Adapting Trauma Therapies to Treatment of Co-occurring Disordered Eating and Dissociation

Abstract
Eating Disorders and Dissociative Disorders are often treated separately, but a growing movement among practitioners advocates for integrative treatment approaches. For individuals who experience both disordered eating and traumatic dissociation, whether at clinically significant or subclinical levels, integrative approaches to the shared drivers of both symptom sets is an essential component of recovery and healing.

This panel aims to build capacity for integrated treatment by equipping trauma and dissociation specialists with tools to treat the dissociative roots of common disordered eating patterns. It will speak to individuals who are highly competent in the treatment of trauma and dissociation, but have not had the training or support to translate these skills to the treatment of disordered eating. The panel aims to provide these practitioners with a clear vision for how their unique skillsets can be utilized with this population, increasing the access for integrated care.

Clinicians will leave with concrete strategies for integrating existing trauma treatment skills into the work of healing food and body relationships, the ability to identify and interpret the dissociative structures behind common disordered eating patterns, and the skills to assess when their work as a trauma and dissociation specialist with an individual experiencing disordered eating requires the presence of a broader multidisciplinary team to ensure client safety.

The panel will begin with elaboration of biological and psychological mechanisms by which disordered eating induces and maintains dissociative states, and the inverse mechanisms by which dissociation can maintain or induce disordered eating. Secondly, there will be education on common disordered eating patterns indicative of severe developmental trauma and/or organized abuse, equipping clinicians with the ability to detect unintegrated traumatic material manifesting in relationship with food, body image, and movement. Thirdly, there will be direction on practical application of existing trauma treatment modalities (SE, EMDR, Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders, etc) to this intersection, and guidance on scope of competence and the integration of a multidisciplinary team when clinically indicated.