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If you want to make an appointment with Joanna you can e-mail her at Joanna@poppink.com or call her at (310) 474-4165 to arrange for a telephone consultation. She will give you an initial telephone consultation at no charge.
During that conversation you and Joanna will determine if an in-person appointment seems like the best next step for you. If it is not, then Joanna will do her best to refer you to the kind of treatment you both decide is in your best interest.
If you do meet with Joanna for a face to face appointment you will fill out required legal forms such as HIPPA, informed consent, basic client information, etc. which takes about five to eight minutes. Then you and Joanna will talk. You will feel what it's like to be in a room with her. You will know if she seems to understand your situation and can be with you as you feel what you feel. You will know if she seems to know something and might be able to accompany you and support you on your recovery journey.
You may feel rigid. You may feel sad or angry. You may feel relief and hope. You may feel all these things. If you do, and you're willing and Joanna believes that she may be able to help you and work with you, then you will make another appointment.
If you decide you do not want to do your recovery work with Joanna or, if for some reason Joanna believes you would be better off working with someone else, then Joanna will provide you with the best local referrals possible.
After about eight years in working in the field of eating disorder recovery Joanna had received countless e-mails from people all over the world asking for help in recovering from an eating disorder. She was moved and pained to discover that what she felt was basic knowledge was unknown to many people.
She received one post from a family in the U.S. that had been ostracized from their community because an exorcism had failed to stop their teenage daughter from bingeing and throwing up.
She received another from a woman in Romania who wanted to create a support group for women she knew who wanted to help each other recovery from eating disorders.
She received many posts from women in the United States and other countries who either couldn't afford treatment or who lived in an environment where treatment was not available or even recognized.
Joanna wanted to help these people and that meant going far beyond the reach of her private psychotherapy office.
People were beginning to use the internet as a way to find help when no help seemed to exist. She wrote created a website with what she hoped were helpful articles that would reach the people who were seeking help. She wrote "Triumphant Journey," in 1991. It is a workbook based on what she knew then about effective treatment. Self Help and Psychology Magazine published it on their site. The more she wrote, the more questions came in. She still tries to address those questions and help people find their paths to recovery by expanding the content and resources in her website.
Mothers, husbands, boyfriends, sisters, brothers, fathers call to make appointments for their adult daughters.
These people love a person with an eating disorder. They may be looking for ways to convince their loved one to go into treatment. They may be helping that person by doing some scouting to find out what may be available in terms of treatment, and during their research they found Joanna.
However, only the person who will actually be in treatment can make the appointment.
Adults with eating disorders can be resistant to getting help, and an adult cannot be forced into treatment. If the caller is trying to help someone who is unwilling to move toward recovery work, then Joanna will suggest various kinds of support and perhaps therapy that might be available to the person who is calling.
If the adult is doing scout work for a person willing to go into treatment then Joanna will have a conversation, sometimes quite lengthy, with the caller. Joanna will answer any and all questions and offer information that may be helpful in understanding the situation with that loved person and her family.
The conversation can be lengthy because Joanna will tell the caller, often a mother, that if the daughter calls and makes an appointment, this is the last conversation the mother will have with Joanna. Once an adult makes an appointment with Joanna she becomes that person's psychotherapist exclusively. Joanna will refer family members to other clinicians if needed.
Yes, to a degree. Fears around food in general and some particular foods, emotional attraction to certain foods, vulnerability to binge foods, issues regarding "safe" and "unsafe" foods are certainly addressed. Basics of nutrition and healthy eating are discussed. Joanna supports the process of working with an eating disorder knowledgable nutritionist when the client is ready, willing and able to explore specific food plans and healthful styles of eating.
Too little or too much exercise is addressed and explored in therapy work with Joanna. Finding a healthy balance for emotional and physical needs for exercise is one of the many goals of recovery work. Finding ways to be kind to your body, giving your body what it needs and not making harsh demands of it is an ongoing theme in therapy that eventually can be resolved.
Joanna believes that effective eating disorder recovery work involves a real relationship with another person with both people in the same room at the same time.
Eating disorders manifest psychological, emotional and spiritual stress through the body. For therapy to have meaning and impact both therapist and client need to be physically in the same room with one another. Facial expressions, body language, sense of rising or falling energy, change in coloration, a wordless sense of one another all are part of human communication. All are necessary in the exchanges between client and therapist.
That said, Joanna will have a telephone therapy session with a client once she is established in her practice. A client may be ill or out of town or caught in a scheduling snafu. At such times the client can keep her appointment on the phone. Such telephone appointments are exceptional and can only be valid and helpful if the client has the majority of her experience with Joanna in person.
Joanna answers questions and writes articles through the internet, but does not do therapy in cyberspace.
Does insurance cover Joanna's services?
Insurance companies, not Joanna, make these coverage decisions.
Joanna is not a member of any HMO program nor is she on any list of preferred providers. If you have a PPO her fees may be partially reimbursed under the category of "out of network provider." Her services may be covered by private insurance.
Most of Joanna's clients pay out of pocket or with minimal insurance reimbursement.
Joanna works in a private practice setting where everything that is said is confidential. However, Joanna will refer her clients to other clinicians, nutritionists and M.D.'s when needed. She will also consult with professional in various fields that are related to eating disorder research and treatment.
Joanna is a psychotherapist with the M.F.T. license. Her work is focused on the psychological healing and recovery of the individual. This includes attention to body work such as body awareness, basic nutrition, sleep, spiritual, cognitive and exercise needs. Joanna is not an M.D. If and when a client needs focused attention on medical issues, Joanna will make appropriate medical referrals.
If clients want to go more deeply into learning and discovering their needs related to nutrition, spirituality, exercise or education Joanna supports them through referrals and by including their efforts into their recovery practices.
Formal Credentials: B.A. from UCLA. M.A. from Antioch University. MFT license 15563 in California and MFT license in Oregon TO565.
History of Professional Affiliations:
Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) http://www.acadeatdis.org American Anorexia and Bulimia Association (AABA) http://www.aabainc.org. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) http://anad.org/ International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP) http://www.iaedp.com/ International Society for the Study of Dissociation http://www.issd.org International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies http://www.istss.org National Eating Disorders Association http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ Sidran Foundation http://www.sidran.org
Ongoing education in credit granting conferences, educational organizations and ongoing seminars in:
Eating disorders
Nutrition
Attachment theory
Neuroscience and affect regulation
Psychoanalysis
Jungian Psychology
Trauma and PTSD
Mindfulness and meditation
Guided imagery and psychodrama
Integration of East and West healing principles
Developmental psychology
Systems theory and unconscious processes in group dynamics including families
Self Psychology (Kohut)
Dissociative Disorders
Supportive learning activities Joanna feels are clinically useful in eating disorder recovery:
Journal keeping
Creative writing
Yoga
Various forms of meditation (not necessarily silent time in lotus position but also walking, dancing, working, gardening, playing meditation)
Study of many religions
Study of myths and legends
Extensive world travel exploring different cultural perspectives
All the arts: reading, writing, painting, sculpting, dancing, singing i.e. all creative forms of expression that allow the authenticity of a person's deep caring to emerge into the world.
Play and Laughter: with children, with dogs and cats, with adults where the source of laughter is found in delightfully surprising places, in water, on land, in private and with others.
Listening
Joanna has been in private practice since 1980. All her studies are informed and enriched by the personal experiences her clients share with her throughout their recovery work. Their courage, creativity, determination, pain and suffering, joy and developing strength continually teach her the depth and range of the healing experience in eating disorder recovery.
A consultation is a time limited experience with Joanna where you provide specific information so Joanna can give you her opinion or perspective on your possible options.
One type of consultation occurs over the phone at no charge.
A second type of consultation occurs in Joanna's office and is billed at her normal fee.
If you are considering making an appointment with Joanna to do eating disorder recovery work you call. You and Joanna will schedule a time for a telephone consultation that can be from 5 to 20 minutes. During that consultation you describe what is troubling you. You may talk about your eating disorder or the eating disorder of someone in your family. Joanna will help lead you, if necessary, into describing a few details of your experience and what you have done or are doing so far to address the situation. She will listen to what you have found helpful or not helpful. Then she will ask you questions that are designed to clarify your situation for you and Joanna.
If you are struggling with any issues related to eating disorders, yours or someone else's and want a more lengthy discussion with Joanna in order to figure out what your best course of action might be, then you would make an appointment for an in person session in her office.
If Joanna believes she can offer you some useful information or perhaps help you rally your own thoughts and feelings to help you find a promising therapeutic path that suits your situation she will give you one or perhaps two in person consultations.
At the close of either type of consultation Joanna will do her best to provide you with recommendations that can vary. She may refer you to a private psychotherapist or a clinic or an in-patient treatment center. She may refer you to a parenting class or to a support group or to a 12 step program. She may determine that what you are describing may not be an eating disorder but be an indication of some other issue that needs to be addressed. If this is the case she will make a different kind of referral suggestion.
And, if during the consultation you feel you would like to work with Joanna and she believes you qualify for her practice and that she might be able to help you, then you would make a first appointment to meet in person at her office for psychotherapy.
While a consultation can sometimes feel and be therapeutic, it is not psychotherapy.
A regular appointment with Joanna consists of time you spend together in the work of psychotherapy. Any topic, any feeling, any experience that you choose to bring up or that spontaneously emerges determines the content for the appointment. Together, in secure privacy, you experience your own feelings and thoughts coming together in the presence of someone who is listening deeply to what you express and what you may convey without knowing. Bringing those three elements together can create greater clarity for your experience and more internal unity in your psyche.
The consultation is designed to help you find your starting place for healing. The psychotherapy appointment is where the healing work gets done.
Joanna is a seasoned mental health clinician, licensed since 1980 in California and recently licensed again in Oregon. Knowing what it's like to have an eating disorder when no one seems to understand including yourself (Joanna suffered from bulimia for many years before it was named or recognized) she has dedicated her life, both personal and professional, to support and encourage genuine healing from eating disorders.
Moreover, as she well knows, ending symptoms is not the entire goal. The real goal is to be healthy, sturdy, free and capable of honoring and following the dictates of your heartfelt core identity.
Sigmund Freud's theories have been challenged. Some have been discarded and some elaborated over the years. But one statement of his wisdom Joanna believes still holds true. Recovery and mental health means that a person can freely and with competence work, love and play. This is the ever present goal Joanna has for herself and for the people she cares for and about in her work and her personal life.
Joanna works with adults only. Her practice is made up of women aged 24 and up. Occasionally, with an exceptional and committed to recovery person, she will work with someone between 20 and 24. Occasionally, with an exceptional and committed to recovery person, she will work with a man.
Qualifications to be in Joanna's practice:
Here you will find a variety of essays, information alerts, discussion of news items, personal experiences and questions related to eating disorder recovery. Some posts are simple commentaries on current issues related to bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating such as binge/purge, restricting, relapse, weight and diet, career and education, relationships. Some are responses stimulated by questions and stories from people who contact Joanna on or off this site. Some are guest posts. And some are ideas to be developed into more in depth articles or book passages or both.
Eating disorder recovery work is a specialized aspect of mental health treatment.
Working with adolescents is a specialty unto itself.
Working with young children is yet another specialty.
Joanna prefers to focus on one population, adult, within her specialty in order to provide the best treatment possible.
There are mental health clinicians who specialize in eating disorder treatment with young children and/or adolescents. Joanna maintains a working relationship with many professional eating disorder organizations, both national and local. Through these relationships she can offer referrals for parents looking for treatment for their children.
The in-patient list is 93 pages long and covers treatment centers throughout the United States, Canada, parts of Europe and South America.
To receive the list, please write to Joanna at joanna@poppink.com. Please say why you want the list and how you intend to use it. After you agree to the terms of usage Joanna will send you the list.
Please remember the list is a 93 page attachment.
FAQs
