The Anorexia Recovery Skills Workbook

If you have anorexia, there is hope for a full recovery. The Anorexia Recovery Skills Workbook offers an integrated and comprehensive program to help you rebuild a healthy relationship with food, gain a sense of autonomy and independence, develop a sense of self-worth and self-esteem, and set healthy goals for the future.

If you have anorexia, it can be difficult to see yourself clearly, even after treatment. That’s why it’s so important for you to have resources available to prevent relapse. Written by three psychologists and experts in eating disorders, this important guide provides evidence-based skills blending acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to help you recover—and stay on the path to recovery.

Each chapter of this workbook focuses on a theme—each important to fostering and maintaining recovery from anorexia, including: managing treatment and maintaining progress, creating and maintaining a therapeutic team, rebuilding healthy relationships and decreasing investment in unhealthy relationships, and gaining a sense of autonomy. Additionally, you’ll gain insight into your anorexia, learn why it’s all about control—and learn how to gain real control in healthier aspects of life.

Finally, this workbook addresses developing healthy goals related to eating, as well as career, academic, and recreational goals to assist in leading a fulfilling life. You’ll learn to take time for self-care, plan for challenging and difficult times throughout recovery, and maintain changes in behavior and thought patterns, such as awareness and tolerance of negative emotions, reaching out for help when needed, and effective communication.

If you have anorexia, are in treatment for anorexia, or trying to maintain recovery, this compassionate, comprehensive resource provides powerful, proven-effective tools to help you stay healthy in body and mind.

Catherine L. Ruscitti, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist and primary therapist at the Eating Recovery Center of Houston. She completed her predoctoral and postdoctoral training with Baylor College of Medicine at The Menninger Clinic in Houston, TX. Ruscitti specializes in the assessment and treatment of adolescents and young adults with eating disorders and comorbid struggles, including mood disorders, anxiety and trauma, and personality disorders. Her professional interests include the use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in the treatment of eating disorders, and the role of emotion regulation in recovery from eating disorders. Ruscitti is active in conducting research on eating disorders, and has published several papers on the topic.

Jeffrey E. Barnett, PsyD, ABPP, is associate dean for graduate programs and the social sciences and professor in the department of psychology at Loyola University Maryland, and a licensed psychologist in independent practice in Baltimore, MD. He has given over 300 presentations and workshops for mental health professionals, and has over 200 publications in print and online. Barnett is widely published in ethics and professional practice issues for mental health professionals, with many of his books being written broadly for all mental health professionals—not just psychologists. Additionally, he has received numerous professional awards on the national level, and has presented regularly for decades at conferences for mental health professionals.

Rebecca A. Wagner, PhD, is clinical director of the Eating Recovery Center in Houston, TX. She is a voluntary faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Prior to her role at the Eating Recovery Center of Houston, she was director of eating disorder services, and codeveloper of the Eating Disorder Track at The Menninger Clinic. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of eating disorders, as well as other complex mental disorders. Wagner actively conducts research, and teaches professionals and those in the community about eating disorders. She has given numerous presentations about eating disorders and has several publications on the topic. Wagner’s professional interests include the efficacy of an innovative approach to the treatment of eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, emotion dysregulation, self-harm, and suicide within the eating disorder population.

Foreword writer Craig Johnson, PhD, CEDS, FAED, is currently chief science officer at the Family Institute for Eating Recovery Center in Denver, CO, and clinical professor of psychiatry at University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He has been a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded researcher for over ten years and received distinguished contribution awards from the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP), Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), and the American Red Cross. NEDA honored Johnson by creating the Craig Johnson Award for Clinical Excellence and Training, which is awarded annually.