Joanna Poppink's Eating Disorder Recovery Psychotherapy Practice      

       If you are a person with an eating disorder, no matter how good your life looks on the outside, you know more about suffering and despair than most people.  Sometimes even you don’t know how deep your anguish goes because the numbing power of an eating disorder can anesthetize you to pain you only become aware of once recovery begins.

       My lifework is dedicated to eating disorder recovery.  My own experience with bulimia, long before it had a name, and my recovery journey deeply informs my work with others. Each person’s experience, history and challenges in recovery are different, but the misery of living with an eating disorder is the same – a kind of desperate despair. 

       The good news is that recovery is possible.  It’s not easy, but it’s possible.  I see it often. Seeing yet another woman take her place in life free of the eating disorder and free to live according to her authentic self makes the hard work worthwhile.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs...

 Ask yourself what makes you alive....

 because what the world needs

 are people who have come alive."

Ranier Maria Rilke

       I’ve been a Los Angeles psychotherapist since 1980, ( MFT #15563) and  specialize in treating adults with eating disorders who seek more health, inner peace and power to live successful lives. The work is confidential, personal and moves at a pace set by the client.

My approach to treatment has four main themes:

       1.    slow down and eventually stop acting out behavior,
       2.    heal emotional wounds,
       3.    restart emotional/psychological development that was stalled at a critical  

              time in the person's life,
       4.    support tentative entry into newly perceived world as individual relies
              on greater vision and newly developed courage, inner strength and realistic
              trust. 

       Cognitive behavioral approach that leads to psychodynamic work, journal writing, art therapy, humor, readings, body work and most of all, a relationship between myself and the woman I’m working with that can weather, survive and thrive under the stresses of recovery. Often our relationship is the first trustworthy, sturdy and honest relationship the woman has ever had.

       The specialized psychotherapy helps free clients to relax and move through crisis situations to the ongoing work of healing from bulimia, compulsive eating and binge eating. It helps them work through personal stress situations that somehow are related to eating disorders because they trigger acting out behavior. My practice is in a garden setting. 

       People wait in my garden before their private sessions, an experience most people find comforting, soothing and sometimes inspiring.

       "Freedom from compulsions, development of self confidence and inner peace, an ability to recognize who and what is trustworthy and confidence in knowing how to make wise and self caring life decisions are goals clients and I strive to achieve."

Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, Los Angeles, CA bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery, www.poppink.com

Typepad Features Joanna Poppink's Blog, "Eating Disorders Today"

February 21, 2008

Eating Disorders Today

     As issues such as body image and beauty continue to be top of mind, so too, are the aftereffects: eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Psychotherapist Joanna Poppink’s blog, Eating Disorders Today offers a welcome blend of professional and personal advice, knowledge, and guidance for those with the disorder and those close to them.

     Specializing in eating disorder recovery, Ms. Poppink utilizes her site to dispense treatment news, create a supportive community, and provide invaluable information.

     Understanding and treating eating disorders can take many forms, as Ms. Poppink’s post on dreams and their effect on health demonstrate.

     There are many categories here, covering disorders such as Anorexia and its effect on family and friends. There’s a section on teens – perhaps the segment most vulnerable to eating disorders, as well as additional links to related blogrolls and supplemental information.

     This is an invaluable site for anyone seeking information on this issue.

TypePad Featured Blogs - http://featured.typepad.com/blogs/ JoAnn Peach Typepad.com

Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery.

10573 West Pico Blvd. #20

Loa Angeles, CA 90064

website: www.poppink.com

blog:      www.eatingdisorderstoday.typepad.com

e-mail:    joanna@poppink.com

phone:    (310) 474-4165