By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! 
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 
CE Credits: 3 • Price: $39We suffer from a collective food angst, a sometimes fatal, sometimes merely fatuous, condition that often turns food into a mortal enemy. This Reading Course explores the cultural climate that leads clients to develop eating disorders and addresses the clinical question of what to do about it. Mary Sykes Wylie describes the culture war between the sensuous bliss of self-indulgence and the celebration of the virtues of being lean. Barbara McFarland shows how to avoid stalemates and power struggles with eating disordered clients. Laura Fraser challenges the multi-billion diet industry and the "problem" of being fat. Steve Madigan describes an innovative narrative approach with anorexic clients.
Course Readings
Body Politics: The Anti-Anorexia League Turns Patients into Activists by Stephen Madigan
Our Trip to Bountiful: Has Food Become Our Mortal Enemy? by Mary Sykes Wylie
Swords into Plowshares: How to Avoid Power Struggles with Eating-disorder Clients and Their Families by Barbara McFarland
The Diet Trap: Challenging Cultural Norms that Equate Thinness with Mental Health by Laura Fraser
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss changes in society's eating habits
2. List 4 strategies for using brief therapy with eating disordered clients
3. Explain the psychological harm done by dieting
4. Explain the narrative therapy foundations of the Anti-Anorexia League
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