Spiritual Approaches in the Treatment of Women with Eating Disorders

This book is for the practitioner who is curious about how to incorporate therapy that draws on clients' spirituality or religious background as a resource for recovery from eating disorders. There is growing empirical evidence that spiritual approaches to treating clients with eating disorders are as effective, and sometimes more effective, than secular ones, particularly with religiously devout clients. In this book, the authors seek to be catalysts in building up the body of literature documenting the influence of client religiousness and spirituality on the development and maintenance of eating disorders, as well as recovery from eating disorders. Drawing on their many years of clinical experience, the authors show how a theistic perspective of healing and change can enrich therapies currently in practice for eating disorders, such as individual, group, and family therapy and twelve-step programs. They propose an agenda for future research including valuable information on measures and research designs that will help investigators study the etiology of eating disorders as well as treatment outcomes, as they relate to client involvement in institutional and community religious life and clients' private devotion or expressions of spirituality.