Eating Disorders
She was raised with privilege and didn’t believe she should have problems. Yet, she didn’t like herself, was over weight, and using food to feel good...
Her financial advisor recommended she spend two weeks with Rae and Judy. This young woman in her 20’s was depressed and barely able to speak about herself. Her guilt ran so deep and it wasn’t really clear why. The process was gentle enough for her to open up and find accurate words to articulate her fears and concerns. She had previously had what she called 'bad' therapy. After her Intensive, she was set up with a new therapist in her her home town and stayed connected until she felt more and more comfortable with the new therapist. She returned to Maui Intensives a several years later to do a couple’s Intensive with her long term boyfriend.
He was in his 20’s and hated himself if he didn’t exercise at least two hours a day...
He was tall, lean, and attractive, but just couldn’t see it for himself. He noticed every flaw in his appearance and even some that didn’t exist. He assumed his relationships with girls always ended because he wasn’t good-looking enough. He could only be on Maui for ten days, so his schedule was accommodated and required a particularly efficient process. Most importantly, he needed a safe, private place to talk openly about very sensitive subjects. He became a pro at weaving through talking and trauma resolution to make very fast progress. He returned to his therapist back home and planned to have a week long Maui Intensive once a year for the next three years.
She was 20 years old and severely anorexic and bulimic...
Her eating disorder began when she was 12 and showing promise as a ballerina. The more people loved her performances, the more insecure she felt. Sometimes the mirrors seemed to close in around her during rehearsals. She became a vegan and anorexic, dropping weight dramatically. It soon was not pretty and stole her strength for dancing. By age 15, she had quit dancing and barely ate. She began drinking alcohol, trying drugs, and having sex with anyone she didn’t really like. The family office told her parents about Maui Intensives explaining it was completely confidential and not traditional therapy. By the time she arrived for her 5 week Maui Intensive, she was severely depressed, but putting on a good show for friends and family. As often happens with bulimia, she gained enough weight to not look like she had an eating disorder, but she was terribly malnourished. Her progress was dramatic with the introduction of highly nourishing foods and the Maui Intensive program. Her family, who believed they had tried everything, were overjoyed at her progress. She was surprised she didn't gain weight and even more surprised at how good she felt from changing her diet and finally having a safe place to open up about her life.
She was in her 30’s, overweight, but hardly ate. Her situation was complex...
She had been abused by a member of her family most of her life and showed the long term effects of stress with a thyroid disorder, insomnia, and still occasional bulimic and binge episodes even after years of outpatient therapy and inpatient rehab for eating disorders. She became proficient at managing her eating disorder, but still needed to address the underlying issues of imbalances in her body which were due to trauma. Fortunately, she was a teacher who could come to Maui for four weeks in the summer. She did this two years in a row and made amazing progress. Trauma resolution combined with self inquiry of core beliefs, nourishing foods, meditation, long walks, and so on, brought dramatic progress she never thought possible.