This chapter presents a case study of a sensorimotor psychotherapy (SP) approach to eating disorder (ED) treatment. In contrast to traditional psychotherapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), that lean heavily on the impact of thoughts on emotional experiences and somatic patterns, also known as top-down processing, SP also uses bottom-up processing, the effect that one’s somatic organization has on affect and affect regulation, cognitive functioning and specific beliefs about self and other. The very core of SP is four foundational principles that cultivate therapeutic presence and guide both content and quality of interventions: organicity, nonviolence, unity, body/mind/spirit holism. SP understands human experience through the lens of five core organizers: thoughts, emotions, and three somatic organizers. SP explores actions as a cycle with four stages: clarity, effectiveness, satisfaction, and relaxation.

Energy psychology comprises a body of knowledge and a family of therapeutic modalities that are concerned with the interface between mind and body, mediated by working with the body’s subtle energy system. Although the mechanism is uncertain, research indicates that such methods do work, bringing about emotional, cognitive, and physiological changes rather faster than would be expected with purely talk-based psychotherapies. Another important component used by some practitioners is “energy testing” sometimes known as “muscle testing”, although it is not the muscles tested, but small variations in muscle tone are considered to provide information about both psychological and energetic states. This chapter discusses two case studies where, energy testing revealed significant internal objections to resolving their eating disorders (EDs). It concludes that energy psychology modalities form useful additional components of psychotherapeutic approach to EDs, helping to alleviate the intensity of emotional distress and facilitate the flow of energy and information.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative, client-centered psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD, in 1987. EMDR engages the natural information processing systems in the brain to process disturbing life experiences that are, according to Shapiro, the bases of pathological behaviors. The Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model was developed by Francine Shapiro to explain the effects of EMDR therapy; guide case conceptualization, treatment planning, and interventions; and predict treatment outcomes. The AIP model assumes that both pathology and health are the development of early life experiences that are stored in neurobiological memory networks. Early life experiences, therefore, are the building blocks of perception, attitudes, and behaviors. Neurobiologically speaking, our life experiences get translated into physically stored memories on which we rely to guide us in life choices and interpretations.

Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) is an attachment-oriented, emotion-focused model of psychotherapy and trauma treatment. This chapter details the course of AEDP treatment for clients with active eating disorders (EDs). It uses vignettes and a transcript from a live therapy session to highlight salient concepts and illustrate AEDP interventions in action. AEDP is fundamentally an experiential model. AEDP uses two versions of the triangle of experience to conceptualize the process and the piece of work. The first represents what AEDP calls the client’s self-at-best, or the resilient self. The second represents what AEDP calls the client’s self-at-worst, or compromised self. At the beginning of treatment, AEDP interventions are focused on building safety and regulating anxiety so that core affect can surface. Metaprocessing is an essential element of any AEDP treatment process. It undoes our clients’ aloneness with dysregulating new experiences and helps them to metabolize them instead.