You raise important and sensitive issues. The experience of being touched is varied, even among people who are not struggling with any kind of disorder at all. We use some form of the expression, "That was touching," to mean that we have emotions about something, that we feel vulnerable and moved by something.
The woman with bulimia or other eating disorders struggles with body image, body shape and size, weight gain and loss, bloating and cramps. Her body is a battle ground, and the feeling of battle is familiar.
Feeling soothed by physical touch requires a sense of safety and trust. The woman must be capable of allowing herself to be vulnerable. A woman with little or no recovery from bulimia is frightened of her own vulnerability. She is already being courageous and as vulnerable as she can manage by working with her psychotherapist.
At some point in her recovery work, however, body work is very helpful, as long as it occurs with sensitivity and at the right time for her. For example, I sometimes will recommend that a patient take a yoga class. If she takes a class and can tolerate the experience, I will suggest that she wear something that leaves some part of her body exposed. Usually she has been wearing sweat pants and a sweat shirt or loose t shirt. She will looked startled and worried when I make this suggestion.
I explain: I want you to have an experience of skin on skin. Yoga offers you many poses where you are holding yourself. Find a way to wear something you can bear so that in some of the poses you are holding your own body and feel your own skin.
This is a beginning, incorporating breathing and a body accepting environment with touch at the most non threatening level and where she is in complete control.
Baths, jacuzzis, showers, warm sun, breezes on bare skin are other physical activities that help bring her to her body experience in a soothing and pleasurable way, again with no threat. She will know when she is ready for a massage or body work of some kind. These experiences can be wonderfully therapeutic because they introduce a kind of body awareness and emotional connection with body that is strange and unknown to her.
It's not unusual for women to cry during yoga classes or during a massage without knowing why.
I love it when a woman gets comfortable enough in her body to dance. But we have to be careful about movement in treatment. Dance can take the form of exercise. Yoga can too. And exercise, before recovery work, is often a weapon against the body.
Achieving the ability to experience soothing without a heavy price is a sign of progress in recovery.
Thank you for your participation. I appreciate hearing from you.
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You raise important and sensitive issues. The experience of being touched is varied, even among people who are not struggling with any kind of disorder at all. We use some form of the expression, "That was touching," to mean that we have emotions about something, that we feel vulnerable and moved by something.
The woman with bulimia or other eating disorders struggles with body image, body shape and size, weight gain and loss, bloating and cramps. Her body is a battle ground, and the feeling of battle is familiar.
Feeling soothed by physical touch requires a sense of safety and trust. The woman must be capable of allowing herself to be vulnerable. A woman with little or no recovery from bulimia is frightened of her own vulnerability. She is already being courageous and as vulnerable as she can manage by working with her psychotherapist.
At some point in her recovery work, however, body work is very helpful, as long as it occurs with sensitivity and at the right time for her. For example, I sometimes will recommend that a patient take a yoga class. If she takes a class and can tolerate the experience, I will suggest that she wear something that leaves some part of her body exposed. Usually she has been wearing sweat pants and a sweat shirt or loose t shirt. She will looked startled and worried when I make this suggestion.
I explain: I want you to have an experience of skin on skin. Yoga offers you many poses where you are holding yourself. Find a way to wear something you can bear so that in some of the poses you are holding your own body and feel your own skin.
This is a beginning, incorporating breathing and a body accepting environment with touch at the most non threatening level and where she is in complete control.
Baths, jacuzzis, showers, warm sun, breezes on bare skin are other physical activities that help bring her to her body experience in a soothing and pleasurable way, again with no threat. She will know when she is ready for a massage or body work of some kind. These experiences can be wonderfully therapeutic because they introduce a kind of body awareness and emotional connection with body that is strange and unknown to her.
It's not unusual for women to cry during yoga classes or during a massage without knowing why.
I love it when a woman gets comfortable enough in her body to dance. But we have to be careful about movement in treatment. Dance can take the form of exercise. Yoga can too. And exercise, before recovery work, is often a weapon against the body.
Achieving the ability to experience soothing without a heavy price is a sign of progress in recovery.
Thank you for your participation. I appreciate hearing from you.
warm regards,
Joanna
July 7, 2009 - 12:26amThis Comment
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