Avalon Hills hosts a family retreat at different times during the year that includes nearly all the families of our current patients.  Although our last retreat was a few months ago I wanted to talk about it and how successful it was.

Our professional staff learned immensely from the clients and their families and the evaluations and feedback we received indicated that it was a highly meaningful experience for all who attended.  The week-long events included many classes on topics such as family dynamics, communication skills, and medical complications of eating disorders, intuitive eating, & how to facilitate funding for treatment.  Many raved about the opening presentation by Doris Smeltzer, a mom who lost her 19 year old daughter to bulimia nervosa.  Her story is tragic, moving, eye opening, and life altering to all who allow themselves to feel the weight of her message-eating disorders are deadly, our culture needs a wake up call to realize this, & advocacy/awareness are required on every level from individual families to public policy to prevent additional deaths.  Additionally, the founder of Avalon Hills, Benita Quakenbush-Roberts, presented pieces of her own long-term recovery story and took questions from the patients and their families.  The week was rounded out by multi-family work characterized by the patients and families truly getting honest with each other in an effort to heal and move forward as a cohesive unit against the eating disorder.  Those professional staff that facilitated the sessions were ever amazed by the strength, grace, and hope presented in the openness of ”our” patients and their families.  Recognizing the impact of the family retreat, we are planning on doing a retreat such as this at least twice per year.  For current families we will keep you posted as the next date draws near.

If you are interested in additional info on the advocacy efforts of Doris Smeltzer, please visit the following site:  http://www.andreasvoice.org/

If you have questions surrounding the family retreat you can contact Carrie Bostrom at (435) 755-0434 or carrie@avalonhills.org.

Avalon Hills recently co-sponsored the annual Utah State University Counseling Center Conference.  It was a particularly thrilling experience because the speaker was Steven Hayes, the co-founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).  Our research advisor, Mike Twohig, Ph.D. is a former student of Doctor Hayes.  Consequently, he was able to arrange for Steve Hayes to stay on following the one day conference and do an experiential weekend workshop.  Both the Counseling Center conference and the weekend workshop were very well attended- even including clinicians from as far away as Florida and Minnesota.  All members of the Avalon Hills treatment team were involved and found it to be meaningful in informing our work with those who suffer with eating disorders.  The 2 main tenants of ACT include 1) facilitating acceptance of the fact that life is difficult at times and avoiding certain aspects of life or emotions only creates a bigger problem & 2) committing to a life that is of value-outside of being overly concerned about outward appearance.  Consequently, ACT is a great fit in working with issues related to disordered eating. 

The photo shows all of those in attendance for the weekend workshop, where many new friends and connections were made!

Chocolate Festival – 2009

This past February marked the third year of Avalon Hills’ participation in the Cache Valley Chocolate Festival. The Chocolate Festival is a yearly event held to raise funds for Planned Parenthood.  Tickets are purchased at the door allowing the buyer to sample several chocolate desserts and vote for their favorite. 50+ desserts are entered into the festival and then judged by a panel of culinary experts from around the valley. Awards are given in each category, along with a people’s choice award for the Amateur and Professional divisions and a grand prize award for the best of the competition. At the end of the evening, winning desserts are auctioned off and the proceeds given to Planned Parenthood. Both the adolescent and adult unit participated in choosing, preparing, and entering a chocolate dessert into the festival.

The adolescents decided that they wanted to make chocolate “bowls” and fill them with homemade chocolate candies.  So they made the bowls by dipping small balloons in melted white and milk chocolate, then popping the balloons, so that all that remained was a chocolate shell.  The girls then made home-made chocolate dipped caramels, chocolate dipped maraschino cherries, and an assortment of truffles.  They filled their chocolate shells with the homemade chocolates, and named their creation “love-a-bowl.”  They ended up winning first place in the teenage category.  Everyone had so much fun.  It is so important and fulfilling for us when we can provide positive experiences with food for our clients.

The adult clients entered a Flourless Chocolate Cake filled with Pomegranate Jelly. Several cooking classes were spent baking sheets of cake, making pomegranate jelly, and meticulously piping out little chocolate shapes to decorate the top of each sample. The dessert consisted of a layer of flourless chocolate cake, pomegranate jelly, dark chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse rosettes, and a chocolate shape.  600 samples were made over all and, we are happy to say, were gone by the end of the evening. The adults were able to attend, sampling the desserts and voting on their favorites. They were able to stay for the awards ceremony where they were able to stand up and accept their awards. The adult dessert took home the People’s choice award for the Amateur division, and also the contest-wide grand prize! They were so proud of their accomplishments and involvement. There was such a positive attitude surrounding such a difficult and anxiety provoking task.

What do you know, food CAN be fun!

For those of you who don’t know, National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is right around the corner. NEDAwareness Week is February 22-28, 2009.

This morning, The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) promoted the 22nd annual NEDAwareness Week by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

In honor of the occasion- some dear friends of Avalon Hills; Susan, Christine and Charles Maccia attended and are photographed above. Avalon Hills is excited to see NEDA being recognized at this event.

To see the ringing of the bell you can go here: http://www.nyse.com/.

For more information about NEDAwareness Week you can visit the National Eating Disorder Associations website. http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/.

I wanted to let everyone know that Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts will be on a radio broadcast on February 18, 2009. You can listen to the show or an archive of the show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth.

  The press release for the show is below.

Dr. Benita Quakenbush-Roberts Owner of Avalon Hills Discusses Eating Disorders

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 16, 2009 – Join Jacqueline Foreman and her special guest Dr. Susie author of the book It’s Not About The Weight. They will be joined by Dr. Benita Quakenbush-Roberts, owner of one of the best treatment centers in the country for those affected by eating disorders, Avalon Hills. The show will air live on Wedensday, February 18th, 2009 at www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth and can also be listened to in archived format after it airs.  Listeners are encouraged to call in and ask questions at 347-838-9159.

Avalon Hills Eating Disorder Treatment Center is for Adult & Teen Females Suffering from Anorexia & Bulimia.  The Avalon Hills eating disorder treatment center helps female adolescents and adults overcome eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia by changing the way they view their bodies and their surroundings. They believe that every girl needs three things to rise above the negative beliefs and cultural influences that contribute to the development of eating disorders. They believe the three cornerstones for positive change are: New Information, New Insights,  New Experiences.

Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts is a licensed psychologist (Utah license # 376641-2501), with 16 years of clinical experience having served children, adolescents, and adults with a wide range of mental health disorders in both inpatient, residential, and out-patient settings. Along with her husband, Gary Roberts, she is one of the original founders of Avalon Hills. The core philosophy underlying the Avalon Hills eating disorder treatment center first originated out of her thesis and doctoral research (Quakenbush, Stein & Doty, 1996; 1998), which focused on females who overcame eating disorders, and the reported factors that facilitated their recovery. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychology at Utah State University in 1998. Initially, Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts was responsible for program development, implementation and supervision of therapeutic interventions, staff training, licensing requirements, business development, and coordination of business/clinical operations. Currently, Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts is the acting CEO. Since first opening the doors of Avalon Hills in March 2003, Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts has been committed to continually improving the treatment programs of Avalon Hills, while simultaneously evolving the organization into a thriving, dynamic organization. Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts is a member of the Avalon Hills Executive Team and Governing Body. Dr. Quakenbush-Roberts is a member of the American Psychological Association, Utah Psychological Association, Academy of Eating Disorders, National Association of Eating Disorders, and Society of Adolescent Medicine.

Avalon Hills tailors each resident’s treatment program to her individual needs, using both scientific and holistic treatment approaches. Each activity is designed to help residents put the things they learn here into the context of their everyday lives, so they can apply them to the pressures they will face when they return home. Avalon Hills remains committed to individualized, comprehensive programs for all clients we serve. Their eating disorder clinic is located in Utah.

Please join us for this informative show on eating disorders of all kinds.

Your Mental Health is a program that deals with mental health issues and illness as well as the stigmas attached to people who suffer from various forms of mental illness.

We blogged about the Avalon Hills outcome studies because it is important that our incoming, current, and past residents understand how they are contributing to that goal. Understandably people are going to start asking, “Where’s the data?” We saw that coming.

Jodi -our diligent researcher – has been collecting data for over a year now.  Some of that time has been spent working out kinks in the system.  She’s also been working on figuring out what do we make of this data.  We could “cherry pick” one index or scale and use it to show how nearly everyone at Avalon Hills recovers, but that isn’t our style.

At present we aren’t publishing our data because we feel that we need more time to collect a bigger sample and to figure out a way of presenting the information in a way that is transparent and responsible. You’ve heard there’s lies, dang lies and statistics.  Well, we’d like to avoid being part of that problem.

We appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to move toward transparent reporting of outcome data.  We further wish to thank the past residents that continue to support this effort through their participation in the 3, 6 and 12 month follow-up outcome measures.  We are determined to see that their commitment to the process of recovery will benefit girls and women years to come.

Outcome Studies

In June of 2007, Avalon Hills Residential Eating Disorder Program began collecting its initial outcome data.  There are several objectives that we are hoping to achieve through this research.

· Increase our understanding of eating disorders and co-morbid disorders.

· Demonstrate to ourselves in a more systematic way what we already know– our program has a positive impact on the lives of our residents.

· Work to continually improve our treatment and verify that we have succeeded.

· Contribute to the national data pool on treatment of eating disorders. By adopting a standard set of assessment tools we may soon be able to collaborate with other treatment teams across the country to improve quality of treatment.

· Demonstrate that residential treatment is a worthwhile investment, with the hopes of improving insurance reimbursement.

· Improve the ability of clients and their families to select the treatment option that is best suited to their needs.

We would like to thank all of the residents and their families who have and continue to participate in this process with us.  We recognize that this takes an enormous time commitment on their part. Their willingness to provide us with their responses up to a year after discharge is critical to our meeting the above goals.

For most everyone Thanksgiving is a time for family, maybe watching football, or going to church. All families have their own traditions. You can be sure, though, that all Thanksgivings will revolve around what seems to be a mountain of food. For those individuals struggling with an eating disorder, that mountain of food can quickly become fraught with anxiety and stress. The young women at Avalon Hills are familiar with this anxiety all too well. This year, instead of avoiding the pain, anxiety and depression, these women have chosen to face their fears. They are in residential treatment. Yes, they are not with their family and friends but they are with a supportive and caring team, dedicated to making this holiday a “family affair”, Avalon style. Thanksgiving started off at a leisurely pace. Everyone slept in a little later. After all, it is a holiday! Telephone calls were made to home while watching the Macy’s Day parade on television and getting dressed. After breakfast, time for pet care and then a walk for D-o-gee.

This is her favorite activity! Time to start getting ready for dinner! The table was set using the best linens and dinnerware. See the little table decorations? They are all handmade. Most meals at Avalon are served family style, this dinner was no different. Dinner began with a toast to health and to hope. Potatoes and turkey and cranberry sauce were shared along with jokes, laughter and stories.

After cleaning up, all gathered in the family room to listen to and sing along with Liz and Lila, two of Avalon’s talented culinary staff. Later Marty, one of the therapists, joined in.

After meals had settled, we took a long walk around a little lake next to our home. It was such a beautiful day!

Later, more calls to family and friends before heading out to see a movie in town. After the movie, most everyone was tired and glad to get back home. Our Thanksgiving was becoming just a pleasant memory for the most part, still with anxiety but no melt downs!

We at Avalon are thankful to share our Thanksgiving Day with such determined young women.

The Unfashion show name has been changed based on client request to the ME Fashion show, which is actually very reflective of the theme of the event. The outfits are as individual as the clients and they are looking really cool, it should be a very fun as well as therapeutically challenging night! Another component that has been incorporated is the horse participation. Each client will be paired with a horse and will decorate him or her to match their own outfit and will model their animal companion as well.

Fitness for Fun special therapy group will be held at the local gym this week to incorporate body image issues as well as find fun with movement. Our head adolescent therapist will accompany and process before and after the group where the clients are challenged to incorporate into a typical gym environment. The focus is going to be on “listening to your body” as well as allowing for some variability in activity intensity.

Art Therapy has been provided to patients at Avalon Hills for the last two years as one of multiple alternatives to traditional “talk therapy” in eating disorder recovery work. Art Therapy has proven to be a particularly useful tool in treating eating disordered behaviors. Art and eating disorders are similar in nature in that they both serve to enable expression without words. Individuals struggling with eating disorders are often unable to express their innermost thoughts and feelings. They are unable to adequately verbalize the inner turmoil, rage, shame, guilt, and powerlessness that controls their every waking moment. Art allows these individuals to speak in a safe and acceptable way rather than through their disorder.

The projects of Art Therapy groups are varied and include body image tracings, self portraits, life collages, emotion sculptures and others specifically designed to encourage expression of deeper thought and feeling. Art Therapy sessions are held weekly in the format of a group session. The session begins with a brief introduction of the assignment followed by ample time allotted for exploring and experimenting with different mediums. Topics can be explicitly defined or abstract in nature based on the desired outcomes as determined by the therapist. The end of each session is followed up with time to share and process what has come up for each patient during the art experience. Discussion of each patient’s experience allows the therapist and group to connect in a non-threatening way through artistic expression and reflection.

As patients reveal their feelings and emotions in their creations, a strong therapeutic alliance is formed. This alliance serves to facilitate healing and aids in establishing a “voice” for the inner turmoil and pain. In time, patients begin to develop a sense of trust in their own feelings and their ability to speak about them. The power behind Art Therapy is the opening of a dialogue without words or language but one which in reality speaks volumes. Over the last few years, I have seen time and time again women finding more of themselves through art and art therapy work and gaining the insight needed for forward movement in their personal recovery.

The women in my group today are in various stages of recovery but they all have the same goal….to reclaim their lives free from their eating disorder. They all want the “color” back in their world. I am privileged to be along on their journey to recovery.

Kathryn Clements, LCSW
Avalon Hills