The third EDIT™ Principle involves emotional awareness, being curious about the messages of emotions, and learning healthy coping skills – instead of engaging in eating disorder behaviors due to the inability to regulate emotions or to tolerate intense emotions. We need to guide clients to stop “putting on a happy face” – that there are safe ways to experience ALL emotions. The EDIT™ process involves having ED-IT dialogues with clients. Here’s what this might sound like:

ED (false self) – “Just put on a happy face, and try to fit in.”

The false self is very good at pretending that everything is “fine,” and acting in a manner to evoke acceptance from others. The false self may be compensating for past experiences where it was unsafe to show certain emotions. Eating disorder behaviors serve to keep emotions hidden. Any expressed emotions are “safe” masks the false self wears.

IT (True Self): “I am grateful for my range of emotions, and freedom of expression.”

The True Self has insightful emotional awareness, healthy emotional expression, and safe emotional vulnerability. There is an ability to experience intense emotions, using a variety of coping skills as needed. All emotions are authentic expressions of the True Self.

Try this “taste” of EDIT™ – The Mask

The false self is attempting to be an “ideal self” to please others and be accepted, while hiding a “shadow self” – any qualities which may result in criticism or rejection. Eating disorder behaviors are hidden in the “shadow,” but this is where the True Self has been hidden, too. Click on the image below for a downloadable worksheet which you can use to guide your clients to uncover the “gold” in the shadow.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT

©2018 by Dr. Dorie McCubbrey. Dr. Dorie is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Licensed Addiction Counselor who is passionate about training professionals to effectively guide clients in recovery from eating disorders, through her Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ Certified program. She also meets with clients at her treatment center, Positive Pathways PLLC, located in Evergreen Colorado. Learn more at: https://www.drdorie.com

Article may be reprinted with this author bio.

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Want more that this “taste” of EDIT™? Dr. Dorie is passionate about her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ to help people overcome eating disorders and addictions.  She provides customized counseling for eating disorders and alcohol / drug addiction at her Positive Pathways treatment center in Evergreen, Colorado – and EDIT™ eating disorder training and certification for coaches and clinicians worldwide. CALL 303-494-1975 – EMAIL DR. DORIE – GET CERTIFIED

The post Express Your Self appeared first on INTUITIVE THERAPY™ | Healthy Weight Loss | Eating Disorder Recovery Coach.

I’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Sculley, who is a Licensed Professional Counselor and an EDIT™ Certified III – Eating Disorder Treatment Clinician. I supervised Rebecca while she was working towards licensure, and co-facilitated some of her first DBT Skills Groups. She is a knowledgeable and compassionate therapist, who is passionate about helping people thrive during life transitions. She wrote this article to inform people about one of her DBT groups, and although that date has passed, please read this article to learn more about how DBT can help you. You can contact Rebecca about the current individual and group sessions she holds (see bottom of article).
– Dr. Dorie

Do you want to change your relationship with food? Have you made some New Year’s resolutions and are hoping is that in 2017 you can find solutions to create a freedom point with food, eating and body image? DBT can help you!

Have you heard of DBT? Perhaps you’ve heard this term in the therapy world or have read about it online. Maybe you’re curious how DBT can help you. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a form of tangible evidence-based treatment that can help with a variety of issues. I especially find it helpful for people with eating disorders or disordered eating. In my experience as a therapist, I have used DBT for seven years and have found it to work wonders with people who have binge eating disorder, food addiction, restrict food, or have anorexia or bulimia. DBT can help you change your life and have the relationship with food that you have been searching for.

There are four main components to DBT. They include Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. In the DBT Group Denver (starting February 8), we will encompass all four principles and apply them to your relationship with food, as well as what’s underneath your struggle. Below I will give a brief example of how each of the four DBT principles can apply to you.

In the DBT Group Denver, we’ll use distress tolerance to find new and healthy ways to cope with stress and other of life’s challenges instead of either overeating or under-eating. Stop beating yourself up for engaging in disordered eating and find new ways to cope and heal. You will discover strategies to deal with the ups and downs in life and feel good about your choices!

For the mindfulness component, the DBT Group Denver will teach you how to be present and stay mindful rather than thinking about the past or the future in a way that triggers you to want to overeat or under-eat. Often when we get stuck thinking about the past this can lead us to sadness and depression. If we spiral and think too much about the future, we often feel anxiety. Instead, DBT can teach you how to stay present and engaged with each moment.

With emotion regulation, the DBT Group Denver will help you to regulate tough emotions as well as joyous emotions so that you can eat in a balanced and healthy way, not in a negative or disempowering way.

In the Interpersonal Effectiveness unit, DBT Group Denver will teach you how to engage with others in the way that you feel strong, assertive and balanced. You’ll learn how to get your needs met while being respectful of others needs and wants. I invite you to learn how to better your lives in many ways and find your freedom point from negativity through DBT!

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Looking for guidance with DBT SKILLS? Contact Rebecca Sculley, MA, NCC, LPC – the author of this blog article. She is an EDIT™ Certified III – Eating Disorder Treatment Clinician, and has a specialty in DBT Skills. Rebecca has office locations in Boulder and Denver, Colorado. – EMAIL REBECCA 

Interested in a FREE consultation with Dr. Dorie? Dr. Dorie is passionate about her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ to help people overcome eating disorders and addictions.  She provides customized counseling for eating disorders and alcohol / drug addiction at her Positive Pathways treatment center in Evergreen, Colorado – and EDIT™ eating disorder training and certification for coaches and clinicians worldwide. CALL 303-494-1975 – EMAIL DR. DORIE

The post DBT Group Denver: Eating Disorder Recovery appeared first on INTUITIVE THERAPY™ | Healthy Weight Loss | Eating Disorder Recovery Coach.

© Erica Faulhaber 2016 – this blog article may be shared in its entirety, including copyright and contact information. Reprint only with permission from the author. Article adapted and reprinted by Positive Pathways, PLLC with permission.

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Want to explore trauma recovery? Contact Erica Faulhaber, MA, LPCC – the author of this blog article. Erica is an EDIT™ Certified III – Eating Disorder Treatment Clinician, and has a specialty in trauma recovery at her office in Lakewood, Colorado. EMAIL ERICA

Interested in a FREE consultation with Dr. Dorie? Dr. Dorie is passionate about her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ to help people overcome eating disorders and addictions.  She provides customized counseling for eating disorders and alcohol / drug addiction at her Positive Pathways treatment center in Evergreen, Colorado – and EDIT™ eating disorder training and certification for coaches and clinicians worldwide. CALL 303-494-1975 – EMAIL DR. DORIE

The post Eating Disorders and Trauma: Journaling for Recovery appeared first on INTUITIVE THERAPY™ | Healthy Weight Loss | Eating Disorder Recovery Coach.

I’d like to introduce you to Emily Johnson, who is a Registered Psychotherapist and an EDIT™ Certified III – Eating Disorder Treatment Clinician. Emily completed her internship and continued to work under my supervision for several years, at my previous office location in Denver, Colorado. She is a knowledgeable and compassionate clinician, who is also a big movie fan.
– Dr. Dorie

Movies can be a great way to add context to things that we are going through – like eating disorders and emotions. The journeys of characters can help us gain different perspectives on our situations. To illustrate how we can navigate through the complexities of eating disorders and emotions, the movie Inside Out by Disney’s Pixar offers a wonderful roadmap.

Inside Out is a great story about a young girl and an emotional journey. It combines elements of the hero’s journey with important emotional truths about the human experience. For those struggling with eating disorders and emotions, this movie can be a great analogy for the interplay of our primary emotions, and how to allow our emotions to come into balance. All of our emotions have a purpose, and while some may be uncomfortable, it is learning how to feel all of our feelings that complete recovery from eating disorders is possible.

Without giving too much of the storyline away, Inside Out shows how we need all of our emotions, and that when we favor one, it can squelch important experiences. The main character, Riley, is shown in her stages of developing memories and personality. One of her dominant emotions strives to keep in control of all experiences in order to make Riley happy. Putting on a happy face even when we are feeling sad or angry or afraid is a common experience for many people. However, we were born with the ability to experience a range of emotions for a reason. They color our memories and contribute to the complexity of who we are.

When it comes to struggling with eating disorders and emotions, we may be searching for a way to feel a positive emotion at the price of another emotion that needs to be acknowledged. In the movie, there is a command center in the mind, and one emotion in particular assumes charge over it. But this keeps other emotions from getting in their say. The more we try to bury that other feeling, the more it tries to get into our consciousness. With eating disorders, we might use binge eating, purging or restrictive eating as a way to bury feelings we don’t like. But as illustrated in the movie, those uncomfortable emotions are the key to our wholeness – and to eating disorder recovery.

Inside Out illustrates that not all experiences and memories are black and white. Life is not all happy nor all sad, all angry nor all fear. The richness of life taps into all of our emotions, like colors of a rainbow. Joy can come from sadness. Anger can come from fear. And when we are honest about our emotional experience, we allow ourselves to experience things in a more richly colorful way – and even deepen our connections with others through our authentic and vulnerable emotional expression.

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Looking for guidance with emotions? EMILY JOHNSON, MA (the author of this blog article) is an EDIT™ Certified III – Eating Disorder Treatment Clinician, and is currently employed by an eating disorder treatment center. Although she does not work with clients unless they are patients at the center, Dr. Dorie is available to meet 1-on-1 with clients to explore emotions.

Interested in a FREE consultation with Dr. Dorie? Dr. Dorie is passionate about her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ to help people overcome eating disorders and addictions.  She provides customized counseling for eating disorders and alcohol / drug addiction at her Positive Pathways treatment center in Evergreen, Colorado – and EDIT™ eating disorder training and certification for coaches and clinicians worldwide. CALL 303-494-1975 – EMAIL DR. DORIE – GET CERTIFIED

The post Eating Disorders and Emotions: Inside Out appeared first on INTUITIVE THERAPY™ | Healthy Weight Loss | Eating Disorder Recovery Coach.