SPT-Fall2014

treat. In my practice, I tailor these
exercises to the individual. My hope
is that readers tailor the exercises to
fit their own situations.
I invite my patients to come ten
minutes early to their appointment,
find an appealing place in the garden
and watch a plant of their choice. I
tell them to pay attention to color,
shape, movement, and any insect or
animal life that may enter the picture
and while doing this to watch their
breath and be attentive to body
sensations.
For patients who live at the beach,
I suggest they sit on their balcony in
the morning and watch the ocean. I
invite them to be aware of sensations
in their body as they observe the
rolling waves, paying particular
attention to exactly where a wave
breaks.
For patients who “have no time”
for mindfulness practices, I suggest
they walk for ten minutes paying
attention to their body, emotions, and
thoughts. I ask them to be curious
and make a distinction, if they can,
between a physical sensation, a
feeling, or a thought.
Body exercises help women tolerate
their feelings without escaping into
their eating disorder. They learn that
they can experience body sensations,
have emotions, and think at the same
time. This is vital for detecting a
predator and taking wise selfprotective
action. Each aspect of their
awareness carries information. When
they have full access to all three
aspects and respect them, they can
coordinate information about their
situation and make wise choices
about how to respond.
This way of living gives women
solid evidence that their reality-based
decisions are far more powerful and
protective than self-destructive eating
disorder behavior. They begin to live
in a way that continually reinforces
recovery.
The ongoing challenge for many of
my patients is learning the difference
between reality and fantasy. The
body knows the difference.
Whenever a patient is in doubt about
her perceptions, whenever she is
being self-critical or feeling shamed
or worthless, she can check in with
her body to see if she is ignoring
danger signals. If she ignores them,
she opens herself to a predator in her
life.
The predator targets her as prey
because he recognizes her
vulnerability. The strength of her
reliance and belief in the predator's
lies is based on her own
developmental deficits and how
much she needs his promises and
declarations to sustain a sense of
what she understands as wellbeing.
Addressing these developmental
deficits is an ongoing part of her
recovery psychotherapy.
Humans are still prey to other
humans in this dangerous world. But
when the eating disordered woman
surrenders her eating destructive
behavior to increasing awareness of
reality she can detect predators and
find effective ways to elude them.
She is no longer a victim. She can
come out of hiding, use her resources
for herself, and flourish. Her body
becomes her friend as she allows her
normal, genuine, biological responses
to help guide her through her days.
Joanna Poppink is a private practice
licensed psychotherapist in Los Angeles,
California since 1980 and author
of Healing Your Hungry Heart:
Recovering from Your Eating Disorder.
She supports creative and healthy
development in all phases of a woman's
life, honoring her authentic mental,
emotional, and spiritual yearnings as she
moves from living with an eating
disorder into freedom and health. In her
book, Healing Your Hungry Heart, she
gives frank descriptions of secret,
emotional, and personal, challenges
when living with an eating disorder and
how to use them as opportunities for
healing. Using stories from her personal
struggles with bulimia along with stories
from a wide range of women she has
known, Joanna offers hope, inspiration,
and specific healing practices. She writes
to adult women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and
beyond. Her website, http://
www.eatingdisorderrecovery.com, is a
vast and free resource where visitors are
invited to comment, ask questions and
participate in ongoing recovery forums.
Email: joanna@poppink.com
References
Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what
happens: body and emotion in the
making of consciousness. Boston:
Harcourt Brace.
Hanh, T. N. (1993). The present moment.
Audio CD, Boulder: Sounds True.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Full catastrophic
living. New York: Bantam, Dell.
Kornfield, J. (1993). The inner art of
meditation. Audio CD. Boulder: Sounds
True.
Continued on the bottom of page 108
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2014 | Volume 4 Number 2 | page 88