MEDA Conference 2018

8:00-8:30AM

Registration and Breakfast Location: Main Lobby

8:30-9:00AM

Welcome

9:00-10:15AM

Keynote Address delivered by Jennifer Gaudiani MD, CEDS, FAED

“When They Can’t ‘Just Eat’: Palliative Approaches and End-of-Life Considerations in Adults with Eating Disorders”

Severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (AN) develops in up to 20% of patients who are diagnosed with AN. While it is always appropriate to maintain hope that full recovery is possible, it is clear that repeated treatment (voluntary or mandated) carries a cost for some that outweighs an increasingly unlikely benefit. How do we know when enough is enough? When have adults with anorexia nervosa suffered enough, and not benefitted enough from standard of care, to allow them to seek palliative care options rather than push them to try again for recovery? This talk will explore the complicated concepts and ethical dilemmas important to severe and enduring anorexia nervosa.

10:15-10:30AM

Refreshment Break  Location: Main Lobby

10:30AM- 12:00PM

Concurrent Session 1

April N. Winslow MS, RDN, CEDRD - My Story in food: Allowing your beliefs and fears to lead you to freedom.

Discover and explore the many psychological roles food may play in your life. Rooted in “attachment theory,” learn concepts about creating food narratives, extinguishing nutritional disinhibition, as well as, allowing the language of the eating disorder to be fully communicated through culinary expression. Blend experiential, biochemical, neurological, and magical all into one session! Personal stories related to social anxiety, binge eating disorder, and depression will be shared to support practical illustration. 

Malak Saddy RDN, LD, Joy  Ssebikindu  MEd, NCC, LPC  - Stirring the Pot: Cultivating Curiosity in the Treatment of Eating Disorders in Diverse Communities

It has been commonly recognized that Eating Disorders do not discriminate, as they can affect all persons in spite of race, ethnicity, social economic status, or religion, etc. Despite this postulation, Eating Disorders are often under diagnosed in many cultures, due to the lack of knowledge/understanding and the potential distress that having a Mental Health Diagnosis could bring to one’s family and reputation. Throughout this lecture and discussion, listeners will conceptualize diversity, culture, and the impact of micro aggressions in the outpatient and inpatient treatment of Eating Disorders. Post lecture, participants/audience will be adapt to gaining competence in the various aspects of consideration, while acquiring 2-3 strategies that can be put into practice, as treatment providers working with these diverse populations.

Allison  Rencher LMFT, Matt Bartlett LMFT - Eating Disorders in the Family System: Understanding and changing the rules

Eating Disorder Family Systems (EDFS) are complex and challenging to work with. The rules, roles and relationships of the system often keep the family stuck in the homeostasis that can be so detrimental to the long term recovery of the eating disorder client. Through case study, experiential activities and group involvement we will focus on identifying, shifting and restructuring those family system dynamics.

Jillian  Lampert PhD, RD, LD, FAED  Calming the mind and the gut: Rediscovering nutrition's role in eating disorder recovery

There is increasing evidence that a healthy digestive system plays a significant role in having a healthy mind. We know our clients often face challenges of impaired digestion, especially during the nutritional rehabilitation process, across diagnoses. How can we make the process more tolerable? These complex situations demand creative approaches steeped in research in order to have the tools needed to assess, address, educate and treat our client’s nutritional and stress management issues and promote health and recovery. This workshop will present practical, hands on nutritional interventions useful for all clinicians to help address these concerns with clients.

12:00-1:00PM

Lunch  Location: Downstairs

1:00-2:30PM

Concurrent Session 2

Katharine Waggoner LICSW - The Gendered Body: Best Practices for Working with LGBTQ+ Clients
 

The Gendered Body will explore special considerations for clinicians working with queer, trans and gender-nonconforming individuals struggling with disordered eating. Participants will review general principles of LGBTQ+ allyship and affirming service provision. The workshop will also support clinicians in interrogating their own experiences of gender and sexuality, and the ways these influence their work with eating disordered clients.  Lastly the workshop will train clinicians in specific methods for effective eating disorder treatment with this population.

Dana Sturtevant MS, RD, Hilary Kinavey MS, LPC - Making the Case for Embodied Practitioners

Healing body dissatisfaction and embracing body acceptance is a complex and ongoing process, especially in a world where weight stigma is commonplace. Size bias impacts people of all shapes and sizes, and treatment professionals are not immune. An embodied practitioner serves as a body-positive role model, demonstrates self-acceptance, care, and love for their own body, knows how to navigate negative body thoughts without being destructive to themselves, and understands the direct relationship between dieting and body shame. This interactive workshop is designed for helping professionals who want to put body respect and trust front and center. Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD and Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC, co-founders of Be Nourished, will discuss how having a connected, trusting and compassionate relationship with one’s own body influences treatment efficacy. They will highlight the necessity for authenticity, vulnerability and courage on the path to building resilience to body shame and combating weight stigma, and offer ideas and practices to carry it forward into your own life and the lives of the people you serve.

Amy Oestreicher PTSD Specialist, global speaker, playwright, founder of LoveMyDetour - PTSD and Eating Disorders: Customizing Effective Treatment Methods for Co-Occurring Disorders

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental health condition that can occur in individuals who have experienced or witnessed a psychological trauma, including natural disaster, serious accident, death of a loved one, war, or personal assault.    PTSD, if left untreated, can hinder the individual's social and emotional development.  An estimated 30% of eating disorders are developed as a result of some form of trauma, commonly in the form of bulimia nervosa. These symptoms may take years to surface, and can take a lifetime to manage.  Although there is yet to be one effective treatment method when these disorders co-occur, there are proven methods of managing PTSD symptoms, therein reducing an individual's reliance on the unhealthy behaviors of their eating disorder. Participants will come away with a comprehensive understanding of PTSD, and a varied toolbox of clinically proven treatment methods for its symptoms through engaging discussion, followed by a series of experiential exercises rooted in creative arts therapies, somatic experiencing, mindfulness, and EMDR, and concluding with local and national resources on trauma in a question and answer segment.

Jeanne Catanzaro PhD, Diana Richards RDN LDN - Benefits of the Multidisciplinary Use of Internal Family Systems in Eating Disorder Treatment

Effective treatment of eating disorders typically requires the coordinated efforts of a multidisciplinary treatment team. While everyone on the team usually agrees on an end goal, the philosophies and approaches used by members of the treatment team often differ. This can lead to confusion and conflict and result in treatment that is often fragmented. In this workshop, we discuss how the Internal Family Systems model can be used with registered dietitians along with therapists to allow for greater integration of the emotional and physical healing that needs to take place for eating disorder recovery.

2:30-2:45PM

Refreshment Break Location: Main Lobby

2:45-4:15PM

Concurrent Session 3

Arden O'Connor MBA, Brie Shelly MS, LMHC, CRC, Lisa Cukier JD - Getting Beyond "No": Using Interventions, Guardianship, and other Creative Tools to Manage Resistant and Clinically Complex Clients and Their Families

When clients refuse to engage in treatment, restrict information between members of their care team, and continue to put their health at risk, providers need to understand the range of therapeutic and legal tools available to help advance these challenging cases. Although every patient presents with his or her set of unique needs, there are certain patients and family systems that are particularly challenging to even most experienced practitioners.  In some circumstances, clients refuse treatment or restrict important clinical information between providers while they continue to put their health at risk.  In other cases, family members fuel severity of their loved one's situation.  These situations cause practitioners to work longer hours, manage seemingly-never-ending crises, and worry about legal liability.  Through an interactive series of case studies, our presentation will demonstrate the array of clinical and legal solutions available to clinical providers and families to manage the most complex cases.

Lauren Schiffer LICSW, MPH - Eating for Two: Nourishing Emotional Wellness and Preventing Relapse During Pregnancy and Postpartum

While exciting and joyful, pregnancy can also be anxiety provoking and unpredictable. Hormonal swings, nausea, cravings, weight checks, rapid body changes and lack of control over outcomes, pose special challenges for women in ED recovery. In addition society's unrealistic expectations of getting back to a "pre-baby body" and other challenges of the newborn period make this an important time for extra support.

Kyle Ganson LICSW - Out of the Shadows: Revealing the Importance of Caregivers in the Eating Disorder Recovery Process

Much of the focus of eating disorder treatment is on the individual suffering. While this is rightfully warranted, it leaves caregivers, who spend extensive time and effort providing for the individual emotionally, psychologically, financially, and logistically, in the shadows. This is concerning as it is becoming clearer that eating disorders significantly impact the wellbeing of caregivers, which equally impacts the recovery process. Through highlighting current research, case examples, and discussions, participants will acquire a new understanding of the importance of caregivers and the means to engage and support them in the recovery process.

Shiri Macri MA, LCMHC, Anne Poirier BS, CSCS, CIEC - Therapists Who Beat to a Different Drum

Many of our clients have histories of trauma, stress and social threats which have literally compromised their nervous systems. Neuroscience can now explain the bio-behavioral responses we see in our clients with eating disorders. Most of us trained in top down cognitive theory and protocols find ourselves scrambling to learn bottom up strategies shown to regulate the nervous system, create safe therapeutic spaces and heal mind body separation. This workshop introduces nontraditional treatment methods in a fun, experiential way, while providing the science that supports its effectiveness.

8:00-8:30AM

Registration and Breakfast  Location: Main Lobby

8:30-9:00AM

Welcome

9:00-10:15AM

Keynote address delivered by Ragen Chastain ACE Certified Health Coach - Size Acceptance and Eating Disorders - A Critical, Crucial, Core Conversation

This workshop will begin by examining the messages that come to clients (and to all of us) through our culture about beauty, our bodies, and health. We’ll discuss the ways that these messages can harm clients’ relationships with their bodies, food, and movement. We'll look at how these messages can disrupt recovery efforts and prevent long term recovery from eating disorders. Finally we'll discuss how using a framework of Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size can give us practical, realistic options to help clients repair the damage that these messages have done, and create strategies that will support them in dealing with these messages through their recovery journeys and beyond.

10:15-10:30AM

Refreshment Break  Location: Main lobby

10:30AM- 12:00PM

Concurrent Session 1

Dena  Cabrera PsyD - Moving Away from the Mirror:  Working with Mothers with Eating Disorders

Being a mother with an eating disorder can make the already challenging role of childrearing even more difficult.  Treatment professionals have seen a substantial increase in the number of women with eating disorders who have children.  This presentation therefore addresses the necessity for the treatment team to take into account mothers’ critical parenting role in both the assessment and treatment of eating disorders.  This presentation aims to identify the unique issues specific to mothers with eating disorders such as breast feeding difficulties, attachment issues, feeding concerns, mealtime disorganization, body image issues, negative perceptions of motherhood, and concerns about children’s weight and body image.   The presentation specifically provides tools to help mothers promote healthy upbringing of their children, to feel more positive about their role and build their competence as parents, thereby potentially enhancing progress toward their own recovery.  Drawing on material from The Mom in the Mirror, a book Dr. Cabrera authored, this workshop will provide a blend of clinical expertise and personal experience. 

Lee Neagle Master of Arts Clinical Psychology, LPC-IT - Working with Male Athletes and Eating Disorders: Challenges and Opportunities

Males with eating disorders are often an under treated population partially due to limited recognition by provides as well as a continued cultural perceptions that eating disorders are a “female issue”. This can be further compounded when males are also athletes due to body, weight, shape expectations and increased pressure to perform. Though the course of this discussion we will review the unique challenges identifying and working with this population as well as treatment options.

Leah Graves RDN, LDN, CEDRD, FAED - The Joint Commission:  Integrating the Standards for Eating Disorders Across the Treatment Continuum 

The Joint Commission has released specific Requirements for Organizations Providing Care for Individuals with Eating Disorders.  Along with the American Psychiatric Association Guidelines for the Treatment of Eating Disorders, providers now have specific guidance to inform care.  This workshop will review the new TJC standards within the context of the APA guidelines providing examples of documentation to meet both standards.  Participants will be provided with a summary of TJC standards formatted in a  checklist to inform treatment recommendations, assist clients and their families in assessing potential treatment and guide clinicians with adequate documentation.

Ralph Carson RD, PhD - The Etiology & Treatment of Comorbid Sleep & Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction & Night Eating Syndrome

Night eating syndrome (NES) is listed in the DSM-5 as an OFSED, but it was first described as long ago as 1955. There are varying operation definitions that categorize the syndrome as a combination of eating, sleeping and mood disorders. Too often NES is not identified nor treated by medical professionals despite its prevalence which is estimated to be as high as 25% of the obese population. Failure to address the condition can result in significant detriment to health and well-being. This talk will focus on the dysregulation of the circadian rhythm and provide insights into sleep improvement. Interventions for treating NES will touch on medications, nutritional therapy, psychotherapy, phototherapy and behavioral approaches.

12:00-1:00PM

Lunch  Location: downstairs

1:00-2:30PM

Concurrent Session 2

Teresa May-Benson Sc.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, Lori Goodrich OTR/L, C/NDT - FOCUS Clinical Reasoning Model for Addressing Eating and Mealtime Challenges in Children and Teens:  A Multi-Disciplinary Team Approach

This workshop is designed to educate professionals working with restrictive eaters about a clinical reasoning model used by occupational therapists to identify and address sensory and motor challenges that impact an individual’s food preferences. Participants will learn about the FOCUS Program’s 8 step clinical reasoning process in order to expand their knowledge of a multi-disciplinary team approach to addressing eating and mealtime challenges of clients with restrictive eating patterns. Learning will be facilitated through the use of case studies with an emphasis on how the FOCUS Program is used to address the sensory-motor, oral motor and social-emotional components necessary for mealtime success. Learning during this workshop will be enhanced by case studies and provided resources.

Carole Rudman RN,MSN,CPNP,CLNC - Medical Diagnoses & Eating Disorders: The Ultimate Chicken or Egg Dilemma

Various disease states create a vulnerability to the development of and eating disorder and vice versa! In this information packed session, nurse practitioner Carole Rudman, will explain the physiology of 8 body systems and corresponding diseases. Simply put, she will explain how they relate to, impair recovery from, or serve as a risk factor for the expression of an eating disorder. Carole will integrate current research and clinical case studies leaving you with the most up to date and practical information for better understanding and treating your clients.

Andrew Walen LCSW-C, LICSW, CEDS - Bringing men to the table: research, practice, and real-world experience from the trenches

The workshop will feature an overview of current research on body image and eating disorders among males, and identification of critical gaps between research and clinical practice. A case example will be unpacked including etiology, internal awareness, experience in seeking treatment, and experience of sharing the process and how it affected him. Additional practical tools for treatment and prevention will also be presented.

Teri McCann PhD, CEDS, Rebecca  Taylor EdD - Internal Family Systems as a Way of Treating Eating Disorders Conceptualized as a Disorder of Attachment and Affect Regulation

 Clear and impressive evidence supports a correlation between eating disorders and early attachment difficulties between children and their care-givers.  Innovative protocols targeting the right hemisphere of the brain rather than the logical left hemisphere may well improve treatment outcomes as the client gains the ability for emotional regulation and secure attachment. Internal family systems is an evidence based approach which facilitates the client giving up the eating disorder as a tool for emotional regulation.

2:30-2:45PM

Refreshment Break Location: Downstairs

2:45-4:15PM

Concurrent Session 3

Caitlin Martin-Wagar M.A. - Dismantling Weight Bias and Thin Privilege in Healthcare: Strategies from Individual to Institutional Levels

 Clinicians have been found to hold negative attitudes toward individuals of size. These attitudes are often unnoticed by clinicians, but can severely impact client care. This workshop is focused on increasing participant awareness of weight bias, internalized weight bias, and issues of thin privilege, especially as they relate to treating clients of size. Strategies to reduce bias at several levels, such as individual and institutional, will be provided and explored.

Megan Kniskern MS, RD, LD/N, CEDRD-S - Breaking Through the Trifecta: Obesity, Binge Eating Disorder and Bariatrics

It is easy to put people into categories of care; fat, thin, healthy, eating disordered, etc.  However, these categories are manifested through clinical values that don’t evaluate the core issues.  The goals for this presentation are to highlight the similarities between these three populations, and to breakdown their complicated differences.  These differences are the KEY to effectively supporting the needs of someone who is obese yet has no emotional eating or body image struggles, or who has BED but is too deeply isolated to receive support, or one who has had a bariatric procedure and is just now seeing the implications of that decision.  The guidelines for nutrition evaluation and criteria for care, will be reviewed and are relevant to all professionals working with these populations. A summary of the unique critical nutrition interventions for each diagnosis will be summarized into a “cheat sheet” chart for clinical application.

Rachel Lewis-Marlow MS, EdS, LPC, LMBT - Embodiment of Wise Mind: A somatic model of Wise Mind

Learn how to bring your clients into their bodies and increase their access to Wise Mind.  This workshop offers a didactic and experiential exploration of the Body-Mind through the process of Embodiment and introduces a new, somatically integrated model of Wise-Mind.  Build skills to enhance your therapeutic presence and deepen the impact of your interventions by applying the principle of “Fullmindedness” from cutting-edge from the cutting-edge Embodied Recovery model-a trauma informed, relationally oriented and somatically integrative treatment for eating disorders. 

Karen Chinca MSW, LICSW - Demystifying and Treating Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

This workshop is designed to educate clinicians about the complexities of working with clients with BDD. We will discuss how to assess for BDD, how it overlaps with eating disorders, why individuals develop the disorder, and evidence based treatments for BDD. In addition, we will discuss both overt and subtle safety and treatment interfering  behaviors which contribute to and maintain the disorder. A case presentation, as well as hands on exercises and exposures will be incorporated into the workshop.

4:15 – 5:00 PM

Endnote Address delivered by Michael E. Berrett PhD, CEDS - "The Competency of Compassion: A Cornerstone of Healing and Recovery"

 "Compassion is critical in reducing human suffering, and is the cornerstone of healing and recovery. Compassion is a competency and developed through the practice of it. This presentation offers six core competencies of compassion along with principles and interventions for application in the lives of the clinician and their clients. The presentation is didactic, reflective, and experiential.