Routledge Foreign Bodies: Eating Disorders, Childhood Sexual Abuse, and Trauma-Informed Treatment

Foreign Bodies: Eating Disorders, Childhood Sexual Abuse, and Trauma-Informed Treatment addresses the association between eating disorders and childhood sexual abuse, proposing a new way of treating those suffering from eating disorders who were sexually abused as children. Based on testimonies of survivors of abuse who subsequently developed eating disorders, it offers a new form of diagnosis and treatment, arguing that the eating-disorder field often ignores the traumatic sources of eating disorders, leading to some treatment programs not being commensurate, and at times conflicting, with the principles of childhood sexual abuse treatment. The case studies used to highlight the link between childhood sexual abuse and eating disorders are presented from the perspective of the women involved, in their own words. Their voices are supplemented by Gur’s own stance as a clinician specializing in the treatment of sexual abuse and CPTSD. The book is divided into three parts: the first deals with eating disorders, childhood sexual abuse, and the association between them; the second examines the treatment of eating disorders and childhood sexual abuse; and the third offers a new form of diagnosis and treatment for eating disorders. This book will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in the eating disorder field of psychotherapy, psychology, or psychiatry, plus those studying the treatment of trauma. It will also be of interest to clinical dieticians, psychologists, social workers, doctors, nurses, eating disorder specialists, and policymakers in the mental health field, as well as eating disorders sufferers and those who care for them. Review "This long-awaited book addresses the needs of traumatized patients who struggle with dysregulated eating. Often in my practice as teacher and clinician I found myself in need for an authoritative text that will clarify why some patients do not respond well to best practice protocols for the treatment of eating disorders. Foreign Bodies is the book I have needed. It will guide clinicians through the distinctive drives and needs of traumatized individuals with eating disorders. Anat Gur eloquently argues her case in a clear but scientifically-based text laced with illuminating case studies. Her book is an important contribution to the improvement of care offered to many survivors of childhood adversity." Eli Somer, PhD, Clinical professor of psychology, University of Haifa. Past president, European Society for Trauma and Dissociation, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. "FOREIGN BODIES is a persuasive and comprehensive book about eating disorders, sexual abuse, and trauma-informed treatment―which constitutes her sub-title. Complex and painful material is beautifully, gravelly, calmly, "maternally" described. Dr. Gur issues a clarion call for mental health professionals to streamline their understanding, diagnoses, and therapeutic plans for the at-risk victims of childhood sexual violence―the anorexics, bingers, drug addicts, prisoners, suicide artists, and prostituted girls and women. They are the survivors, often the mute witnesses of a long-denied plague, one which causes life-long devastation. Based on her own clinical work and on studies, Dr. Gur argues, persuasively, that an eating disorder is merely a symptom, not an underlying cause, and that anorexia, bulimia, and bingeing, as well as diagnoses such as dissociative disorder or borderline personality, are all part of a single but complex, post-traumatic stress disorder that itself is a normal, human response to early childhood violation and betrayal. The author, and her very moving interviewees, insist that denial on the part of parents, teachers, social workers, and mental health professionals, is as traumatizing as the sexual violence itself. I strongly and passionately recommend this book for scholars and clinicians, as well as civilians, who are