This is the first book to present a roadmap for tailoring acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to the serious, complex challenges of anorexia nervosa (AN). Leading authorities describe interventions grounded in ACT core processes--Defusion, Acceptance, Attention to the Present Moment, Self-Awareness, Values, and Committed Action. Guidance is provided for conducting functional assessments with adolescents and adults and working toward individualized treatment goals, starting with weight restoration. The book also discusses ways to engage parents and other family members in treatment. It features therapist scripts, sample dialogues, case examples, and reproducible forms and handouts. The large-size format facilitates photocopying; purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

A Process-Focused Guide to Treating Eating Disorders with ACT At some point in clinical practice, most therapists will encounter a client suffering with an eating disorder, but many are uncertain of how to treat these issues. Because eating disorders are rooted in secrecy and reinforced by our culture's dangerous obsession with thinness, sufferers are likely to experience significant health complications before they receive the help they need. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Eating Disorders presents a thorough conceptual foundation along with a complete protocol therapists can use to target the rigidity and perfectionism at the core of most eating disorders. Using this protocol, therapists can help clients overcome anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and other types of disordered eating. This professional guide offers a review of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a theoretical orientation and presents case conceptualizations that illuminate the ACT process. Then, it provides session-by-session guidance for training and tracking present-moment focus, cognitive defusion, experiential acceptance, transcendent self-awareness, chosen values, and committed action-the six behavioral components that underlie ACT and allow clients to radically change their relationship to food and to their bodies. Both clinicians who already use ACT in their practices and those who have no prior familiarity with this revolutionary approach will find this resource essential to the effective assessment and treatment of all types of eating disorders.

This is the first book to present a roadmap for tailoring acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to the serious, complex challenges of anorexia nervosa (AN). Leading authorities describe interventions grounded in ACT core processes--Defusion, Acceptance, Attention to the Present Moment, Self-Awareness, Values, and Committed Action. Guidance is provided for conducting functional assessments with adolescents and adults and working toward individualized treatment goals, starting with weight restoration. The book also discusses ways to engage parents and other family members in treatment. It features therapist scripts, sample dialogues, case examples, and reproducible forms and handouts. The large-size format facilitates photocopying; purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

If you are an ACT practitioner or mental health professional, this eagerly awaited resource is an essential addition to your professional library. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based therapy that has been successful in treating a variety of psychological issues, such anxiety, depression, substance abuse, trauma, eating disorders, and more. In contrast to other treatment options, ACT has proven extremely effective in helping clients who are “stuck” in unhealthy thought patterns by encouraging them align their values with their thoughts and actions. However, the ACT model is complex, and it’s not always easy to use. Traditionally, ACT is delivered with a focus around six core processes that are often referred to as the hexaflex: cognitive defusion, acceptance, contact with the present moment, observing the self, values, and committed action. Each of these core processes serves a specific function, but they are often made more complex than needed in both theory and in practice. So what if there was a way to simplify ACT in your sessions with clients? Edited by clinical psychologists and popular ACT workshop leaders Kevin L. Polk and Benjamin Schoendorff, The ACT Matrix fuses the six core principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) into a simplified, easy-to-apply approach that focuses on client actions and behavior as workable or unworkable, rather than good or bad. Most importantly, you’ll learn how this innovative approach can be used to deliver ACT more effectively in a variety of settings and contexts, even when clients are resistant or unmotivated to participate. This is the first book to utilize the ACT Matrix model, and it is a must-read for any ACT practitioner looking to streamline his or her therapeutic approach.

This book is the first to address what really happens behind closed doors during eating disorders treatment, as most writing has only addressed theoretical approaches and behavioral strategies. The field has long needed a book that describes the heart of the matter: the therapeutic interventions and interactions that comprise life-changing treatment for this life-threatening disorder. In response to this need, the authors have created a book that reflects the individual therapeutic skills and the collective wisdom of senior clinicians, all of whom have years of experience treating anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Intended to be a deeply thoughtful and instructive volume, Effective Clinical Practice in the Treatment of Eating Disorders: The Heart of the Matter demonstrates the depth, complexity, and impact of the therapeutic process. In particular, the book articulates and explores essential points of information, issues, insights and unresolved questions about eating disorders treatment. Effective Clinical Practice in the Treatment of Eating Disorders describes and explicates important treatment issues and themes in a nuanced, highly contextualized and qualitative manner. The book offers a significant reference for both novice and seasoned therapists, and it includes specific information that will serve to inform and mentor future generations of eating disorders clinicians.

Two leading experts in eating disorders offer a comprehensive, evidence-based, and fully customizable program, Integrative Modalities Therapy (IMT), for treating adolescents with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. If you treat adolescents with eating disorders, you need a flexible treatment plan that can be tailored to your patient’s individual needs, and which fully incorporates the adolescent’s family or caregivers. This book offers a holistic approach to recovery that can be used in inpatient or outpatient settings, with individuals and with groups. The groundbreaking and integrative program, Integrative Modalities Therapy (IMT), outlined in this professional guide draws on several evidence-based therapies, including Maudsley family-based treatment (FBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), compassion-focused therapy (CFT), exposure therapy, and appetite awareness training. This fully customizable approach meets the patient where they are—emotionally and cognitively—throughout the process of recovery. This book covers all aspects of the recovery process, including navigating family issues, meal planning, and more. Handouts and downloads are also included that provide solid interventions for clinicians and checklists for family members.

This book explores the ways in which anorexic women use their eating to control their bodies. It argues that the female body in modern Western culture is understood as open and accessible and female appetite as dangerous and voracious. Anorexia attempts to resist both these constructions in the creation of a closed, desireless body. Since anorexic women resist the power of collective ideologies their resistance cannot work - the closed body becomes its own prison.