Tutu Thin and Dancing Around the Issues with Dawn Smith-Theodore, LMFT

 
Tutu Thin and Dancing Around the Issues with Dawn Smith-Theodore, LMFT
Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS
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Episode 24 - Tutu Thin AND Dancing Around the Issues with Dawn Smith-Theodore, LMFT

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Dawn Smith-Theodore, LMFT a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of eating disorders and addictions. Dawn has a private practice in Agoura Hills and Westwood, CA, and she was the Director of Day Treatment Services for Monte Nido and Affiliates. She was the owner of “Carousel” a transitional living home for women with eating disorders and chemical dependency, with her colleague, Terry Eagan, MD. Dawn is also a former professional dancer and owned her own dance studio for 25 years. She is the author of the book, Tutu Thin: A Guide to Dancing Without an Eating Disorder. 

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The need for perfection, especially with dancers.

  • Choosing life or choosing an eating disorder.

  • Finding a balanced life as a dancer.

  • The importance of education around harmful language that can perpetuate an eating disorder.

  • How the theme of being “enough” is commonplace in the minds of those with an eating disorder and dancers alike.

  • The competitive nature of dancers and those with an eating disorder.

  • How nourishment allows dancers to feel the music and feel their bodies.


ABOUT DAWN SMITH-THEODORE:

Dawn Smith-Theodore, LMFT is a specialist in the treatment of eating disorders. Dawn has a private practice in Agoura Hills and Westwood, CA, and she was the Director of Day Treatment Services for Monte Nido and Affiliates. She was the owner of “Carousel” a transitional living home for women with eating disorders and chemical dependency, with her colleague, Terry Eagan, MD.

Dawn worked for seven years at Monte Nido Residential Treatment Center in Malibu, CA with women suffering from anorexia, bulimia, and exercise addiction. She has worked as a primary therapist as well as a facilitator of the weekly multi-family group, cognitive-behavioral, dance therapy, and creativity groups. She worked for 6 years as an Eating Disorder Consultant for Visions Adolescent Treatment Center in Malibu, where she worked with adolescents who suffer from drug addiction, alcoholism in addition to having an eating disorder. Dawn was the Clinical Director of the Eating Disorder Center of California in Brentwood (Los Angeles) for 5 years.

Dawn appeared on Health Zone with Amy Hendel and Recovery Talk Network as a therapist with a specialty in the eating disorder field. She has also been a guest teacher at Pepperdine University and California State Dominguez Hills. She spoke on a panel about Women’s Issues in Recovery at the Southern California Recovery Summit. Dawn appeared with Tracey Gold in the Lifetime Television show about the treatment of eating disorders entitled Starving Secrets. Dawn is an international speaker having recently spoken to the dance department at Boston Conservatory, The Joffrey Ballet School, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Steps on Broadway, The Washington Ballet, Kirov Ballet Academy, IADMS in Helsinki and Montreal, and the Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts in New York City. Dawn is recovered from Anorexia Nervosa herself.

In addition to her work as a therapist, Dawn owned and operated her dance studio, A Step in Time School of Dance in Calabasas, CA for 25 years. During her ownership, Dawn has traveled the globe with her students giving them opportunities to perform at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Cruise Ships, the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and The Radio City Christmas Show at the Nokia Theatre as well as building self-esteem through performance. Dawn continues to teach dance and is currently working with dance conventions and Ballet companies to educate them about eating disorders and positive body images in the dance world. Dawn believes that education and early intervention with dance educators, young dancers, and parents can help decrease the number of dancers who develop an eating disorder. She is the co-owner of Cross Pointe Dance with her long-time friend, Dana Stackpole former American Ballet Theatre and Broadway Star. Cross Pointe Dance is a Master Class Series and Performance opportunity for young dancers, where Dawn has the ability to promote positive body image to young dancers. Dawn is also the author of the book about dancers and eating disorders, Tutu Thin: a Guide to Dancing Without an Eating Disorder.

CONNECT WITH DAWN SMITH-THEODORE:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following @karinlewisedc on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Wasted and the Phenomenon of the Trainwreck Girl with Marya Hornbacher

 
Wasted and the Phenomenon of the Trainwreck Girl with Marya Hornbacher
Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS
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Episode 23 - Wasted and the Phenomenon of the Trainwreck Girl with Marya Hornbacher

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

“Healing requires one thing above all - it takes action.
This will not be done for you.
Eventually, you, yourself, will have to choose how to do it, how to live.
Recovery is a choice.”
— Marya Hornbacher

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by award-winning essayist, journalist, novelist, poet, and New York Times bestselling author of five books, Marya Hornbacher. Her first book, the memoir Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, appeared when she was 23, and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. In May 2014, 15 years after the original date of publication, the book was updated with a Postscript by Hornbacher. While she doesn’t sugarcoat the hard work of recovery, she does assure that healing is attainable and within reach. With a new ending to her story that adds a contemporary edge, Wasted continues to be timely and relevant.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The motives behind the raw, graphic nature of Wasted.

  • The phenomenon of the “trainwreck girl” during the memoir boom of the 1990s.

  • The unintentional/intentional “glamorization” of eating disorders in the media.

  • The invasiveness of social media consumption and the role of personal responsibility.

  • The line between being “triggered” and being an educated consumer.

  • Recovery is “messy” because life is “messy.”

  • Accepting our personal limitations vs beating ourselves up over them.

  • Why self awareness and self compassion are vital in the process of healing.

  • How Marya uses the Twelve Step model in her recovery and current life.

ABOUT MARYA HORNBACHER:

In 1998, Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, to international renown. Her first book, the memoir Wasted, appeared when she was 23, and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. This book earned Hornbacher a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and over the years has become a worldwide classic. Her first novel, The Center of Winter, was published in 2005 to international acclaim. The New York Times named the book an Editor’s Choice, and Booklist called Hornbacher “a master storyteller.” Her third book, Madness: A Bipolar Life, was an immediate New York Times Bestseller, and earned her more praise in the Times, which wrote, “Hornbacher is a virtuoso writer.” Her fourth and fifth books, Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Twelve Steps and Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power, both published by Hazelden, have found passionate audiences who are working toward recovery from addictions of all kinds. Waiting, published in 2011, examines the role of spirituality in a non-believer’s life, and was a finalist for both the Books for Better Life Award and the Minnesota Book Award. Marya’s sixth book, We’ve Been Healing All Along: Real Lives and Real Strategies for Mental Health Recovery, tells the personal stories of dozens of people with mental health disorders who are defining, and achieving, personal success on their own terms.

Hornbacher’s work is available in more than twenty languages, which has earned her an international reputation. A three-time Morse Fellow at Yale, and a regular speaker on humanism and ethics at Harvard, she has also spoken on the topics of recovery, spirituality, and mental health at Columbia Medical School, Vassar, UC Berkeley, Swarthmore, Skidmore, Wesleyan, Amherst, the University of Michigan, and many others. While she lectures widely in academic settings, she is closely engaged in advocacy for mental health recovery, and is a frequent pro bono visitor to community-based mental health groups of all sizes and kinds, including NAMI, DBSA, and RAISE.

Born in San Francisco, Hornbacher has long made her home in Minneapolis. The recipient of a host of awards for her books, journalism, teaching, and research, including the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction and the Fountain House Humanitarian Award for Mental Health Activism, she is a current Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good. Marya is hard at work on her seventh book, a collection of essays on the subject of solitude in women’s lives. She teaches creative writing and journalism at Augsburg University and the University of Nebraska.

CONNECT WITH MARYA HORNBACHER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following @karinlewisedc on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Eating Disorders, Embodiment, and Social Justice with Andrea LaMarre, PhD

 
Eating Disorders, Embodiment, and Social Justice with Andrea LaMarre, PhD
Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS
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Episode 22 - Eating Disorders, Embodiment, and Social Justice with Andrea LaMarre, PhD

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by academic and activist Andrea LaMarre, PhD. Recovered from her own eating disorder, Andrea is a researcher, writer, speaker, and aspiring filmmaker from Canada living in Auckland, New Zealand. She currently works at Massey University as a lecturer in critical health psychology. With a passion for improving access to quality, accessible, and appropriate care for people with eating disorders, Andrea’s focus is on working systemically and structurally to change healthcare policy to be more supportive of diverse experiences.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The definition of recovery is not singular.

  • Being vulnerable is the antithesis of being in an eating disorder.

  • How black and white thinking can keep us from reaching recovery.

  • Social Justice and diversity in the eating disorders community.

  • Eating disorders don't have a "look".

  • Finding your passion post-recovery.

  • Going through treatment does not necessarily make you recovered.

ABOUT ANDREA LAMARRE:

Andrea LaMarre has always been social-justice-minded: one of her earliest forays into eating disorder research was an exploration of how one might understand eating disorders as a social justice issue, due to the many barriers to care that exist for those who do not fit the expected presentation of eating disorders (i.e., those who are marginalized along the lines of their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, body size, etc.). As Andrea has become increasingly engaged with the eating disorder advocacy and activism community, however, she has been galvanized by the real stories of those who are let down by our current continuum of care for eating disorders.

Andrea’s research centers around recovery, which may seem a lesser concern in the face of these serious issues with access to care for eating disorders. However, Andrea has seen how hope for the future can be a powerful thing through engagement with various advocacy efforts over the years. She strongly believes that understanding recovery in a more complex, situated, systemic, and relational way can help to build supportive systems of care that are accessible, timely, and appropriate for the complexities of the people who seek them. In Andrea’s research, she aims to better understand what recovery means to diversely embodied (i.e., people from different ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, genders, body sizes, etc.) sufferers and their families. Andrea contends that by sharing lived experiences of recovery in the form of digital stories (short films about lived experience created in a facilitated workshop) one can create spaces for engaging in productive dialogue between healthcare providers, policy makers, and those with lived experience. This dialogue can help to understand what people and their families need in order to reach recovery.

Andrea’s overall goal in all of her work is to increase access to health and wellness for diversely embodied people who have experienced eating distress. Approaching eating disorders with a systemic, social justice lens allows people to look beyond a perspective that positions them as issues of individual responsibility and vanity; it allows people to begin to understand how individuals interact with social and political systems and how this impacts their health. Research, to Andrea, is about more than simply producing scholarly knowledge. It is about deeply engaging with communities to work toward a world that honors diversity and breaks down barriers to access. It is about hearing the stories of those who are being let down, and, rather than being immobilized, working to create alternative possibilities.

Andrea obtained her PhD in 2018 at the University of Guelph, where she used qualitative and arts-based approaches to explore eating disorders recoveries from the perspectives of people in recovery and their chosen supporters. Andrea is a member of a number of organizations for eating disorder professionals, including the Academy for Eating Disorders and the Eating Disorders Association of Canada, and volunteers for the National Initiative for Eating Disorders in Canada.

In her spare time, Andrea watches really bad TV, reads young adult fiction, and spends entirely too much time on Twitter. She can also be found hiking with her husband or attending too many conferences.

CONNECT WITH ANDREA LAMARRE:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Bringing the Eating Disorder Into the Room with Joe Sciarretta, LCSW

 
Bringing the Eating Disorder Into the Room with Joe Sciarretta, LCSW
Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS
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Episode 21 - Bringing the Eating Disorder Into the Room with Joe Sciarretta, LCSW

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Joe Sciarretta, licensed clinical social worker and owner of Earnest Therapy, LLC, a private practice specializing in helping people find hope during the chaos of eating disorders, anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, and PTSD. Since 2010 Joe has worked within intensive eating disorder treatment and has served individuals suffering from a wide variety of symptoms. Joe is passionate about helping those suffering from mental health problems and sees recovery is attainable for anyone. When asked how he got into this particular line of work, Joe’s response is that he “found my passion for helping people with eating disorders by accident, but stayed with them on purpose”.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • Understanding (and honoring) ambivalence.

  • The difference between “fixing” and “healing.”

  • Looking through the lens of someone who hasn't experienced an eating disorder.

  • Why does getting better feel so bad?

  • Bringing the eating disorder into the room...even if you don’t want to.

  • The importance of education and insight when doing family work. "There's a lot of heat; but until there is education, there is not a lot of insight".

  • Eating disorders and suicide.

ABOUT JOE SCIARRETTA:

Joseph (Joe) Sciarretta, LCSW is a licensed therapist who focuses his career on the treatment of people with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, OCD, and trauma.

Joe received his BA in Psychology from The College of New Jersey in 2011 and his MSW from Rutgers University in 2014. Since completing his graduate education, Joe has held a variety of positions in the world of eating disorder treatment including Admissions Coordinator, Recovery Coach, Primary Therapist, and finally Lead Therapist. Joe is a fully credentialed Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of New Jersey. Joe is also a member of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Joe also offers training workshops on eating disorders to other healthcare professionals.

Joe got his start working in the eating disorder field sort of "by accident". After looking through a binder of internships held by previous students in his undergraduate psychology department, he had his interest piqued by the idea of learning in the most professional setting he could find, and so applied to intern at a hospital-based eating disorder program. Although he knew very little about eating disorders then, he was given a chance to learn and became the first male intern the program took on. During this experience, Joe had the privilege to help people as they started their journey in a state of illness and then gradually moved through their healing process. After witnessing many people go through meaningful transformations, Joe was so inspired that he decided to dedicate his professional career to the care of people with eating disorders.

Since that internship in 2010, Joe has been working with people who have eating disorders at a number of reputable treatment centers in the New Jersey-New York area. He has made it a point to serve people with eating disorders at all levels of care: from outpatient office visits, day treatment programs, residential centers, and inpatient hospitals. Having been a long-time staff member of Monte Nido's residential treatment center in Irvington, NY, Joe emphasizes the Monte Nido therapeutic approach outlined in the "8 Keys To Recovery From An Eating Disorder" book. He also heavily incorporates effective evidence-based principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Family Therapy.

At present, Joe owns and operates Earnest Therapy, LLC - a private practice dubbed for his tendency to eagerly support and encourage his client's true selves. At Earnest Therapy, he continues his tradition of directly serving people suffering from eating disorders, anxiety, depression, OCD, and trauma.

CONNECT WITH JOE SCIARRETTA:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.