This month, we are delighted to announce that our adolescent center has finally opened! Our adolescent program is for adolescent girls ages 12 to 17 and has been designed for girls struggling with anorexia, bulimia and obesity. The adolescent program will be limited to eight adolescents to ensure exclusive, personalized attention to every detail of the recovery process.
Featured therapies include:
- cognitive behavioral
- dialectical behavioral therapy
- adventure therapy
- rocks and ropes
- challenge courses
- animal therapy (with Bucky and
- neurofeedback
- martial arts
- body image and movement
- whole diet and nutritional counseling
- intensive 4-day family program
- four day mother/daughter workshops
- a certified educational program is available with a state certified teacher on staff. You may use either the curriculum from your school or use ours. Certain hours are set aside for daily study times.
The entire Mirasol staff participated in moving all of our new furniture and materials into the house which is very beautiful! The adolescent facility has five bedrooms, four baths, group rooms, a large yoga and art room, a basketball court that we can also use for tennis and volleyball, a new heated swimming pool for swimming and aqua-aerobics, a fish pond and waterfall, and a lovely lawn for relaxing and just laying around. We have decorated the facility in southwestern, Mexican style, complete with lots of angels. It’s a place for girls and young women to come and heal and to find the selves that they lost when they became eating disordered. It is Mirasol’s goal to respect and nourish the mind, body, spirit and soul of each individual.
I want to introduce Bucky and Sydney, the two newest members of Mirasol’s four-legged family. And I don’t think you all have met Cricket, Mirasol’s canine companion.
-Mary Summer Rain’s Guide to Dream Symbols
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Cricket has been an important part of the treatment program in the adult facility. When Cricket first started going to group, she had a difficult time learning the rules. I remember getting a call from a staff member saying that Cricket had been “acting out” in group, but she soon learned the ropes. She attends all groups now and behaves perfectly. More importantly, she is always there to comfort someone when they’re having a tough time in therapy or just having a bad day.
Bucky and
Sydney
The holidays are coming and we are including in this issue suggestions for coping with many of the stresses that happen at this time. We are also including ways of telling when you need inpatient or residential treatment and what the goals of inpatient treatment are for you. And, as in every edition, you'll receive a healthy recipe from one of our resident chefs.
Please check out our website, or call toll-free: 1-888-520-1700. We can help.
Let’s look at these great suggestions from Abigail H. Natenshon’s wonderful website, www.empoweredparents.com.
“Eggnog, Plum Pudding and Second Thoughts
Who says holiday times are times to eat, drink and be merry? It's no secret that lots of kids today are highly concerned about body image issues, diet and weight management. By age 13, 80% of girls have been on diets. Food and eating, the very heart of holiday celebration, has become a chief source of teen anxiety.
Several tips for young girls to keep in mind re: holiday stresses;
1. First, as the holidays approach, become aware of how you are feeling. Are you aware of feeling anxious? Remember that anxiety has unique ways of showing itself; it makes some people withdraw and become isolated. It makes others act feisty, irritable, or intolerant of others. It can sometimes compel people to exert and maintain overly strict control over themselves in many aspects of life, including food and eating.
2. Do you know what makes you anxious? Are you afraid of eating calorie dense foods? Of gaining weight? Of not being able to stop eating once you begin? Of eating in front of loved ones? Of being expected to participate in meals? Of having your secret eating quirks discovered?
3. If food and eating are the main source of your concern, do you know your facts? Don't become a victim of commonly held myths and misconceptions about food and eating. Recognize and understand that
- The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat lots of nutritious foods, including all the food groups, in the form of meals, and at least three meals a day.
- There are no "bad" foods, as long as what you eat is in moderation.
- Dieting and other firms of food restriction is the worst way to lose weight, and can lead to eating disorders and adult obesity.
- You don't have to be thin to be anorexic. (And you can be thin without being anorexic).
- Anorexia is preventable, and highly curable when recognized early and treated effectively.
4. If you have a secret fear that your food fears and disordered eating patterns could one day become an eating disorder, there is no need to sit with your fears. Ask for assistance at home, at school, in your doctor's office. Nip that problem in the bud before it ever becomes of major concern.”
From the Mirasol.net Learning Center, here is vital information concerning the Reasons for Inpatient Treatment and the Goals of Inpatient Treatment. Many eating disorders can be treated quite successfully on an outpatient basis – and there may come a time when outpatient therapy is no longer working. It is then that inpatient or residential treatment becomes essential.
Reasons for Inpatient Treatment
Residential and hospital treatment settings are both considered inpatient treatment. Inpatient treatment for an eating disorder is intended to provide safe, prompt, and effective short-term treatment to prepare patients for transition to a lesser level of care such as residential care, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient treatment.
The following is a list of indications for inpatient treatment:
· Serious physical complications or suicide/homicide risk
· Very low body weight and other medical complications
· Lack of response to outpatient treatment or unavailable outpatient treatment
· To disrupt persistent behaviors such as restricting, bingeing and purging
· The need for removal from abuse or neglect in the family
· Diagnostic observation
· Treatment of co-morbid disorders
· To confront patient's denial
· To prepare patient for subsequent outpatient treatment
Suicidal or homicidal ideation and severe medical consequences need to be treated in a hospital setting but the other items can be treated in a residential setting. Once a patient has become medically stable, residential treatment may be a treatment choice that can serve as an alternative to hospitalization. Most residential settings are much more comfortable and feel "safer" for a patient than a hospital environment.
Goals of Inpatient Treatment
The following is a list of significant and achievable goals for the inpatient care of anorexia nervosa (and by extension, other eating disorders):
- A healthy, stable body weight and a healthy body composition. At Mirasol, it is not our goal to “fatten” someone up, but merely to get them to healthy weight where they can function again in an optimal way. Slow weight gain is essential because it enables the patient to keep up with the weight gain psychologically.
- Normal eating behavior where a person can distinguish the difference between hunger and satiety.
- Social comfort, personal confidence, knowledge of balanced nutrition and practice eating meals in a wide variety of situations
- Treatment of co-morbid psychiatric disorders and medical complications
- Moderate, appropriate exercise
- Appropriate thinking regarding body weight and image, fear of fatness, pursuit of thinness, etc.
- Improved family/interpersonal interaction
- Understanding and resolving the primary conflict
- Developing an age-appropriate identity
- Establishing aftercare plans, relapse prevention plans and readmission criteria
It's important to remember that weight stabilization is vital, but it's not the only goal of treatment for an eating disorder. Weight and eating disorder behaviors are simply the tip of the iceberg. Good treatment involves healing the mind, body, as well as the soul.
Mirasol embraces a whole foods nutritional approach that simply means using mostly unadulterated, unprocessed foods that appear as they do in nature when we eat them. Whole grains, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, wholesome lean meats, fish, legumes, nuts, seeds, and vegetable proteins are the majority of food sources that we focus on at Mirasol. These foods comprise the ingredients in these delicious and healthful recipes.
Feeling energetic, strong, healthy and alive is priceless. That is what Mirasol recipes have to offer. Life!
Today's Recipe:
Saucy Ground Turkey Wrapped in Lettuce Leaves
Serves 6
2 pounds ground turkey
3 tablespoons minced scallions 1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon oil, separated
2 cups canned water chestnuts
3 cups green scallions, cut into 1 inch sections
SPICY SAUCE (mix together)
5 tablespoons Chinese sweet bean paste 1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar ½ teaspoon hot chile paste (optional)
2 bunches Boston lettuce, rinsed, drained, and stems removed
Put ground turkey in a bowl, add the seasonings, and mix together.
Heat wok or skillet, add half the oil, and when hot, add the turkey and stir fry, mashing and breaking up meat. Cook until it changes color and separates. Drain in colander and wipe out the pan.
Reheat pan and add remaining ½ tablespoon oil, and when very hot, add the wat4er chestnuts and scallions, tossing them over high heat about 1 minute. Add the pre-mixed sauce and stir, letting it thicken. Return the cooked turkey to the pan and toss to coat with the sauce. Scoop the mixture onto serving platter and basket of lettuce leaves. To serve, spoon some of the cooked meat onto a lettuce leaf and roll up.
Bon Appetit!