101691: Practicing Mentalizing to Address Core Issues in Eating Disorders Treatment

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.

In this webinar, participants will learn about the concept of mentalizing and how it can be applied in eating disorder treatment to enhance patients’ interpersonal effectiveness and capacity for empathy with self and others. Among others, Finn Skaarderuud and Kathryn Zerbe are raising awareness that eating disorder patients need to have a conscious understanding of the meaning of their eating disorder behavior. Mentalizing provides the time and space within the therapeutic relationship to strengthen adaptive defenses, explore issues of attachment and build new ego strengths. An interactive demonstration of mentalizing exercises will be presented with the participation of attendees.

Authors

Theresa Fassihi, Ph.D. (presenter); Janice Poplack, LCSW (presenter)

About the Authors:

Dr. Theresa Fassihi is the clinical psychologist with the Eating Disorders Program at The Menninger Clinic. She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from the University of Tulsa. She uses an integrative treatment approach that includes dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and mentalizing, with a special interest in treating body image disturbance. She is conducting research on the benefit of positive psychology interventions for inpatients. She is currently developing a web-based assessment battery for assessing long-term outcomes in patients. She makes presentations regularly on treatment of eating disorders.

Janice Poplack, LCSW is Director of the Social Work Discipline and a Primary Clinician on the Eating Disorders unit (EDP) for the Menninger Clinic in Houston, TX. Ms. Poplack earned her MSSW for the Graduate School of Social Work at Columbia University. Ms. Poplack received post graduate training at the D.C. Institute of Mental Hygiene. She has served as Assistant Director of Admission at the Catholic University School of Social Service and Clinical Director and Senior Program Director of The Women’s Home in Houston. Ms Poplack joined the Menninger Clinic in 2003 and has worked exclusively on EDP since 2005.

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. After this presentation, participants will be able to explain its applicability to eating disorder treatment.

2. After this presentation, participants will be able to utilize concrete techniques to enhance patients’ capacity for mentalizing.

3. After this presentation, participants will be able to define the theory of mentalizing.