Using both research on attachment theory and clinical expertise I seek to provide participants with interpersonal and intrapsychic therapeutic approaches to classic eating disorder treatment. Attachment styles will be discussed as well as how detecting these attachment styles may be foundational to the treatment of clients dually diagnosed an eating disorder and with complex trauma and/or borderline personality disorder. Methods to working with clients as an individual therapist will be discussed with clinical examples that encompass broad client themes (such as control, people pleasing, resistance, mistrust, secrecy, idealization and devaluation) many practitioners see in their work with eating disorders. A focus on attachment-based therapeutic approaches to patients with eating disorders will be taught and demonstrated using both experiential (mindfulness meditation) and interactive (case studies, case scenarios) formats. There will also be time dedicated to participants to engage speaker in discussion around inquiries into how to integrate the attachment lens as a tool to their own unique styles of treating eating disorders. The ultimate goal is for presenter to leave participants with multiple ways in which you can utilize the attachment system to improve outcomes of therapy with clients with eating disorders.
Objectives:
-Participants will learn what role attachment trauma plays in development of an eating disorder.
-Participants will learn how to assess for attachment trauma in clients.
-Participants will learn strategies for treating attachment trauma in clients with eating disorders.