As we mentioned in our last few Q&A posts, we hosted our Annual Symposium on Saturday, April 18. The beautiful weather and gathering of accomplished eating disorder professionals made for an extremely enjoyable day. Our symposium was designed to bring cutting edge, innovative treatment knowledge and options to the professionals caring for people with eating disorders. And, we are happy to report that more than 135 people were in attendance!

Below is a list of speakers, topics and a few pictures from our exciting event:

• Steven Wonderlich, Ph.D., spoke about trauma as it relates to eating disorders and the impact this trauma may have on diagnosis and treatment. 

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• Stewart Agras, M.D., discussed empirically-based treatments for Bulimia Nervosa, including Guided Self Help, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the use of antidepressants in the treatment of bulimia.

• Judith Banker, MA, LCP, FAED, talked about the gap between research and practice and the concern that research findings and clinical observations become lost in this gap. She went over the proposed guidelines for Research-Practice Integration and the benefits to patients, researchers and clinicians in this exchange.

• Dr. Kathryn Zerbe created a beautiful artwork backdrop to help illustrate her description of interventions with eating disorders based on their specific life stage. Throughout her discussion of transferance and countertransferance, she continued to provide fantastic works of art to help solidify her concepts.  

• Michael Levine, Ph.D., who returned to the symposium after postive feedback from his presentation last year, revisited the ideas around prevention efforts and the ways in which media and culture can shape individual’s views on beauty and cultural norms. He exhorted the audience to use courage to fight against the pervasive messages within our culture, not just in reference to beauty but in reference to gender, class, race and the ideas of power, as well.

Keep checking back as we will post select video footage from the symposium soon!