Upon admission to Full Heart, you will meet with a registered dietitian for a nutritional assessment. This provides a starting point for your recovery and an approach to your individual nutrient needs. You will continue to meet weekly with a dietitian to explore and build awareness about your behaviors and emotions around food. At Full Heart Treatment Center, we approach nutrition as the foundation piece of your recovery. Using the plate method, we work together to portion out foods to meet you in your recovery process. We gradually establish a path to expand your relationship with food. The Full Heart Nutrition staff understands it is not possible to do the emotional work of recovery without the necessary nourishment for your brain and body. Changing your relationship with food will create the freedom in your life you need for recovery.

We use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) at Full Heart because it has been proven to be effective in helping challenge eating disorder thoughts and behaviors. CBT focuses on how a person's thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect their feelings and behaviors. Eating disorders are full of negative thoughts, fears, anxieties, rules and obstacles that hold the individual captive in a world of isolation. Combined with other therapeutic modalities, CBT helps people to analyze their hard held beliefs and find new ways to view previously unquestioned behaviors. It is through your commitment to this process that a life of change can occur. We will help you map out new roads to success, question old beliefs, and calm the anxiety you live with on a day-to-day basis.

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) combines CBT methods with the addition of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. (It was first developed by Marsha Linehan, PhD.) DBT is based upon the premise that you can lead a worthwhile life of your choosing. You needn't be a slave to your eating disorder. Full Heart understands you are doing the best you can right now, but you are reading this because you have a desire to change. Through DBT you will develop the ability to pick the behaviors you want to change and the skills to manage the emotional conflicts created in your daily life.

Expressive arts therapy provides a wide modality of treatment experiences that are not dependent upon the logical expression of psychological ideas. Music, dance, collage, painting, and drama are just a few of the areas of expression that The Full Heart Nutrition staff utilizes to reach the inner self and find expression. The goal is found in the process of creation. Critical judgment is put aside to allow active participation. The goal of expressive art therapy is to experience the present moment.

Mindfulness therapy through a combination of meditation and breathing exercises, directs the participant to be aware of the present moment. The concerns, worries, and fears created by the past or envisioned for the future are given little attention. The client is encouraged to bring attention to their direct experience through the five senses and acknowledge thoughts or emotions in the here and now. Judgment is suspended and experience is allowed. This creates an integration of mind and body in the present moment beyond the anxiety, depression or confusion created by the eating disorder.

Family therapy involves gathering the entire family in a discussion to improve communication and resolve conflicts. The family therapist provides a safe environment for the exploration of issues often unspoken or unrecognized in day-to-day family life. Family therapy is particularly important for the adolescent eating disorder patient. The family's support is essential to recovery. This therapy is provided outside the intensive outpatient program hours on a weekly basis.

You will meet with your individual therapist once a week outside of program hours. This is for what is traditionally known as "talk therapy." This type of therapy is often characterized by the question "how do you feel?" Of course, it is much more than that question but it does focus on the internal intrapsychic functions as they relate to the external world. Interpersonal therapy is based on your interpersonal relationships and social functioning to help reduce your distress in these situations.

You might believe that the body is the main focus of someone who struggles with disordered eating. The body experienced by the eating disordered individual is a figment of their imagination. They often experience body dysmorphia, which means they actually don't see what their body looks like. Movement therapy helps the individual connect to their body in the present moment. Movement therapy brings them "back to their body," allowing the individual to experience their body without all the distortion created by their mind and emotions.