Welcome

February marks our chance to amplify the work we do throughout the year. We have the unique opportunity to partner with colleges, universities, and other community members who also want to build awareness around eating disorders.

This month our staff will be working coast-to-coast to discuss eating disorders and their devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities. And to let people know that recovery is possible.

What is the best treatment at any given time when recovering from an eating disorder? This is one of the great questions providers, clients, and families alike struggle to answer.

We know there are significant scientifically based therapies that deliver positive outcomes, including weight restoration and behavior cessation. In fact, The Emily Program incorporates these therapies in our programs — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Family-Based Therapy — and has experienced much success through them.

Having said that, however, we also know that many clients who are able to cease behaviors and achieve weight restoration may continue to experience physiological distress, urges, body dissatisfaction, and anxiety, among other eating disorder symptoms.

Further complicating the issue, eating disorders often occur in secret and many clients may not reveal the intensity of their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings during treatment.

This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences on their own path to recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, or symptom use. Please use your own discretion. And speak with your therapist when needed.

By Jenn Friedman, a woman in recovery

I want to talk.

I want to talk but I don’t know what to say. I want to say something that sounds purposeful but I don’t want to force it. I want to say something that sounds smart but I don’t want to fake it. I want to say something that will reach the people reading but I don’t know what, at this moment, you’d like to hear. I want to say the right thing, hit on the perfect elemental blend, and in doing so share sacred space with you on this page. But I don’t know how, and I don’t know where to start, and I don’t know how to weave it all together. What I am looking at it is a blank space and I don’t know how to fill it.

I wanted to recover.

I wanted to recover but I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to recover purposefully but I didn’t want to force it. I wanted to recover intelligently but I didn’t want to fake it. I wanted to recover in a way that would let me connect with people but I didn’t know how they would receive me. I wanted to recover the right way, hit on the perfect elemental blend, and in doing so share a sacred community with others in this world. But I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know where to start, and I didn’t know how to weave it all together. What I was looking at was a blank space and I didn’t know how to fill it.

Without meaning to, I spoke. Without meaning to, I started a conversation. Without meaning to, there are more words on this page, and they have meant that I didn’t initially intend to assign them.

Now I know where this is going. Now I see a parallel that couldn’t have existed had I never started – unsure as I was. Now I see that my words have meaning, inspire engagement, and shed light on the heart of a process. Now I can direct it, because I know that important material exists, I know that I created it, and I know I have the power to continue. I choose to go on speaking.

At The Emily Program, our residential treatment is available for individuals of all ages, genders, and diagnoses. Our residential service’s purpose is simple: to care for clients when they come in, and give them enough tools so that when they step down to a lower level of care they can continue their recovery process.

Over the years we’ve grown, expanded programs, and transitioned our focus to stay current with evidence-based eating disorder treatment and insurance regulations. All while continuing to maintain and improve the personal experience individuals have while being treated within residential.

There are five pieces of information that anyone considering residential care at The Emily Program should know.

This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences on their own path to recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, or symptom use. Please use your own discretion. And speak with your therapist when needed.

By Dallas Rising, a former The Emily Program client and woman in recovery

I don’t consider myself “an anorexic.” I do consider myself to be someone who lives with anorexia. Even today, when I’m at a healthy weight, I live with an eating disorder. It’s like a demon or a monster that sleeps deep within me and feeds on my shame, insecurities, and fears about myself. My eating disorder is something I live with, not who I am.

I do consider myself an activist. I’m someone who believes that my actions can matter, and that bad situation can improve if we refuse to accept them and instead work to change them.

By Lisa Diers, RD, LD, RYT, Director of Nutrition and Yoga Services Manager at The Emily Program

Eating and living in a healthy manner is great – it can make you feel good and gives you pride in taking care of yourself. During this time of year in our country, we are marketed with all the ways in which we can “Be healthy”. However, “being healthy” can mean a lot of different things to different people, and can be taken to a point of being an obsession by itself. Some people define healthy by looking at different properties of the food they eat – Is it fat-free? It is free of artificial colors? Is it organic? Is it raised locally? Some define being healthy as the exercise that needs to be done a certain number of times per week for a certain number of minutes. Others feel that being healthy is about your emotional well-being.

By Joanna Hardis, LISW-S

As we enter a new year, everywhere I turn I’m seeing commercials for home video programs promising body transformations; I’m receiving countless offers for weight-loss and fitness programs; and I cannot open a magazine without being inundated with exercises guaranteeing a better, leaner body.

By Tiffany Hammer, Outreach Specialist at The Emily Program

Today I read an article on Slate by a man who described the overwhelming support he and his family received while his wife battled cancer. Casseroles, volunteer rides to appointments, people asking about her progress and how the family was coping, served as much needed emotional support. When his daughter started battling a crippling addiction, the same friends who provided such loving support for his wife were noticeably absent. He reflected on the stigma of mental illness and the apparent isolation from the community.