Supporting ED Recovery Treatment Teams
As an Eating Disorder Recovery Coaching Trainee at the Carolyn Costin Institute, I am eager to support treatment teams by assisting clients in changing their behaviours, developing healthy coping skills and fostering accountability.
Coaching has proven to be extremely beneficial in addictions, mental health, and life skills support recovery and its application in the Eating Disorder field has only recently emerged. It is an unexploited resource that both recovery treatment teams and clients can hugely benefit from.
Recovery Coaching focuses on “how” clients get better by encouraging them to learn new behaviours and put them into practice, rather than “why” they developed eating disorders or what happened in their past, which is addressed by therapeutic treatment. Coaches nudge clients to take critical recovery steps, challenge their eating disorder thoughts and behaviours, help them develop new skills to navigate discomfort and difficult feelings and gradually lead them to gain confidence and become more independent in their own path towards full recovery.
If you wish to integrate and strengthen the level of care you provide to your clients, I would be delighted to offer my contribution as a coach and join our efforts to offer people suffering from eating disorders an enhanced hands-on recovery-focused approach to care.
How I can help Treatment Teams
Providing practical support for goal-oriented recovery by helping clients accomplish their treatment objectives in their daily lives, in the “here and now”
Serving as an integration of the treatment team when their support is unavailable through scheduled between-session text support and coaching sessions
Acting as the cohesive link among the clients’ treatment team members, facilitating their tasks and ensuring seamless and positive collaboration
What this means in practice
Communicating with the treatment team through their preferred channels and frequency (email, meetings, calls, group chats, secure online systems, etc.) to ensure information sharing and provide feedback on the clients’ progress (please note that clients will be required to sign a form to authorise the release of information)
Assisting clients between therapy sessions in a variety of settings, depending on the treatment goals; this could include meals out, grocery shopping, between-session support, clothes shopping assistance, attending events, etc., while helping them gradually develop the ability to perform these activities on their own
Being available via text outside of regular therapy session times, allowing clients to reach out when the eating disorder voice is at its loudest. This 'in the moment' support not only provides help when clinicians are unavailable but also empowers clients to reach out to individuals rather than their eating disorder, a crucial skill on the path to recovery; please note that a specific text policy outlining clear boundaries will be agreed upon with the treatment team and the client
Referring to the clinical team for any comorbidity issues such as anxiety, substance abuse, or trauma that may emerge during coaching sessions
FAQ
-
Working with a recovered coach can be a significant asset rather than a hindrance. At the CCI, aspiring coaches must have recovered for at least two years before being able to join the Eating Disorder Recovery Coaching Programme (please see the definition of “recovered” below). This strict requirement ensures a high level of personal stability and experience, making them well-equipped to assist clients effectively. Through this programme, recovered coaches also receive extensive training on sharing the positive aspects of their recovery with clients, particularly when it can provide encouragement, inspire hope, or address common challenges encountered in recovery.
*Being recovered is when the person can accept his or her natural body size and shape and no longer has a self-destructive relationship with food or exercise. When you are recovered, food and weight take a proper perspective in your life, and what you weigh is not more important than who you are; in fact, actual numbers are of little or no importance at all. When recovered, you will not compromise your health or betray your soul to look a certain way, wear a certain size, or reach a certain number on the scale. When you are recovered, you do not use eating disorder behaviours to deal with, distract from, or cope with other problems.
-
Before the Carolyn Costin Institute was founded there was no training or certification for eating disorder coaches. When therapists or dietitians look for a coach, they should look for someone who is certified by a reputable course provider. They should check whether this person has taken course work, passed exams, undergone supervision, completed an internship and become certified. A certified coach should also be required to take continuing education to remain certified. These requirements are all met by the CCI.
-
As mentioned above, the role of coach is not intended to disrupt or replace the valuable work clinicians have been doing with their clients, but rather to complement and reinforce it.
Further information on Eating Disorder Recovery Coaching:
Eating Disorder Recovery Coaching: A missing link in overall care, Carolyn Costin, November 2021