TI05 – Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa: Is a Brief Treatment possible?
Location: Cypress B
Difficulty: All Levels
Both Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa are serious and dangerous disturbances afflicting mostly, but not only, girls and young female adolescents. What makes these Eating Disorders more serious and dangerous today is the fact that they can become threatening lifelong experiences.
Various attempts to treat these disturbances briefly have been made, but in most cases they proved to be unsuccessful due a very high relapse rate. Essentially, to reduce or overcome the few main symptoms in a short time doesn’t appear so difficult, but unfortunately it doesn’t ensure a long-term recovery.
The more common mistake is not considering the complex dynamics, both in the individual and in the family that are less visible than an excessive thinness, or binge eating.
To avoid a fearsome chronicity, a number of other factors, like alexithymia, low self-esteem, perfectionism, dissociation, dichotomous thinking, and others should be considered for treatment. Indications of how to deal with these factors in Ericksonian Brief Therapy will be offered.
Educational Objectives:
- List nine factors that can enhance the risk of chronicity in Eating Disorders
- Describe five different strategies to make the treatment of Anorexia and Bulimia brief