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Expect Some Dreamy Posts!

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Category: Miscellaneous

“Dreams” is the title of the seminar I’ll be taking this week end in Santa Barbara with Marion Woodman (a talk) and Steve Aizenstat.

Integration Integrating a person’s inner life with her outer life in harmony and health has long been crucial, in my experience, for achieving eating disorder recovery. Regardless of the specific diagnosis: bulimia, anorexia, binge eating, compulsive overeating – and all the possible associated behaviors, like cutting, shoplifting, over exercising, over scheduling, under achieving, abusive and exploiting relationships greatly benefit from developing a healthy integration between mind, feelings and body.

Marion Woodman Marion Woodman is one of the early writers in the field of eating disorders. She is a gifted Jungian analyst with a way of understanding and bringing healing opportunities to men and women and, from my perception of her, particularly to women with eating disorders. I listened to her audio tape, "Dreams" many times and often recommend it to patients. Marion Woodman understands women and the language of dreams!

Dreams and Intuition as Integrating Forces I plan to walk among the trees on the Pacifica campus, participated in the dream workshops throughout the days, speak and share with wonderful people, write down my own dreams, muse about the dreams of my patients and those collective dreams that speak for our culture. The nourishment from the people, place and theme I know will benefit my in mind, heart and soul. From this will come new and surprising integrative thoughts and feelings that are bound to appear somehow in my blog posts as well as the rest of my personal and professional life. If you care to join me in this experience, take note of your dreams this weekend. Write them down. We can share them next week on this blog and see where our dreams lead us.

More about Marion Woodman Here’s a bit about the wonderful Marion Woodman (excerpt from the Marion Woodman Foundation website www.mwoodman.org Marion Woodman, LLD, DHL, PhD, is a Jungian Analyst, teacher and author of The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter; Addiction to Perfection; The Pregnant Virgin; The Ravaged Bridegroom; Leaving My Father's House; Conscious Femininity; Dancing in the Flames (with Elinor Dickson); Coming Home to Myself (with Jill Mellick); The Forsaken Garden: Four Conversations on the Deep Meaning of Environmental Illness, Marion Woodman, Ross Woodman, Sir Laurens van der Post, and Thomas Berry, edited by Nancy Ryley; The Maiden King (with Robert Bly); and Bone-Dying Into Life. A visionary in her own right, Marion Woodman has worked with the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung in an original and creative way. She is the Chair of the Marion Woodman Foundation. Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, Los Angeles, CA bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery, www.poppink.com

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Healing Imagery and Intuition regarding Eating Disorders

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Category: Miscellaneous

The Marion Woodman three day Dreams workshop was warm, challenging and wonderful. I’ve been wondering what to share with you. Dream work is so personal, but then, so is eating disorder recovery. The most powerful image I had, toward the end of the second day, my intuition tells me is relevant to all eating disorders.

Marion Woodman as Teacher and Inspiration Marion is in her eighties. Her body is disintegrating.

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Effect of media messages on your eating disorder recovery

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Category: Culture and Media

Can you turn off media messages about your shape and size? Can you use health and vitality as your criteria for what you eat and how you look?

A recent Hubpages blog raised the question: Does advertising affect eating disorders? In my opinion, much of current advertising promotes both tiny size fashion in clothes and huge portion size in food. It's an impossible combination many people strive to integrate.

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How Long Does It Take to Recover from Bulimia or Anorexia? Part 3

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Category: Healing Resources

What does it take to Heal from Bulimia or Anorexia? Healing from anorexia and bulimia requires development along all seven points I described in my last post. But what does it take to actually heal? And why does this healing take a long time? When I went back to college after a 13-year absence from academia, UCLA gave me a yellow piece of paper that listed my required courses. When I completed everything on the list UCLA would grant me a degree in psychology. The sheet was 81/2 x 11 inches. I tacked it on the wall above my desk and set to work. Every four months I checked off three classes. It took me three years to work through that one sheet of paper and qualify for my first diploma. Below is a short list of developmental tasks that can take several or many years to move through. Still, like my yellow sheet on the wall, the list can inspire a person to keep on keeping on. Perhaps, most importantly, the list confronts a person with realistic goals when her mind starts making excuses and rationalizing false beliefs.