Hello there! I’m Amanda Barron, a Registered Social Worker at the Centre for Psychology and Emotion Regulation (CPER). I am so excited to step into this new role as Eating Disorder Team Lead. My passion for understanding and treating eating disorders was ignited when I met Dr. Federici in 2018. I had been a social...
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Category: Eating Disorders
Clients want to improve: This is one of several central treatment assumptions in DBT and not one that is widely accepted or believed in general mental health settings. When I present the DBT assumptions in my clinical trainings, it is inevitable for some clinicians to question the validity of this statement: “I don’t think all...
For anyone who wonders why I advocate so hard for those with eating disorders (EDs), especially in the context of treatment access and with respect to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), this article, in a nutshell, is it: In August 2022, Dr. Davia Barzdaitiene (Consultant Psychiatrist, Norfolk Community Eating Disorders Service) wrote an opinion piece...
We know that eating disorders (EDs) are not choices, but is recovery a choice? I spend a lot of time thinking about this because it has everything to do with how I design treatments and how I work with people in general. What you believe about human behaviour impacts how you engage with others....
All eating disorders are characterized by an inability to properly feed oneself. Difficulties in eating, body image, and digestion are largely rooted in neurobiological and metabolic factors and complicated by sociocultural influences. Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) was officially recognized in the DSM5 in 2013, although researchers had been studying it for several decades prior, so this is...
When you restrict your eating in any way, your body adapts by entering starvation mode. Starvation mode is an evolutionary and biologically driven physiological mechanism designed to keep you alive. In cave person years, when food was not plentiful, the body would adapt by slowing down metabolism and digestion, reducing heart rate, and conserving...
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is guided by a number of core assumptions about the nature of human behavior and about the process of treatment. Over the next few weeks, I will describe each in turn. One that is high on my list right now, however, is the treatment assumption that clients cannot fail DBT. People often...
A mother sent me the attached “holiday song” stating the following: “these are the lyrics of a song that (my grade 3 child) is learning to sing for their Christmas concert. It doesn’t sound right to me and I wanted your professional opinion.” So I read the lyrics. And then I read them again. And...
Today marks the beginning of Eating Disorder Awareness Week. All I want to say on the subject is that living with an eating disorder is indescribably dark and twisted. There is so much more to Anorexia (and other eating disorders) than people are aware of mostly because there is only so much that can be...