Event: Food & Sex; Metaphor and Neuroscience

When most of us think of food and sex, we think, “Yum!” Yet, like any good thing, a healthy positive relationship with food or sex can become distorted and unhealthy due to traumatic or adverse developmental experiences or attachment wounding.

Two experts in the field of Eating Disorders and Sex Addiction come together for this event to look at the topic of Food and Sex through a metaphoric and neurobiological lens: Dr. Anita Johnston, PhD, author of Eating in the Light of the Moon and Dr. Michael Barta, PhD, CSAT, Author of TINSA; A Neurobiological Approach to Treatment of Sex Addiction. The conversation is broadly philosophical and diligently practical, challenging norms of treatment and offering us new paradigms for talking about and treating dysregulated eating and compulsive sexual behavior.

This day of discovery offers 4 CE’s, includes lunch, as well as a somatic experience, facilitated by Lee McCormick, co-founder of Integrative Life Center in Nashville, TN and author of The Heart Reconnection Guidebook: A Guided Journey of Personal Discovery and Self-Awareness. The experiential component will provide an opportunity for our brains and bodies to assimilate the new information and enter into a reflective embrace of these new paradigms with a heart connection.

Food & Sex; Metaphor and Neuroscience
Friday, May 14, 2021
10am – 5:30pm | Lunch included
$49.99 | 4 CE’s
Seating is limited

Location:
Alma de Mujer
Austin, TX 78726

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NBCC Approved Provider | 4 CE’s

Integrative Life Center has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6483. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Integrative Life Center is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Agenda:

• 9:30 Registration Opens
• 10:00 Part 1: Understanding & Treating Eating Disorders with Storytelling & Metaphor
• 12:00 Lunch
• 1:00 Part 2: The Neurophysiological Connection Between Trauma and Disordered Intimacy
• 3:00 Break
• 3:30 Part 3: The Heart of Reconnection – Returning to Your Authentic Self
• 5:30 Workshop Concludes

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PART ONE

Understanding & Treating Eating Disorders with Storytelling & Metaphor

Presented By: Anita Johnston, Ph.D., CEDS

For eons, ancient traditions in cultures across the world have used metaphor and storytelling for teaching and healing. Only recently, however, has modern science developed technology that gives us a glimpse into brain functioning, allowing us to see how these processes work. A metaphor is a bridge between two ideas that, at least on the surface, are not equivalent or related. Many individuals struggling with eating disorders perceive their struggles with eating as unrelated to other aspects of their lives. Metaphor can be a useful tool to help them find important connections. This presentation explores the work of scientists who have discovered rigorous ways to study insight and metaphor by identifying the aspects of the brain that are better able to see hidden connections and the remote associations between separate ideas. It will describe the neuroscience research that supports the use of metaphor and stories in eating disorder treatment.

Objectives:

• • Name the neural correlate of insight in the brain
  • Identify the brain wave pattern that occurs immediately before insight occurs
  • Identify the hemisphere in the brain responsible for finding the connections between seeming unrelated things.

PART TWO

Original Disconnection: The Neurophysiological Connection Between Trauma and Disordered Intimacy

Presented By: Michael Barta, Ph.D., LPC, CSAT – S

In this presentation, Dr. Michael Barta will demonstrate how developmental trauma disorders the brain causing the individual to lose connection with the authentic self and the world. Using a neurophysiological lens, Dr. Barta will guide and educate the participant through an interactive exercise that will allow participants to discover how trauma affects the ability to bond and live with full authenticity and vulnerability.

Objectives:

• • Participants will identify how developmental trauma changes the normal function of the autonomic nervous system.
  • Participants will recite two ways in which trauma affects the ability to live authentically.
  • Participants will discuss three ways to address developmental trauma to restore vulnerability, authenticity and intimacy.

Presenters:

Anita Johnston, Ph.D, CEDS, clinical psychologist and IAEDP certified eating disorder specialist and supervisor, is the Executive Director of Eating Disorders Programming at Integrative Life Center in Nashville, and the Clinical Director of Ai Pono Hawaii Eating Disorders Residential Treatment Program in Maui. She is the author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, which has been published in six languages, author of several professional articles and book chapters, and the co-creator of the Light of the Moon Café, an interactive e-course and online “workbook” for Eating in the Light of the Moon. A pioneer in the field, Dr. Johnston has been working with women’s issues and eating difficulties for over thirty-five years, and is currently Clinical Director of ‘Ai Pono Hawaii, which has an eating disorders residential treatment facility on the island of Maui and out-patient treatment programs in Honolulu and the Big Island of Hawaii.

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Dr. Michael Barta is the Founder and CEO of Begin Again Institute, a neurobiological and trauma based 14-day residential men’s sex and pornography treatment center located in Boulder, Colorado. He was trained in sexual addiction by Dr. Patrick Carnes and has over 34 years of addiction recovery experience and 12 years specializing in the treatment of sex and porn addictions and the betrayed partners. His published book, TINSA™ (Trauma-Induced Sexual Addiction) provides a neurological approach to for the treatment of sex and pornography addictions. Dr. Barta has utilized his clinical skill and personal recovery to create a neurobiological model that works on the cause or core of the sexual addiction and is now expanding this Model to treat all addictions. He is a nationally a recognized speaker in the field of sex addiction and frequently provides lectures and trainings for therapists regarding the treatment of sex and pornography addictions and compulsivity.

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Lee McCormick is the founder of The Ranch Recovery Center in Tennessee and The Canyon Treatment Center in Malibu, California. He is also co-founder of Nashville’s Integrative Life Center and IOP/PHP Community Recovery program. Through Spirit Recovery Inc., Lee facilitates the production of healing and recovery conferences and spiritual journeys around the world. He is the executive producer of the documentary Dreaming Heaven, in which he plays a leading role. He is the author of The Spirit Recovery Meditation Journal: Meditations for Reclaiming Your Authenticity and coauthor of Dreaming Heaven: The Beginning Is Near! and Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag.

For questions about this event, contact Sherry Young, PhD, CSAT at sherry.youngphd@gmail.com or 575-779-6062.

Integrative Life Center has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6483. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Integrative Life Center is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.