The Emily Program ‘gave me my life back’ says local woman

Program set apart by staff who have been there too, and are working to increase care standards for eating disorders

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN

One in five women struggles with an eating disorder.

St. Anthony resident Billie Gray is one of them.

At 39, her best friend asked her to be an attendant at her wedding, and Gray spent more time worrying about how she was going to look in a sleeveless dress than she did being happy for her friend.

“Luckily I had enough awareness to recognize that as distorted thinking,” stated Gray.

She walked herself down to her “friendly neighborhood eating center,” The Emily Program, and asked for help.

She got it.

“It gave me my life back,” said Gray.

Photo right: The adult treatment site at 2265 Como is one of several in the neighborhood. A center for youth is located across the street. The Emily Program offers outpatient, intensive day/partial programs with lodging available, and 24/7 residential care at ten sites across Minnesota as well as sites in Washington, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The administrative offices, including the Foundation, are based in St. Paul’s Bandana Square. (Photo by Tesha M. Christensen)

For Gray, having an eating disorder meant that she kept a part of herself set aside to manage that disorder.

She knows she could have been diagnosed with binge eating disorder when she was 24, but she kept her habits hidden from others for years.

“Eating disorders come in a lot of different manifestations,” Gray observed.

She wasn’t the type of binge eater who drove to three different drive-thrus and ordered a meal at each to devour in one sitting. No, hers was harder to see because it didn’t manifest according to the stereotype. Her eating disorder involved grazing from the time she got home from work to the time she climbed into bed. Every night she ate to the point where she felt full and then kept going until she felt physically ill.

“It was like I had two stomachs,” Gray explained. “One was so full. One couldn’t stop eating.”

Photo left: The Emily Program Foundation Executive Director Billie Gray and The Emily Program Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Jillian Lampert stand in the kitchen at the 2265 Como Building, a place where cooking classes and meals are held. Treatment at The Emily Program involves a lot of different food experiences, pointed out Lampert. (Photo by Tesha M. Christensen)

For some, grazing is fine, but Gray’s habits were normal behavior taken to extremes, as all eating disorders are. Hers was a problem in part because of the time she spent obsessing about food and the internalized shame that surrounded eating, Gray pointed out.

Every day she woke up and told herself today would be different. Every day it was the same.

Gray isn’t alone. Middle-aged women are among the fastest growing segment of the population diagnosed with eating disorders.

Relaxing and welcoming atmosphere

Gray is grateful for the help she received at The Emily Program, which is primarily staffed by 520 people who have had eating disorders themselves.

“I love the atmosphere here,” Gray stated. “It’s very relaxing. Everyone was kind and willing to meet me where I was. If I had had one negative experience, I would have left.”

Once she was being treated at The Emily Program, she felt like she got steadily better as she put time into it, but change didn’t happen all at once.

She attended individual therapy, met with dietitians to learn about nutrition, and focused on the behavioral piece, as well.

Treatment at The Emily Program involves a lot of different food experiences, pointed out Dr. Jilllian Lampert, The Emily Program Chief Strategy Officer. Residents and therapists engage in intimate meals together in the dining rooms at the facility, cook meals together, and go out to eat together.

Other components are art therapy, body image support groups, and mindful, restorative yoga.

“Being disconnected from your body is a hallmark of an eating disorder,” pointed out Lampert, “so getting back in touch with your body is a part of healing.”

Gray’s breakthrough came during a somatic experience group session, a type of therapy she didn’t think would be valuable for her at all. She considers herself to be analytical and logical and didn’t want to focus on sensations.

When encouraged to stop and pay attention to the sensations in her body, Gray realized, “I literally couldn’t feel anything between my pelvis and my throat.”

Lampert pointed out that another common part of an eating disorder is being unable to close one’s eyes and count a pulse beat. Restorative yoga helps patients reconnect with their body’s biorhythms.

Photo right: The Emily Program Foundation staff meet with a group of girls at Whittier International Elementary School in Minneapolis. They present at daycares, middle and high schools, universities, churches and other community groups to increase awareness and education of eating disorders. “The seeds get planted very young,” observed Gray. “We’re doing what we can to change the environment and minimize the number of seeds that get planted. They’re currently partnering on a pilot program with the St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ Preschool. (Photo submitted)

The underlying issue creating Gray’s eating disorder was control. “I wasn’t ok with who I was,” she observed.

Through art therapy, she learned how to express herself, a practice she found empowering and continues today.

There is a debate about whether one is ever really cured of an eating disorder. Gray finds it helpful to continue attending a support group every two weeks.

After her three-year treatment, she realized she wanted to make a difference for other people struggling with eating disorders. She quit her successful corporate job and became the executive director of The Emily Program Foundation in June 2014.

The Emily Program Foundation presents at daycares, middle and high schools, universities, churches and other community groups to increase awareness and education of eating disorders. Bullying about body size and appearance is the most common form of bullying in schools.

An program set apart

In 1993, psychologist Dirk Miller, Ph.D., LP, opened The Emily Program, named after his sister, Emily, who recovered from an eating disorder.

Previously, Miller had started the first hospital-based eating disorders treatment program at South Bend General Hospital in Indiana. He had also worked with the University of Minnesota’s intensive bulimia program and started an eating disorders group at The University of St. Thomas.

The 23-year-old organization has grown a lot since its start with one employee in a former St. Paul fire station.

Today, The Emily Program offers outpatient, intensive day/partial programs with lodging available, and 24/7 residential care at ten sites across Minnesota as well as sites in Washington, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The administrative offices, including the Foundation, are based at 1295 Bandana Boulevard W.

They also have an Outpatient Eating Disorder Treatment location for adolescents and adults at 2265 Como Ave. and at 2230 Como Ave.

The program is for people of all genders from age 8 to 78 who struggle with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, compulsive overeating, obesity, and other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED).

The approach to treating eating disorders is based on the belief that individuals are unique and that they intuitively seek meaning, value, and creativity in life. Effective treatment requires awareness of the genetic, biological, psychological, social, and cultural impacts on each person.

Lampert noted, “It’s the way we do things that sets us apart.”

The Emily Program meets this high-intensity need for care through evidence-based practices, round-the-clock nursing, and specialized medical treatment. It is affiliated with the University of Minnesota, initiates studies, and lobbies at the federal level.

“We can help people make changes in their behavior, so they don’t have to have an eating disorder,” said Lampert.

Working to raise the standards of care

The Emily Program is leading the charge to improve the quality of residential eating disorder care through its leadership of the Residential Eating Disorder Consortium (REDC).

“Through REDC, we are hoping to raise the bar for quality of care across all residential eating disorder programs,” stated Lampert, who serves as president of the REDC, an organization The Emily Program co-founded.

In the United States, 30 million Americans struggle with eating disorders. Only a fraction of them will need specialized 24/7 care for their mental illness, but few will find it as residential programs only have the capacity to treat less than 0.05 percent of those impacted each year.

Insurance doesn’t always cover treatment costs, despite the Mental Health Parity Bill passed in 2008.

Every 62 minutes someone dies as a direct result of an eating disorder, according to the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy and Action. Eating disorders can be expensive to treat, but they are serious issues with the highest mortality rate of any other mental health illness.

The Emily Program provides education and training opportunities for health professionals so that they may be better equipped to intervene early in the illness, optimizing patients’ recovery.

When Lampert was struggling with an eating disorder 20 years ago, she bounced from substandard program to substandard program. While things have gotten better, she sees room for improvement. That’s part of what has driven her efforts to push for quality treatment standards, which were adopted by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitative Facilities in 2013 and by the Joint Commission recently.

Few health care providers receive adequate training in recognition and treatment of eating disorders, explained Lampert. “There’s a huge disparity between the number of lives lost and medical training.” The average doctor has received 24 minutes of training. The Emily Program feels so passionately about this that there is currently a bill in Congress, The Anna Westin Act, named in memory of a Minnesota woman who died at the age of 21 as a direct result of anorexia that sets aside existing funds for training. The Emily Program staff and volunteers, including Anna’s mother Kitty, who serves on the Foundation Board, are working hard to ensure it becomes law.

For more, browse emilyprogram.com.