Living in Your Element with Michele Gardiner, MC, CCC

 
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Episode 16 - Living in Your Element with Michele Gardiner, MC, CCC

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Michele Gardiner MC, CCC, a Registered Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) and Psychotherapist and the founder of ELEMENTAL Psychotherapy & Support Services. A passion born of both personal and professional experience, Michele has dedicated twenty years to supporting people and communities on the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and mental health issues. Recovered for more than 21 years, Michele’s personal recovery from anorexia and compulsive over-exercise has provided her with a greater understanding, compassion, and coping skills to uniquely support and promote healthy, sustainable recovery.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The benefits of grounding oneself.

  • Ecotherapy and healing in nature.

  • The impact of changing our relationship to our stressors.

  • Decreasing impulsivity of behaviors and opening up options for recovery

  • Embracing the feeling of your body.

  • How the eating disorder serves as an umbrella over other issues and feeling states.

ABOUT MICHELE GARDINER:

​​Michele Gardiner is a humanistic, client-centered therapist who works from an attachment and trauma-informed lens and focuses on working collaboratively to create a therapy experience that feels safe and inclusive, builds on your personal strengths and capacities, and allows you to develop new meanings, resources and an awareness that fosters healthier coping, connection and confidence in your ability to manage problems in ways that align with your values and achieve your therapy goals.

Michele’s perspective comes from 15-years' of direct experience counseling individuals, couples, families, and groups within the public, private and not-for-profit sectors around general and complex mental health including behavioral and substance addictions, eating disorders, personality disorders, domestic violence/abuse, suicide and trauma in children, youth, adults.

Michele’s experience is further informed through her own personal recovery from anorexia and compulsive over-exercise, which resulted from the collision of two traumatizing events in her 20s, as a way of coping with intense emotions of loss, anger, and fear - pains that she was unable to express at the time. Recovery gave Michele tools for self-expression and compassion and coping skills and with these more empowering and freeing perspectives in life.

Recovery led Michele to volunteer experiences with organizations dedicated to promoting awareness and prevention around eating disorders and mental health and fueled a desire to give back by taking on community roles around the education, prevention, and treatment of these lonely, generally misunderstood and sometimes deadly issues. These valued volunteer roles include acting as a peer counselor with the BCEDA, community prevention educator with ANAD, as a member of the Board of Directors with ANAD and Jessie's Hope, a consultancy role with MCFD's eating disorder team, as an external editor with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s esteemed BC Mental Health Journal, Visions, as a member of the National Review Committee for the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, and as a public speaker and community educator on the topic of eating disorders, disordered eating and body image for more since 2005.

In addition to volunteer roles, Michele’s education includes a Masters Degree in counseling, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in (SS) psychology from the University of Victoria with a focus on Behavioral Neuroscience and Para-Linguistics, with post-graduate training and certifications directed to her areas of professional practice (you can view her training and education here).

Michele’s training in the assessment and treatment of Eating Disorders extends to working with children, youth, adults, families and athletes and encompasses completion of the Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy Certification (EDIT)™ and the CEDS Curriculum (2015 and 2017) with the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp)™.

As a Certified Therapist (CCC), Michele participates in on-going Consultation and Professional Supervision and hold Professional Certifications and Memberships in "good standing" with: The Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp™), the Academy of Eating Disorders (AED), the Eating Disorders Association of Canada (EDAC), the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP), and the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH).

Michele is the founder of ELEMENTAL Psychotherapy & Support Services , a private practice located in Summerland, BC, Canada. Honoring each client as a unique and capable individual is a core principle reflected in Michele’s work at ELEMENTAL through the perspective that, as human beings, their unique thoughts, feelings, beliefs and life experiences provide them with a wisdom that is empowering and elemental ​to their process of creating new hopes and change.

Michele’s love of counseling and psychology is enhanced by the belief that a solid foundation of education, training, and supervision provides the knowledge and skills to guide safe, informed practices and promote healthy, sustainable recovery for each individual, couple, and family that she works with.

Outside of counseling, Michele enjoys reading, photography, and being in the beautiful outdoors. Wind, rain, snow, and shine, she feels most inspired, centered, and authentic when she is in Nature and takes it in by hiking, skiing, snow-shoeing, and paddling with her family and Canine Co-therapist, Ash. Whenever possible, Michele encourages clients to develop a relationship with nature to improve coping, confidence and to develop a healthier, more holistic connection to their bodies and sense of self.
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CONNECT WITH MICHELE GARDINER:

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.

 

Invisibility of Men in the Eating Disorder Community with Mark Warren, MD

 
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Episode 9 - Invisibility of Men in the Eating Disorder Community with Mark Warren, MD

by Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS

IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, I am joined by Mark Warren, MD, recovered clinician and Chief Medical Officer of The Emily Program, a multi-state Eating Disorder Treatment System focused on bringing the most advanced, evidenced based care to clients who are treated in a community of recovery. Mark Warren graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Harvard Medical School. His practice focuses on bringing the most up-to-date research into evidence-based care. Mark has published and spoken extensively on Males and Eating Disorders, Professionals and Recovery and DBT and FBT in the treatment of eating disorders. In this episode, Mark shares that he hadn’t met another recovered, male professional until he was 60 years old and that maintaining a sense of community has help keep him recovered.

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • The underrepresentation of men and eating disorders.

  • The invisibility of men and their behaviors.

  • You are not your diagnosis, you are human being struggling with a disorder.

  • Eating disorders are a disorder of disconnection.

  • Getting off of the "treadmill" of life.

  • Men are just as exposed subjected to the diet culture and body ideals.

  • Eating disorders and drugs as traumatic experiences.

  • Things that are shameful, are painful.

ABOUT MARK WARREN:

Mark graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Harvard Medical School. His practice focuses on bringing the most up-to-date research into evidence-based care.

Mark serves on the faculty of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and teaches at University Hospitals of Cleveland and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders, where he leads the SIG in Males and Eating Disorders. Mark is a two-time recipient of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and a winner of the Woodruff Award.

Mark co-chairs the Academy of Eating Disorders Presidential Task Force for Medical Care and serves on the FEAST Medical Advisory Board and the London-based Succeed Foundation Medical Advisory Board. He has presented extensively at the International Conference on Eating Disorders, The Renfrew Foundation, and the Multidisciplinary Eating Disorder Association.

Mark currently holds the position of Chief Medical Officer for The Emily Program, a comprehensive treatment center that provides personalized eating disorder treatment for teens, young adults, and adults. We offer comprehensive psychological, nutritional, medical, and psychiatric care at multiple locations across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Duluth, MN, Spokane, WA, South Sound (Lacey), WA and Seattle, WA, Pittsburgh, PA, and Cleveland, OH.

Treatment options range from periodic outpatient appointments to residential care at our 24/7 residential facilities in Cleveland, OH, and St. Paul, MN. The Emily Program offers help with a variety of treatment for eating disorders, exercise, and body image issues, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating, binge eating disorder, and eating disorder, and related mental health issues. You can visit The Emily Program for more information.

CONNECT WITH MARK WARREN:

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.