Posted: February 6th, 2019
Eating Disorders
Review the media Case Study: Nancy.
Based on the information in the case study, address the following questions:
(1). How would you address the issue of eating disorders from a systems perspective, if you were the therapist working with this woman and her husband as a couple, or seeing the whole family in therapy?
( 2). How would you incorporate the DSM-5 and the relational codes into the assessment phase with this couple or family? What other diagnostic or assessment processes would you use?
(3). How do larger systems impact the development of eating disorders? These systems might include sociocultural background, family of origin (that is, the family a person grew up in), current relationship dynamics, and the influence of the media. How would you take these factors into consideration when working with this client in individual, couples, or family therapy?
Support your ideas with references to articles from peer-reviewed journals that you locate on the web.
Note to writer: I have uploaded the Case Study of Nancy
Eating Disorders
From a perspective, the issue of eating disorders can be addressed through the involvement of the entire family in the treatment plan. As a therapist, I would like to work with Nancy and her entire family. For example, the use of residential programs for the family therapy would help in addressing eating disorder. It makes it possible to observe the family dynamics in the different situations to prepare the family for balanced relationships (Couturier, Kimber & Szatmari, 2013). It is clear that having eating disorder could isolate Nancy from the family members. Thus, a family therapy was useful in dealing with the issue of eating disorder facing Nancy.
I would incorporate the DSM-5 and the relational codes towards the assessment phase with the family as it is used as major criteria for assessing the relation problems. DSM-5 can develop diagnoses because eating disorder is a major problem. It is because the eating disorder is a relation problem with clinical significant. The relational codes also bring about guidelines into advancing therapeutic process to promote the significance of relationships (Strother et al., 2012). The family relations are useful in understanding the concerns of eating disorder. DSM-5 and assessment codes will help in controlling the impairment processes and systems. Other diagnostic and assessment processes that would be used include standardized assessment tools towards improving the justification of the treatment plan and offering data on the client’s outcomes.
Larger systems within the society have strong impacts on the developing of eating disorders. Some of the systems that lead to eating disorders include the negative influence of the media, sociocultural background, and information as well as the family environment (Yates, 2013). Nancy was pushed to eating disorder due to environmental influence within the society. When working with the Nancy in family therapy, the impacts of these factors would be taken into consideration significantly through conducting a proper assessment of their influence in causing eating disorder on the patient.
References
Couturier, J., Kimber, M., & Szatmari, P. (2013). Efficacy of family‐based treatment for adolescents with eating disorders: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 46(1), 3-11.
Strother, E., Lemberg, R., Stanford, S. C., & Turberville, D. (2012). Eating disorders in men: underdiagnosed, undertreated, and misunderstood. Eating Disorders, 20(5), 346-355.
Yates, A. (2013). Compulsive exercise and the eating disorders: Toward an integrated theory of activity. London, UK: Routledge.
