Tools for Healing: Nutrition
If you’ve been with us on this journey over the past month, we’ve covered a lot of ground exploring some treatments that go beyond traditional talk therapy. Some might wonder why the need to share these different tools. First, the work offered at Wounded Healer Counseling is done through a holistic lens. Seeing a client as an addiction or as a problem to solve is mere symptom management. No person is compartmentalized, despite what they might claim. I often use the analogy with clients that we are like a spider web. All of these little parts of ourselves are like the strings that make up the bigger web. What might not appear to be connected really is. When it comes to finding the best possible care for a client, all areas of life need to be explored and considered. Keeping in mind the four domains has been crucial for me as I work with a client. How does the mind, heart, body, and spirit experience and come into play with whatever struggle the client is facing? How can these four domains be used as tools for treatment? That is why the past few weeks we have highlighted Neurofeedback, Mindfulness, and Trauma Massage.
This week we have the great pleasure of tapping into an often unrealized or mismanaged component of life. Our guest is Amy Shen, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist extraordinaire! Amy runs her private practice, Amy Shen Nutrition, not too far from the Center for Sexual and Relational Health here in Greer, SC. Why might something like our relationship to food be important in treatment. Amy will tell you that comorbidity of mental disorders abound in the nutrition world. Folks that suffer from addiction can frequently also have a harmful relationship with food. One common theme that runs between these two is an attempt at control. Image could also be a factor. In the world of eating disorders, folks use different tactics to keep up a particular weight or image.
Addiction is often a different type of image. Rather than a body image issue, though this can be a factor, addiction can come into play as someone strives desperately to keep up a particular image or persona. Someone abusing alcohol might use the substance to calm their nerves and seal that business deal. Many of my clients feel out of control in one area of their life and have a secret identity with some form of sexually addictive behavior. They dread the possibility of their hidden life becoming public and their image being tarnished. On rare occasions, arrests occur and they have no say in how their image is anymore.
When it comes to food and nutrition, Amy teaches that food is neutral, using the practices of Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size. These approaches allow for the individual to personalize their treatment based on the specifics of their circumstances. When it comes to diet and addiction, having a healthy, balanced understanding of our relationship with food can set the tone for other changes in life. A healthy relationship with food might lead to a change in developing healthier relationships with friends, coworkers, or family. It also might allow us to have the resources to make positive life changes required to face an addiction. Eating an appropriate diet is an important component when factoring in exercise and sleep, something that frequently gets discussed in my therapy sessions. Hydration serves as a complementary component as well.
Two things I love about Amy and the work she does are that she wants people to have a real understanding of what a relationship with food should look like. There is a ton of misinformation out there related to the subject. The Internet is plastered with new diets and trends to lose those 15 pounds. Well intentioned they may be, these sources really miss the mark and inevitably do grave harm to people that internalize them and make them out to be the truth. The other thing I appreciate about Amy is her willingness and desire to collaborate with other professionals. Not only is this good for the client, but it also serves as a tool for clinicians, doctors, etc. to become educated on the topic of diet and nutrition from someone who knows their stuff, not some random dude on the Internet.
When it comes to the treatment of mental illness or personal wellbeing, getting in touch with someone like Amy is well worth it! If you’d like to get in touch with Amy, check out her website here.
Join us next week for a new series where I explore my takeaways from the Disney film, Encanto, and how it revealed to me the commons struggles people have that often lead to addiction. See you then!