101713: The Use of Exposure-Based Nutrition Therapy for Adolescents with Eating Disorders

About the Course:

Webinar from the 2009 International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals Symposium.
Note: For this course there is a small additional fee to obtain the webinar. Please see the “Get Course Materials” link in the right sidebar for details.

Adolescents with eating disorders complain of anxiety with food or particular restaurants. For example, “Super Size Me” is a movie commonly shown in the high school health curriculum. As a result, many clients are afraid to eat at McDonalds. The fear becomes irrational and harmful. Exposure-Based Nutrition Therapy reintroduces and desensitizes the client to the distressing stimulus (i.e. McDonalds). Then the practitioner works toward helping the client to normalize their behaviors around the stimulus. The workshop will teach the method using concrete examples, case studies, and video descriptions of frequently used food interventions. Discussion and audience participation will be encouraged.

Content Outline:
Introduction (3 minutes)
Objectives (2 minutes)
I. Exposure Therapy with a nutrition focus (15 minutes) A. Origins in OCD and PTSD B. Deprivation-Binge cycle in BN C. Anxiety and food avoidance in AN
II. Exposure (15 minutes) A. Smell B. Appearance C. Location D. Sitting before the food E. Trying the food with the RD and Therapist present in the location F. Processing the experience
III. Desensitize: (15 minutes) A. Examples with AN B. Examples in BN to break the deprivation/binge cycle
IV. Normalize behaviors (10 minutes) A. Examples of normalized behaviors with eating a variety of previously feared foods B. The expansion of the “safe food box”
V. Video examples (20 minutes) 1. Cooking challenges/baking 2. McDonalds challenge 3. Family style dinners 4. Grocery shopping 5. Binge food challenges
VI. Conclusion/ Q &A (10 minutes) A. Summarize information B. Restate objectives

Author

Rachel Liger, MS, RD (presenter)

About the Author:

Rachel Liger is a registered dietician and has served as the Director of Nutrition Services at Center for Discovery for over the past eight years. At the Center, Rachel is credited with the development of the nutrition program that now extends to Discovery’s four residential facilities. Rachel utilizes innovative approaches and paradoxical methods for nutrition education and re-feeding of malnourished individuals. Additionally, she lectures extensively in the community and serves as an adjunct professor at California State University Long Beach. Rachel has developed a dietary mentoring program that has served to educate students and RD interns about the sensitive nature of the dietary management of eating disorders. She received her masters from California State University Long Beach and while there designed and implemented an original clinical trial study on the effectiveness of the dietician for weight loss management when medications are used.

Recommended For:

This course is recommended for health care professionals, especially psychologists, therapists, and counselors who seek to update their research knowledge and competency in treating patients with eating disorders, increase and acquire new skills, learn new intervention strategies, and obtain continuing education credits. It is appropriate for professionals at all levels of knowledge.

Course Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to utilize the skills taught to improve outcomes for their patients suffering from food related anxiety.

2. Participants will learn to identify obsessive traits in their patients and learn how to reduce anxiety using exposure therapy.

3. Participants will be able to identify related therapeutic modalities and relate the skills to their work with eating disordered clients.