Mirasol’s adolescent eating disorder treatment program includes a five-day “family camp” where key family members come to Mirasol to experience residential treatment with their sisters and daughters. In this podcast, Family Program Facilitator Jerry Harmon describes how he works with families to help them transform they way they communicate.

“My role is facilitating what we call “list work”, where the goal is to provide a forum where each family really hears the others. I try to educate them that it’s not about agreeing, that when you hear the other person’s reality, it may be totally different than yours. Each client shares with the family the story of her eating disorder. A lot of it comes out the work they do in groups here. They’re really encouraged that this is their opportunity to provide their family with some understanding of what’s been going on for them internally. It also allows them to dispel all their secrets also, if they’re willing to do that, so that when they leave here, there are no more secrets to protect. The whole family now is on the same page. Whether they agree or not isn’t important, it’s that everybody has the same information.”

“I spend a lot of time working with the families on their emotions, how to express their emotions to each other, how to be with each other emotionally, and also how to communicate. Over the years what I’ve found is that, family members, as much fighting and as much hurt and pain and fear there is, and as much as they may have pulled away from each other, what they really want is to find a way to love each other again.”

“A good friend of mine taught me that hurt people, hurt people. So part of my job is to teach the family that the daughter is not the identified patient here, and that the eating disorder has affected the entire family. I think most families get that, and once they get that, then they can begin to make changes.”

Pocast:: Family Camp at Mirasol’s Adolescent Eating Disorder Treatment Program

Posted on August 13th, 2008 by edrecovery
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I was sitting here at my computer yesterday afternoon and happened to be reading msnbc.com.  Of course the big headline was the death of Tim Russert, at the age of 58.  When someone dies that I feel connected to (as I did having watched Tim every Sunday morning for years), I feel a sharp pain and a huge sense of loss.  My world has changed.

I have listened and read many of the wonderful things said about this man.  My husband tells me I’m morbid, but I feel that I want and need to hear about what made this man so special.  In doing so I find a reaffirmation of my own values.

Above all, Tim was a kind man.  He deeply loved his family.  He made a huge contribution to our world.  Not by being mean, nasty, always looking for the gotcha — but by being fair, balanced, and knowledgeable. These are all values that are so important to me.  These are values that we try to teach our clients at Mirasol.

Recovering from an eating disorder, as I’ve said many times, is not about the behaviors but it is about the underlying issues.  As we address our underlying issues, we also learn to reaffirm who we are as women.  We rediscover our own values and begin to embrace them.  We learn that when we don’t need an eating disorder to cope with the stresses of our lives, our authentic selves and our values become that much more important to us.

For me today, it’s not about the quantity of my life in terms of “things” or in terms of years, but it’s all about quality.  If I can do one small thing daily for someone, I have been successful.  If I can say one small word that can make a difference in someone’s life, I’ve been successful.

I hope that all of you can join me in this journey.  We can truly change the world!!  We can bring back love and peace instead of living in a world full of fear and destruction.

Posted on June 14th, 2008 by edrecovery
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I have not blogged here for such a long time — and I apologize!!  i have so much to share with you.

The first thing is back to basics — how can one begin to recover from an eating disorder?  Easier said than done — but one of the most important things is to learn to write down what you’re doing, what you’re going to do, what you’ve done!  My best days are ones where I get up, meditate for 15-20 minutes, then make a list of everything I need to do that day.  And I always have a huge list of to-dos.

For people wanting to recover or get back on track, write down everything you think you want to eat during the upcoming day — as well as everything you have to do.  Go through your lists and mark the events or meals which may be difficult for you — where you can anticipate stress.  You might have trouble talking with one particular person at work; you might have trouble eating morning snack -

Once you’ve identified problem areas, you can strategize.  I think today I’ll tell the person at work how I’m feeling such as “I feel angry when you continually make gurgling noises in your cubicle.”    Or today, since I have trouble eating my morning snack, “I’m going to put on a mindfulness tape that I can listen to when I eat. I bet that will help!”

These techniques sound so simple, it can feel too good to be true.  I find that so much of my anxiety is reduced or goes away, when I have a plan!!  Let me know how this works for you!

Posted on May 27th, 2008 by edrecovery
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I really appreciated the post from uniquedancer. She brought to mind again the difficulty of “staying” in recovery! Of course at Mirasol a therapist works with the client for up to a year after treatment (most programs do not do this). However, I strongly believe that we (meaning treatment providers) need to provide even more support during that crucial year after treatment. We are working with our aftercare specialists to develop a dynamite aftercare program that I’ll make available to everyone as soon as it’s finished.

I will say that I’ve been struggling to perfect the program for over 6 months, and I would love some suggestions. We’re creating a book as well as a cell phone program to help people track themselves, their food, and their behaviors. It’s meant to help them plan all aspects of their recovery. This is all necessary, all good… and oh, so boring! No wonder people stop doing these kinds of tasks and drop out of recovery!

How can I make this fun? How can I weave the necessary spirituality into this program? How can I make it one of depth while simultaneously teaching people how to continue to have fun and be well? How can it be so interesting that people won’t blow it off?

I’d love some suggestions — including other books you’ve read. The skill building and tracking is easy, but developing a full, rich program is not. Thanks in advance for helping!! It is my goal to help many more people recover than ever before…..

Posted on January 26th, 2008 by edrecovery
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Dr. Jeanne Rust defines normal eating and offers advice for keeping the drama out of the dining room and encouraging healthy eating habits in your family.

Podcast: What Is Normal Eating?

Posted on November 29th, 2007 by edrecovery
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It’s amazing to me how many new treatment centers are popping up all over!  And it’s so flattering to me that so many of them are trying to duplicate our integrative medicine approach — a model that I developed and that we’ve been using for 8 years!  I think that everyone finds that once they are convinced of the efficacy of alternative interventions, it’s difficult to do just straight cognitive-behavioral therapy.  Particularly when it isn’t effective in well over 60% of patients.  I truly believe that as professionals we need to be working, researching, and developing new ways of treating eating disorders which are (as you all know) extremely complex conditions.

I personally am working on relapse prevention.  In my mind, there has not been enough investigation and research done on helping people when they leave treatment.  For me, I feel a moral duty to provide as much in the way of continuing care as we can.  After all our patients have taken a significant amount of time out of their lives and certainly spent a lot of money to be able to heal!

I’ve heard some clinicians say that by doing this we’re making the clients dependent on the treatment center.  Not so — we gradually help the client transition to support systems in her community — providing her with the strong support she needs when she goes home and becomes integrated back into her community.

I would be thrilled if those of you who read this would be willing to give me suggestions of things that helped you or might have helped you when you went home!

Posted on October 19th, 2007 by jrust
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I had an interesting e-mail from a woman last week who was 51 years old and was wondering if it was too late to get into recovery!! I responded immediately and told her that it’s never, ever too late to become a whole, thriving, creative woman. The eating disordered behaviors are merely the tip of the iceberg. They are simply representative of the stress and illness that is going on underneath. I was personally 47 years old when I got into recovery for many things, not the least of which was the eating disorder. Wow — I look back and am amazed that I was so lucky! I had become so tired of being sick and tired. I literally became willing to do anything my therapist at that time asked me to do. I made sure that I did something every single day towards my recovery. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of time! I finally figured that I didn’t have anything better to do. :o)

After a few years I realized that I needed to spend the rest of my life helping women who were struggling. Again, it’s never too late!! My oldest client at Mirasol was a lovely woman was 68 years old, diabetic, overweight, and had high cholesterol and blood pressure (a real typical american!). She admitted to Mirasol and worked right along with all of our younger clients. She was fabulous. She was truly “one of the girls” and made some lifelong friends while in treatment. She eventually was able to become insulin free, have a decrease in blood pressure, and lose some weight so she could attain metabolic health. And she started to write! When the eating behaviors had gone into remission and her physical condition had improved greatly, she had this tremendous burst of creativity and she started to write! She wrote not only her memoirs but also some wonderful short stories.

Let’s never forget that there is plenty of time for all of us to make our dreams come true!

Posted on September 29th, 2007 by edrecovery
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By Dr. Dawn Bantel
Dawn Bantel, Medical Director of Mirasol Eating Disorder Recovery Centers, describes how recent advances in laboratory testing can improve our ability to diagnose and treat eating disorders.

Podcast: Functional Medicine

Posted on September 21st, 2007 by edrecovery
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By Dr. Jeanne Rust
In our busy, busy lives, we sometimes forget that there are certain basic rights that belong to women — and that we often deny ourselves! Listen to my proposed Bill of Rights for Women, send it to a friend, and start a revolution!

Podcast: A Woman’s Bill of Rights

Posted on September 21st, 2007 by edrecovery
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I’m looking out of my window at a rosy sky — a beautiful sunset.  I need to take a certain amount of time each day to be grateful!  And I am grateful.  I’m grateful for Mirasol and for everyone who is there — patients and staff.  I realize that my life has pretty much become my work now.  “They” tell me it’s not healthy — but as long as there is one more email to answer or one more person to help — oh, well.  I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing!!

Posted on September 18th, 2007 by edrecovery
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