Anna is sharing her perspective on boundaries around disclosing a loved one's eating disorder. It can be very hard to overcome the shame and stigma of these illnesses. We need to have honest conversations about what is theirs...
Finding Your Ground as a Caregiver – by, Anna Heltemes Hope Network, LLC Summer Intern
This summer I’m fortunate to have the help of an intern, Anna Heltemes. She’ll be my guest blogger every other week for the summer. I’ll be previewing and approving all her posts and will assure that they all adhere to Health At Every Size (HAES) principles. Meet...
Reducing Suffering this Mother’s Day- by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Big hugs to you on this day that can be such a mixed bag. It makes me think of the metaphorical boxes we put ourselves in. What boxes do we put ourselves into you ask? Victim? Rescuer? Caregiver? The Problem? The Solution? Bad/Good Parent? As I’ve been wrapping...
Allowing Relief as Caregivers – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Relief can be tenuous, fleeting, temporary, short lived. For family caregivers, the relief of a loved one’s progress alongside the reality of the dangers and problems that still exist can quickly take away the joy of the moment of relief and switch one back to fear. ...
Imperfect Caregiving, by Becky Henry, CPCC
The title for this could also have been; “Separating your Child From the Eating Disorder and Not Doing it Perfectly” “Perfection, Vulnerability and Shame, Oh My!” “Parenting our ‘Other”Children During a Child’s Eating Disorder” “Making Mistakes while Parenting a...
Why Joy, by Becky Henry, CPCC
Until I became a parent trying desperately to get my child the help needed to survive a life threatening eating disorder, I had no concept of what real sorrow and pain are. Many of you have heard me speak and know my story of not being listened to by so many health...
Is Gratitude Possible in a Pandemic? – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Those of you who know of my work and philosophy know how much I like gratitude as a self care practice. Pre-pandemic is the last time I specifically wrote about gratitude (at least that I could find looking back through my blogs - I’ll send a deck of “What to Say,...
Reducing Fear in Parenting – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
No one prepares a parent for watching a child break a dish and then cut themselves with it because they are terrified of eating what is on the plate. No one is there to help them cope in that moment with the terror they are all feeling. Often parents share harrowing...
Coping with Life’s Harsh Realities – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Who knew listening to Chicago Blues could be so healing? Like many of you, I’ve been sitting with the feelings that accompany the passing of a person I care about. About a week ago our friend of over 35 years made a very sudden exit from this planet (it was not Covid)...
Eating Disorder Caregiver Calm; The Role of Neutrality – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Family caregivers are often overwhelmed and justifiably worried about finding treatment during this pandemic. The wait lists at some residential treatment centers (RTC’s) in the USA are up to 40 people deep. On a call with clinicians and outreach folks from around...
Accepting Realities That Stink – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Part of our ‘Parallel Process’ as a caregiver is to accept some really harsh realities. When a child or other family member has a life threatening illness such as an eating disorder, there are unfortunately so many really unexpected and brutal realities we must...
Pandemic Brain, by Becky Henry, CPCC
Who else is feeling it? Pandemic Brain seems to have hit me with; total exhaustion, lack of motivation, an underlying sadness and a strange feeling Bill Murray is going to walk around the corner of the kitchen because we’re probably in the movie “Ground Hogs Day” with...
Intentionality in the Midst of Chaos – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
How are you holding up? The past two weeks and this next week will go down as having been 3 historic weeks in a row. Three Wednesdays of monumental significance to the United States. In case you’ve blocked it already; Wednesday January 6 - Insurrection Wednesday...
2 Trainings to Support Family Caregivers – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Happy New Year! Well, we made it through this first week of the new year...I hope you are safe and finding the calm you need to cope with the events in our country and world. I’m here and happy to chat if you just need someone to talk with about all this. I know it...
10 Holiday Stress Tips for Eating Disorders Caregivers – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
We are in the darkest days of the winter and deep into the holiday season (read ‘stress’ for moms traditionally) and winter school break for many. The need for self care and reducing our stress has become even more needed than usual. Your presence in my life is a...
Wonder Instead of Fear, by Becky Henry, CPCC
won·der /ˈwəndər/ noun 1.a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. "he had stood in front of it, observing the intricacy of the ironwork with the wonder of a child" verb 1. desire or be...
Calming our Mom Brain – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Here in the midst of the holiday season, many of us are having to release expectations of what we’d hoped our holidays might be like prior to Covid-19. It’s more important than ever to work at being calm, grounded and confident. This is challenging for anyone, and...
Expanding Hope in the Face of Despair, by Becky Henry, CPCC
Somehow we all have this most unusual Thanksgiving behind us. I hope you were able to have some moments of joy and gratitude amidst so much despair around us all. My thoughts are with each of you who felt loneliness, grief and/or despair during this holiday. During...
Winds of Change bring Hope – by, Becky Henry, CPCC
Last week I wrote about resilience as we all find ways to cope during this ongoing pandemic and one of the most stressful election seasons many of us have ever experienced. Being a caregiver of a loved one with an eating disorder is extremely stress filled in...
Resilience for Eating Disorder Caregivers, by Becky Henry, CPCC
Have you been wishing you could hibernate like the bears too? I’m noticing I want to sleep a LOT lately. Not only are the hours of sunlight decreasing here in the northern hemisphere and the days getting colder, the world has become a very uncertain and scary place....
Trusting Yourself as an Eating Disorder Caregiver, by Becky Henry, CPCC
You may have noticed there was no newsletter last week...so many of us are just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other in the midst of this ongoing pandemic and societal mayhem. In addition to all of that and an October 16th snowfall, I was creating a...
Struggling and Self Compassion
Even with a pretty conscious self grounding practice, it’s been a challenge to say the least to not be on an emotional rollercoaster this year. Right? We are each struggling in our own ways. For those who follow my work you know I’m constantly beating the drum of self...
Weight Stigma During Weight Stigma Awareness Week
On the plus side (see what I did there?) I love irony. 😉 As Maya Angleou said, “When we know better, we do better.” As a teen, I bought the belief that being thin was important and dieting, food restriction and exercise to compensate for what I ate were what I...