International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals Conference and

Miss America, Kirsten Haglund

Thanks to all of you who came by our booth to talk with us at the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals conference recently that took place in Orlando. As an eating disorder treatment facility in Indiana, we still get involved in conferences all over the US since residents come from around the country.

We met several therapists who are deeply committed to the recovery of those suffering from eating disorders and seeking eating disorder treatment. It was very encouraging to see the devotion and professionalism represented there. We learned a lot as well!

While at IAEDP, we also met and attended a presentation by Kirsten Haglund, Miss American 2008 who herself is recovered from an eating disorder. She expressed her belief that faith played an important role in her battle against anorexia. She is a great example of recovery and has made eating disorder awareness one of her platform issues. Thanks Kirsten!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!

Selah House awarded three-year CARF accreditationAnderson, IN — April 2008 — CARF International announced that Selah House has been accredited for a period of three years for its Residential programs. This is the first accreditation that the international accrediting body has awarded to Selah House.This accreditation decision represents the highest level of accreditation that can be awarded to an organization and shows the organization’s substantial conformance to the CARF standards. An organization receiving a Three-Year Accreditation has put itself through a rigorous peer review process and has demonstrated to a team of surveyors during an on-site visit that its programs and services are of the highest quality, measurable, and accountable.Selah House is an organization with offices at 2541 N Shore Blvd, Anderson, IN 46011.  It has been providing Eating Disorder Treatment in the Indiana and surrounding states area since 2006.CARF is an independent, nonprofit accrediting body whose mission is to promote the quality, value, and optimal outcomes of services through a consultative accreditation process that centers on enhancing the lives of the persons served. Founded in 1966 as the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, and now known as CARF, the accrediting body establishes consumer-focused standards to help organizations measure and improve the quality of their programs and services.

For additional information about eating disorders, contact Selah House at 888-641-0022 or look for us on the web at www.selahhouse.net.

CARF!

    Congratulations to all Selah staff, owners, clients, and referral sources! On CARF 3 year accreditation!!! Way to go Selah! 

       Thank you to everyone that helped with CARF! Selah could not have done it without you! 

“You are a new creation. You are none of the things you thought you were. You are not shameful. You are precious and beautiful. You are compassionate, loving, and worthy to be loved.  You are free to live as you. You are no longer imprisoned.”  These words were part of a letter a client wrote to her body after completing her recovery body image.  Such a letter is the final step in the Body Image Workshop, an integral component of our treatment program.  The Body Image Workshop uses art therapy exclusively.  The guiding principle being that the subconscious feelings and disturbing thoughts find a comfortable outlet in art.  Standard “talk” therapy is not likely to expose the underlying truth of a client’s body image, to the client or the therapist.  They need an experience with some novelty and freshness to be effective.  The use of art therapy in our Body Image Workshop has successfully increased the clients’ connection to feelings inside of their body, not just to the body itself. 

In my 13 years of working with eating disorder clients I have found that discussions about their bodies are limited in one of two ways:

1.      words seem inadequate to express their pain
2.      they talk about their body superficially, hiding the pain  

                                                     

An example of recovered body image. Artwork at end of Body Image Workshop.	An example of ED body image.Artwork during beginning of BodyImage Workshop.

In both cases, the client is generally disconnected from the emotions that reside within their body.  The use of art allows them to experience emotions the eating disorder suppressed, giving voice to the unspoken pain that has kept them in bondage.  One client shared, “ It was through art therapy that I connected to the emotions my underweight exterior held:  low self-esteem, self-hatred, shame, hopelessness, torment, fear, sadness, loneliness, guilt, feeling unloved, lost, empty, awkward, rejected, abandoned, and helpless.”  By creating a life size image of how she felt IN her body she was able to take a step away from herself and view her true feelings.  “For the first time I saw the real pain I had been calling fat.”  When words are not enough, art can provide access to hidden emotions that contain the key to freedom from body loathing.  Moving a client from a negative body image state (eating disorder thoughts, body myths, hidden feelings, past experiences) to a recovered body image state (increased self-awareness, established trust with the body, seeing the body as a “vehicle for life”) is not an easy task.  As Marcel Proust points out, “We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it in full.”  My message to both therapist and client is this:  Go on, pick up a paintbrush and listen to your heart.  As you listen you will start to find a world of emotions that you never knew existed.  I promise you this; art will give you the freedom to be more of who YOU really are! 

Misty Rees, BS, CEDS
Program Director
Selah House Residential & Outpatient Programs

     When I entered Selah House I had little hope of living.  My eating disorder had taken over my life and I was actually hoping it would kill me rather than try to live life with it.  The admissions process truly saved my life.  I was desperate for help and was losing any fight I had left in me, but Chaia gave me hope in my assessment.  It was different than any of the other several treatment centers I had been assessed by.  I was skeptical when I heard that the majority of the staff had suffered from eating disorders, because I didn't believe it was possible to be free from these horrible diseases. My skepticism was challenged the second I entered Selah. I saw the staff’s eyes and voices full of life and emotion. They gave me hope that just maybe I could experience the same freedom. I made things difficult for myself and the staff out of my fear of changing and mistrust of their care for me, but they patiently loved me and waited for my heart to change. Never have people given me such continual support. They didn't give up on me, much to my surprise.  I've never had people have that much confidence or faith in the potential for freedom they saw in me.
     God is truly amazing to have worked through the Selah staff to transform my life. I never believed I would have freedom from my eating disorder, but I am slowly coming alive day by day. I feel hope, and for the first time can see myself as a beautiful, cherished, precious child of God.  For the first time I can actually feel freedom in my heart from the lies that have bound me for so long, and genuine happiness. I have hope for the amazing future God has for me!  For the first time I feel capable of seeing the gifts and beauty within myself and it is so liberating.
     The team at Selah House completely changed my life and I will forever be so thankful to them!  I never would have fought for my freedom if it wasn't for them!

Mindy