Castlewood Treatment Center to host New Innovations in Treatment Conference in December. This conference will focus on new approaches to the treatment of self injury and Internal Family Systems Therapy approaches in difficult to treat Eating Disorder behaviors. Dr. Mark Schwartz and Dr. Richard Schwartz will present on these topics. Case studies, examples, and video taped segments will be utilized.
Time: December 3, 2011 8:30-12:30 am.
Location: Omni Severin Hotel- 40 West Jackson Pl. Indianapolis, IN 46225
Cost: $25
CEU’s: 4 CEU’s are available through NBCC and NASW.
Come sharpen your skills or empower your practice with new tools and techniques to work with clients who suffer with self injury or eating disorders.
The Internal Family Systems model of psychotherapy offers a clear, non-pathologizing and empowering method of understanding human problems, as well as an innovative and enriching philosophy of practice that invites both therapist and client to enter into a transformational relationship in which healing can occur. At Castlewood Treatment Center this approach is incorporated into our program and has been incredibly effective with patients, particularly those who have been in treatment for extended periods of time or who have repeated hospitalizations with no lasting recovery.
Dr. Mark Schwartz- Clinical Co-Director Castlewood Treatment Center
Mark earned his doctorate in Psychology and Mental Health from Johns Hopkins University. He is a licensed psychologist and an adjunct professor in the departments of Psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Schwartz has achieved international recognition for his contributions in a variety of clinical arenas, including the treatment of intimacy disorders, marital and sexual dysfunction, sexual compulsivity, sexual trauma and eating disorders. He lectures nationally and internationally on these topics and has authored numerous articles and book chapters, as well as the books, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders and Sexual Compulsive Behavior, and Sex and Gender. Dr. Schwartz is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Eating Disorders
Richard Schwartz, Ph.D- Creator of Internal Family Systems Therapy
Richard Schwartz, PhD is the creator and developer of Internal Family Systems Model of therapy. Richard has consulted with Castlewood for the last 6-7 years, training our staff and working individually with clients. Richard earned his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University, after which he began a long association with the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and more recently at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, attaining the status of Associate Professor at both institutions. He has dedicated more than 25 years of service to troubled families and individuals and has extensive experience working with clients who suffer from eating disorders. He has published four books and over 60 articles on a variety of topics in psychotherapy. In 2000, Richard Schwartz founded The Center for Self Leadership in Oak Park, Illinois. In 2010, Dr. Schwartz joined the Castlewood clinical team in an expanded role. Dr. Schwartz continues his speaking and teaching, nationally and internationally, but when not on the road he can be found at Castlewood. At Castlewood, Richard continues to develop and train our staff in Internal Family Systems therapy. He provides consultations with clients and facilitates individual and group IFS sessions.
For more information on this conference please download the brochure below or contact us at Castlewood.
SEXUAL ANOREXIA
Anorexia is a complicated illness. Each client tends to be more different than similar, and the development trajectory for each client is complex. Most anorexics will move into bulimia , while many bulimics who get under control will attempt to restrict; therefore, one common feature of the illness is that overcontrol eventually leads to out of control, and getting under control results in over control.
The vast majority of anorexics and bulimics likewise, manifest sexual over control and out of control difficulties. In their disease, they are unaware of cues for appetite or satiations. In a similar manner, the cues for sexual appetite are confused. Once they are eating and re-fed, often they will experience sexual arousal, but the ability to use those cues to make sexual decisions is blurred. These primary interactions with others are geared to avoid disappointment, as well as to please. It is as if they do not have a core sense of self to know or determine what they deserve, so they make decisions regarding their wants in relation to not displeasing others. Unfortunately, sex, for the sake of the other can be disastrous, since it typically feels like an assault to the body when there is little desire combined with intense fear. The result of these juxtaposition and disconnections is a pattern of sexual behavior which is out of control, many patterns in a short span of time, while simultaneously experiencing low desire as even sexual aversion. When they do find a partner who is desirable, after their body is too traumatized, by prior objectification and bypassing to respond.
The critical difficulty or deficiency at the core of the eating symptom, is the capacity to relate and form attachments to other people. The eating disordered client often feels a sense of being alone even with people and friends when in the restriction phase. One might say: non-consuming consumes them. In the binge state, they may become too close or too needy, which results in being rejected or hurt eventually. Again, over-control leading to out of control. The etiology of this pattern seems related to the early attachment patterns blueprinted in the first two years of life. When fearful children either cling (anxious attachment) or if over time experience rejection when they move-towards, they quickly learn to avoid, becoming angry, aggressive or inhibited. Some children also develop patterns of disorganization, with both some clinging and avoiding. This latter pattern resembles the eating disorder client, restricting: avoidance, and bingeing: clinging. These early attachment patterns quite likely are at the core of the eating, bonding and sexual symptoms of the adult. For this reason, we focus on attempting to change attachment patterns in order to facilitate resolution of the illness. Our experience is that even when there is success in control of symptoms using behavioral therapies, relapse often is triggered by loneliness, or pain from relationships. Under stress, the client returns to the established way of coping, unless they have learned to use relationships with self and others to regulate their emotions.
Changing attachment patterns begins with helping the client develop a relationship with themselves. This sounds a bit like a cliche, but literally the client needs to develop internal communication and listen to their inner voice related to what they want and need without judgment and with compassion. In the past, the likelihood is that the internal relationship has been one of negation, invalidation and emotional brutality. So, attention, acknowledgement and care is no small change. Once this shift begins to permit turning to self in distress, there can be renewed trust in their own intuition and wisdom. They can then more safely make choices to allow others in, while operating in the outside world with improved self-efficacy and competency. The development of healthier boundaries is both a requisite and byproduct of this unfolding process resulting from enhanced clarity regarding what they actually want and how to say yes and no, while not disqualifying their own needs or compromising self respect.
To know self however, they must walk through their development without omission of the painful, shameful or overwhelming aspects nor of the beauty, courage or capacities that are intertwined with these and establish a cohesive and coherent story about their life experiences. They examine and reexamine how they experienced childhood and adolescent events and the effects on them, through their adult self perspective. They reexamine how they established trust, esteem, intimacy, power and control and consider values clarification related to their core beliefs in relation to others. They question whether their conclusions and attributions were truly accurate. This also requires trauma resolution work since often patterns of thinking are arrested at certain ages by traumatized experiences. Reworking of the trauma by the adult allows for a better way of being in the world without the residual paralyzing fear and numbness that restriction attempts to offset or disguise.
During this period of recovery, it is necessary to practice abstinence from intimate relationships, abstinence from sexual behavior and to adhere to a structured meal plan established by the dietitian. Over time, the abstinence can be steadily lessened but the main principle is moving slowly. Violent delights have violent ends and become loathsome in their own deliciousness, say Shakespeare, which translates into love moderately. As most of us have learned from experience, relationships with others when they are healthy strengthens ones sense of safety.
Lori Galperin the Clinical Co-Director of Castlewood Treatment Center for Eating Disorders spoke at our Preferred Provider Conference regarding how therapists can facilitate the development of self compassion in their clients. We have provided below 2 short exerts from her talk. These segments help to convey some of Castlewood’s philosophy that early attachment with caregivers effects the development of how we view ourselves in the present. Lori beautifully discusses how we come to treat ourselves with disdain, and that ultimately finding ways to develop compassion for one’s self is the vehicle by which healing takes place.
Lori Galperin Segment 1
Lori Galperin Segment 2
