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eJournal
This is the first entry in my eJournal. I decided to start by addressing the question of "What is Collaborative Treatment"?
In a collaborative approach to treatment, a therapist and client work together to make treatment decisions. This means that as a therapist, I trust my clients to know themselves. I trust the feedback clients provide about how to proceed with treatment.
With eating disorders, this means that I recognize that not everyone is helped by the same methods. Not everyone is a customer for the same thing in treatment. Some people seek treatment when they have decided that they finally want to finally be rid of their eating disorder. Others seek treatment when they are not sure ... perhaps they have been told by others they have an eating disorder, perhaps their awareness is a product of their own reflections. Still others are looking for aftercare after a stay at a treatment center .... and so on, and so on. The point is, there are countless reasons and situations that lead people seek treatment. Each person, each situation is unique. It is just impossible to decide in advance of starting to work with someone what the short term goals will be, or what methods are likely to be helpful. Trying to deliver something in treatment a client is not ready for delays progress, and harms the working relationship with a client (which is the most powerful tool for change we have).
Collaborative treatment also means that with the exception of life-threatening situations, methods that are coercive are never used. Successful recovery from an eating disorder means regaining one's one internal center of control. Being under the control of outside forces is part of the problem. Ultimately, treatment has to return control to the person, not diminish it further, for the person to move beyond both disordered eating and the mental conflict that eating disorders create.
Collaborative treatment means all this and more - quite literally, volumes of books and articles have been written on the topic. Questions? Click on the contact link below and ask!