Wasted and the Phenomenon of the Trainwreck Girl with Marya Hornbacher

 
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Episode 23 - Wasted and the Phenomenon of the Trainwreck Girl with Marya Hornbacher

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

“Healing requires one thing above all - it takes action.
This will not be done for you.
Eventually, you, yourself, will have to choose how to do it, how to live.
Recovery is a choice.”
— Marya Hornbacher

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by award-winning essayist, journalist, novelist, poet, and New York Times bestselling author of five books, Marya Hornbacher. Her first book, the memoir Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, appeared when she was 23, and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. In May 2014, 15 years after the original date of publication, the book was updated with a Postscript by Hornbacher. While she doesn’t sugarcoat the hard work of recovery, she does assure that healing is attainable and within reach. With a new ending to her story that adds a contemporary edge, Wasted continues to be timely and relevant.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The motives behind the raw, graphic nature of Wasted.

  • The phenomenon of the “trainwreck girl” during the memoir boom of the 1990s.

  • The unintentional/intentional “glamorization” of eating disorders in the media.

  • The invasiveness of social media consumption and the role of personal responsibility.

  • The line between being “triggered” and being an educated consumer.

  • Recovery is “messy” because life is “messy.”

  • Accepting our personal limitations vs beating ourselves up over them.

  • Why self awareness and self compassion are vital in the process of healing.

  • How Marya uses the Twelve Step model in her recovery and current life.

ABOUT MARYA HORNBACHER:

In 1998, Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, to international renown. Her first book, the memoir Wasted, appeared when she was 23, and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. This book earned Hornbacher a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and over the years has become a worldwide classic. Her first novel, The Center of Winter, was published in 2005 to international acclaim. The New York Times named the book an Editor’s Choice, and Booklist called Hornbacher “a master storyteller.” Her third book, Madness: A Bipolar Life, was an immediate New York Times Bestseller, and earned her more praise in the Times, which wrote, “Hornbacher is a virtuoso writer.” Her fourth and fifth books, Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Twelve Steps and Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power, both published by Hazelden, have found passionate audiences who are working toward recovery from addictions of all kinds. Waiting, published in 2011, examines the role of spirituality in a non-believer’s life, and was a finalist for both the Books for Better Life Award and the Minnesota Book Award. Marya’s sixth book, We’ve Been Healing All Along: Real Lives and Real Strategies for Mental Health Recovery, tells the personal stories of dozens of people with mental health disorders who are defining, and achieving, personal success on their own terms.

Hornbacher’s work is available in more than twenty languages, which has earned her an international reputation. A three-time Morse Fellow at Yale, and a regular speaker on humanism and ethics at Harvard, she has also spoken on the topics of recovery, spirituality, and mental health at Columbia Medical School, Vassar, UC Berkeley, Swarthmore, Skidmore, Wesleyan, Amherst, the University of Michigan, and many others. While she lectures widely in academic settings, she is closely engaged in advocacy for mental health recovery, and is a frequent pro bono visitor to community-based mental health groups of all sizes and kinds, including NAMI, DBSA, and RAISE.

Born in San Francisco, Hornbacher has long made her home in Minneapolis. The recipient of a host of awards for her books, journalism, teaching, and research, including the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction and the Fountain House Humanitarian Award for Mental Health Activism, she is a current Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good. Marya is hard at work on her seventh book, a collection of essays on the subject of solitude in women’s lives. She teaches creative writing and journalism at Augsburg University and the University of Nebraska.

CONNECT WITH MARYA HORNBACHER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following @karinlewisedc on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Hungry for Freedom with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP, CEPC, CHC, AADP

 
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Episode 18 - Hungry for Freedom with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP, CEPC, CHC, AADP

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, a nutrition consultant, certified holistic health coach, eating psychology coach, and founder of The Freedom Promise, a private coaching practice in Manhattan. Mindy’s experience with her own recovery, her education in Functional Nutrition and Holistic Health, training in Transformational Coaching, and Eating Psychology inspired her to write The Freedom Promise: 7 Steps to Stop Fearing What Food Will Do to You and Start Embracing What It Can Do for You.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • “I was doing recovery, but I didn’t know what I was hungry for”

  • Defining your personal, non-linear recovery journey.

  • Turning pain into purpose.

  • Challenging the fear of what food will do TO you and embracing what food can do FOR you.

  • The difficulties with battling disordered eating and substance abuse.

  • How “Higher Powers” can look different for everyone.

  • Learning how to live in “the middle.”

  • Stomach, head, and heart hunger and listening to what you are hungry for.

  • Finding freedom from your eating disorder and reclaiming your best self.

  • Viewing transformation as less about what you want to do and more of what you want to let go of.

Being recovered means being able to rely on myself to have the confidence to go forward, no matter what obstacle I’m going to meet, and that I can rise up.


ABOUT MINDY GORMAN-PLUTZER:

Mindy Gorman-Plutzer is a nutrition consultant, certified holistic health coach, and eating psychology coach. Working in the weight management industry for 19 years, she has combined her background, trainings in holistic health, transformational coaching, and eating psychology with her extensive life experience to create The Freedom Promise, a Functional Nutrition and Eating Psychology coaching practice dedicated to guiding clients on the most valuable journey of their lives – the one where they get to realize and re-claim the most vibrant version of themselves.

Mindy has worked with hundreds of clients to transform their relationship with food from one mired in toxic and limiting beliefs to one that is joyous, loving, and free. She introduces strategies that are a combination of practical coaching techniques, results-oriented psychology, clinical nutrition, body-centered practices, mind-body science, and a positive and compassionate approach to challenges with food, weight, and health. Clients experience results that are nourishing, doable, and sustainable.

Mindy’s new book, The Freedom Promise: 7 Steps to Stop Fearing What Food Will Do to You and Start Embracing What It Can Do for You, shares powerful insight and strategies related to letting go of disordered eating behaviors and limiting beliefs that keep the reader tied to a toxic relationship with food, The Freedom Promise offers personal stories to inspire, practical steps, and affirmations. You will be motivated to examine your behavior with food, explore your hunger, and be guided to reframe the stories you have been telling yourself about food and your relationship to it.

Join Mindy alongside 38 global experts from August 24th-30th for the “Recovery Revealed: What's Feeding Your Disordered Eating?” Virtual Online Summit to “offer solutions to the challenging behavior and beliefs about food and your body.” Mindy has brought together dozens of leaders to share new information and protocols to support a special unique journey toward healing one's broken relationship with food. These experts come from the fields of functional medicine, psychology, psychiatry, mindset, nutrition, and healing. Please click here to register.

I invite you to join us so together we can continue to share the message of hope, healing and full recovery. — Mindy Gorman-Plutzer


Mindy currently resides in New York with her husband, is a mother, mother in law, and grandmother. She enjoys golf, Pilates, exploring the city, and after leaving her own disordered relationship with food behind, loves to cook and experience the wonder and complexity of food.

CONNECT WITH MINDY GORMAN-PLUTZER:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. You can visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center online to learn more about Karin and her center’s services. You can also connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Fingerprint Moments with Kate Funk, MFT, LMFT

 
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Episode 11 - Fingerprint Moments with Kate Funk, MFT, LMFT

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Kate Funk, MFT, LMFT, of Kate Funk Counseling. Working with eating disorders since 2012, Kate is dedicated to the treatment and understanding of eating disorders. As a recovered clinician, she believes full recovery is possible and works to empower clients to find their true selves and create lives where food and exercise are no longer the forefront, but a simple part of life. Kate is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the states of Pennsylvania and Texas. Kate is currently located in the greater Houston area. 

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• Eating disorders and substance abuse.
• Owning who you are.
• Conforming to "fit in" plants the seed for an eating disorder.
• Finding purpose and meaning.
• Looking at what are the barriers to living the life you want to live.
• Eating disorders robbing you of everything you think it will give you.

ABOUT KATE FUNK:

Kate Funk, MFT, LMFT is a therapist in the greater Houston area who earned a Masters Degree in Family Therapy from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Kate has dedicated her professional career to the treatment and understanding of eating disorders. Kate believes eating disorders affect the entire person and that individual and family therapy promote healing. With personal experience battling and recovering from an eating disorder, Kate knows first-hand full recovery is possible. Dedicated to learning about the treatment of eating disorders, Kate has trained with Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, Shepherd Pratt, The Renfrew Center, Monte Nido and Affiliates, and the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals.

Kate created an outpatient group for eating disorders in southern New Jersey while serving as research coordinator for the University of Sciences Eating Disorder Research Program which since moved to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Since 2016, Kate has worked at Monte Nido and Affiliates and has worked in all levels of care including intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment. Throughout her career, she has had opportunities to volunteer with the National Eating Disorder Association, The Renfrew Center, and Girls on the Run.

Kate believes in treating the mind and body through a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy, self-empowerment, compassion-focused therapy,  symbolic experiential, and structural family therapy as well as creative arts.


CONNECT WITH KATE FUNK:

ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:

Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. Karin is the founder of the Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center located in Boston, MA. To learn more about Karin and her center’s services, please visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center. You can connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.