The Lotus Collaborative
Eating Disorder Treatment
Dr. Liz has treated clients struggling with eating disorders for the past decade and has personally recovered from an eating disorder herself. Professionally, she's provided individual, group, and family eating disorder therapy at every level of care including inpatient, partial hospitalization, day treatment, intensive outpatient, and individual therapy. She is the founder, CEO, and Executive Director of The Lotus Collaborative, an eating disorder intensive outpatient and day treatment programs in Santa Cruz and San Fransisco, CA.
Dr. Liz has written articles, presented at schools, communities, treatment programs, supervision groups, has a lecture series on the 6 Phases of Eating Disorder Treatment for related professionals and therapists. She developed the “Connect. Balance. Thrive.” Eating Disorder Treatment Model.
Eating Disorder Treatment and Recovery
I believe in meeting people where they are at and assisting them with the goals they have. In providing eating disorder treatment, these are few essential beliefs I have:
1) You don’t have to want to recover in order to get help or seek treatment. Definitions of what “recovery” looks like vary from person to person and this is something we will discuss. Our initial meetings will help us determine your recovery goals and develop our treatment plan.
2) If someone wants to fully recover from an eating disorder, I believe it’s possible. I believe that people struggling with eating disorders can fully recover by breaking the addictive cycle, learning healthier coping skills, and not only move on but thrive! There are many people, myself included, who have decided they don’t want an eating disorder to be part of their lives anymore. I have witnessed clients do the recovery work and go on to live healthy and enjoyable lives. I believe in full recovery because I conceptualize eating disorders as a learned coping skill and an addictive-additive behavior (behavior that once used to help the person cope but over time, took more control of the person’s life, health and happiness). Learned behaviors can be unlearned and replaced with new healthy habits. These new behaviors eventually replace the eating disorder with more sustainable coping skills and people discover they are no longer motivated by the eating disorder.
3) And finally, I believe that recovery is worth it. I have both personally and professionally seen the havoc eating disorders can wreck on a person's emotions, health, finances, relationships, and general well-being. But... I also know that people can fully recover and finally get their life back. Judging between the two, living a healthy, happy life is much more sustainable and joyful.
1) You don’t have to want to recover in order to get help or seek treatment. Definitions of what “recovery” looks like vary from person to person and this is something we will discuss. Our initial meetings will help us determine your recovery goals and develop our treatment plan.
2) If someone wants to fully recover from an eating disorder, I believe it’s possible. I believe that people struggling with eating disorders can fully recover by breaking the addictive cycle, learning healthier coping skills, and not only move on but thrive! There are many people, myself included, who have decided they don’t want an eating disorder to be part of their lives anymore. I have witnessed clients do the recovery work and go on to live healthy and enjoyable lives. I believe in full recovery because I conceptualize eating disorders as a learned coping skill and an addictive-additive behavior (behavior that once used to help the person cope but over time, took more control of the person’s life, health and happiness). Learned behaviors can be unlearned and replaced with new healthy habits. These new behaviors eventually replace the eating disorder with more sustainable coping skills and people discover they are no longer motivated by the eating disorder.
3) And finally, I believe that recovery is worth it. I have both personally and professionally seen the havoc eating disorders can wreck on a person's emotions, health, finances, relationships, and general well-being. But... I also know that people can fully recover and finally get their life back. Judging between the two, living a healthy, happy life is much more sustainable and joyful.
