Treatment

01.

Services include outpatient psychotherapy to women, men & adolescents who suffer with anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating and body image issues. Innovative treatment approaches are used with individuals who struggle with anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and the effects of trauma.

The importance of each individual’s recovery is emphasized, allowing a collaborative effort by the client and the treatment team to establish treatment goals. The team, typically consisting of a therapist, along with consulting nutritionists, physicians and psychiatrists, work together to help reduce symptomatic behavior, improve physical well being and resolve underlying psychological conflict.

Clients are encouraged to explore all aspects of their life such as family and social relations, education/career, physical and emotional health as well as spirituality.

Individual Psychotherapy

Individual therapy offers a supportive environment in which clients can explore feelings and change unhealthy patterns. It helps create feelings of safety to further explore issues within relationships and otherwise. A variety of supportive techniques are utilized to reduce symptomatic behavior and resolve underlying psychological conflicts.

Mind/Body Wellness

• Stress Management

• Relaxation Techniques

• Meditation

• Mindfulness

• Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

Referral Services

• In-Patient Treatment Centers

• IOP Treatment Centers

• Nutritionists

• Physicians

• Psychiatrists

• Spiritual Guidance

• Support Groups

02.

Art Therapy

Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.

Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.

03.

Anxiety & Depression

Anxiety

There are different levels of anxiety that one may experience. Common symptoms consist of:

• Excessive worry that feels difficult to control

• Difficulty with concentration

• Difficulty sleeping/disturbed sleep patterns

• Feeling irritable

Often these symptoms are persistent over time and cause impairment with interpersonal relationships, occupationally or educationally.

Depression

Depression can be characterized by the following symptoms, which are typically experienced within at least a two week period:

• Persistently sad, depressed mood

• Loss of interest in activities/socializing

• Appetite changes/weight fluctuations

• Difficulty sleeping or excessive sleeping

• Lack of energy

• Inability to concentrate/make decisions

• Suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts

Persistent symptoms can cause impairment with interpersonal relationships, occupationally or educationally.

Disclaimer: The information presented herein is for educational purposes only. If you or a loved one are exhibiting these symptoms, it is highly recommended that you seek a licensed mental health professional for further evaluation and treatment.

04.

Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa

Restriction of energy intake, leading to significantly low body weight
Intense fear of gaining weight

Bulimia Nervosa

Recurrent episodes of binge eating (consuming within a 2 hour period an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat)
A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode
Recurrent compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain

Binge Eating Disorder

Recurrent episodes of binge eating (consuming within a 2 hour period an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat)
Associated with three or more of the following:

1. Eating more rapidly than normal

2. Eating until feeling uncomfortable full

3. Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry

4. Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating

5. Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or guilty afterward

ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)

An eating or feeding disturbance (e.g. apparent lack of interest in eating or food; avoidance based on the sensory characteristics of food; concern about aversive consequences of eating) as manifested by persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional and/or needs associated with one (or more of the following):

Significant weight loss
Significant nutritional deficiency
Dependence on enteral feeding or oral nutritional supplements
Marked interference with psychosocial functioning

Rumination Disorder

Repeated regurgitation of food over a period of at least 1 month. Regurgitation may be re-chewed, re-swallowed, or spit out.

Pica

Persistent eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances over a period of time at least 1 month

Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders

Symptoms of feeding and eating disorders that do not meet the full criteria for any of the above disorders, based on the Diagnostic Manual.

Diabulimia

Though not formally recognized in the DSM-5 as separate disorder, it includes restricting or limiting insulin doses, for someone with Type 1 Diabetes, resulting in losing weight.

Orthorexia

Though not formally recognized in the DSM-5 as a separate disorder, Orthorexia symptoms may consist of fixating over the quality (“healthiness”) of food, rigidity with eating patterns, limiting entire food groups, chronic worry about “sickness” and/or loss of weight.

*Information regarding feeding/eating disorder symptoms listed, cited from: American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

05.

Meditation

Meditation can help us with the following in our daily lives:

• Reduce stress/tension in the physical body

• Learn to quiet our minds, which helps us be more open to new thoughts and feelings without judgement

• Live more “in the moment” and learning to be comfortable with where we are in our lives at the present

• Adapt and cope well with change, learn to be flexible and accepting

• Learn to connect how the mind & body experience stress and release (where we hold onto our emotional stressors in our bodies, as well as how to release it)

01.

TREATMENT