Update Eating Disorders, Fears, and Self-Management
Janet Lee Whitney, MA, LMFT - Discusses evolved Eating Disorder treatment from multiple perspectives.
In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.
~ Abraham Maslow
She is a licensed psychotherapist and the author of the book and program entitled Facing Your Fears and Following Your Dreams. Her personal mission involves finding a career that creates life satisfaction and becomes life changing. Once someone finds the right career, work and play coalesce into a variety of exciting activities. As the co-owner of a sexual addiction program and director of an eating disorder program, Janet works with individuals, couples, and families in a variety of addiction/recovery challenges.

As Program Director of the Eating Disorder Program at Sovereign Health, she and her teams create a recovery process that helps instill hope - and a belief that there is a more constructive way to deal with the stresses of life as they manifest in that array of eating disorder symptoms. A priority for her program is to provide ways for patients to discover how to live without an ongoing focus on food and body image - in a constructive, not a self [or staff] reproachful way.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Eating Disorder Recovery Takes New Courage
"My philosophy is to build on strengths and positivity and to develop a deeper belief in moving forward towards goals. I have trained other therapists across the country in using this program to help people recover from self-sabotage. My youngest daughter has been dealing with an eating disorder for over seven years. When my daughter's eating disorder did not improve after eleven inpatient hospitalization, my two oldest children encouraged me to walk the 500 mile Camino in Spain, in 2015. For this six-week trip, I carried all my belongings in a backpack. I walked those 500 miles alone and found my calling."
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Janet Whitney: Eating Disorder Reconsidered CBJ/092

* I watched my younger daughter fall into an eating disorder
* Her problems with 14 inpatient treatment programs 
* I couldn't get her back into inpatient until she was over 18
* My specific philosophy on ED treatment/recovery 
* We talk to them about their gifts
* Therapists must emphasize: 'Let's go for the positive'
* The difference with Dialectical Behavioral Therapy  DBT & CBT
* The duration of a treatment program
* At Sovereign our unique aftercare structure includes 
* Overcoming denial 

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References & Janet's Websites:

* Her Site with Personal Video: http://janetwhitneymft.com
* Her Inpatient Sites: Sovereign Health Eating Disorders
* Her Book: Facing Your Fears and Following Your Dreams - Global Amazon Link
* The Facts: Eating Disorders & Self Harm (2015): Selfharm.com - UK
* Hudson, J. Hirpi, E. Pope, H.& Kessler R (2007) The Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, Biological Psychiatry Vol 61 p. 348-358 [Full PubMed Article]

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Addiction/Recovery Perspectives: Previous CBJ Interviews