When Food Is Family: A Loving Approach to Heal Eating Disorders
An expert in treating eating disorders for more than 25 years, Scheel believes that these disorders serve as a metaphoric voice for their sufferers. She argues that healing can be achieved if families under­stand the causes of eating disorders, change their patterns of communication, establish greater trust and empathy, and learn how to listen to the person with the disorder. In fact, she goes on to say that eating disorders develop when there is no room for painful or negative emotions to be expressed. Scheel uses case studies to discuss typical failures in attachment, which include trying to fix daughters' problems rather than listening to their feelings, parents confusing their own needs with their children's, and insisting that daughters always act "right." She also helps parents express their own feelings and create healthy boundaries. VERDICT Written primarily for parents, therapists, and care­givers, the book offers questions that prompt thoughtful reflection and provides insight that can ultimately heal a client or daughter with an eating disorder. Scheel adds a valuable resource to literature on this disorder.--Deborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., NJ --Library Journal, October 2011Families coping with clinical eating disorders have hungered long and hard for a book like When Food Is Family. Based on her decades of experience, Judy Scheel has written the clearest, most user-friendly guide to understanding and addressing the complex emotional and relational issues underlying these frightening and mysterious problems. No shame or blame games here just information showing how disruptions in relationships or attachments have affected the individual and how these can be healed. Clearly, concisely, and compassionately, When Food Is Family conceptualizes the eating disorder as a metaphorical quest for comfort through food and provides exercises to help families and patients develop a language of emotions so feelings can be expressed directly instead of through self-destructive behaviors. When Food Is Family fills a gaping hole in the eating disorder literature this is the one book I will recommend to all family members facing an eating disorder. --Margo Maine, PhD, FAED, CEDSEating disorders create and deepen disconnection within families. Parents often struggle to understand their child's inability to change behaviors that are often life threatening and intractable. Eating disorders also thrive in disconnection and full recovery usually involves not only nutritional and weight restoration but real relationship repair and restoration as well.When Food is Family provides clear and sophisticated exercises for rebuilding attachment and connection. Grounded in the science and research of attachment theory, these guided self-explorations will help families re-establish the empathy, security, and connection necessary for lasting recovery from these complicated illnesses. --Douglas W. Bunnell, Ph.D., FAED