The Alternative Approach

Our model of treatment for eating disorders is based on an integrative medical approach to mind-body-spirit healing. Each client is an individual and her treatment plan will reflect her individual needs. Each client will fully participate in those modalities that she and the staff feel will be most beneficial for her.

At Mirasol, our multidisciplinary treatment team consists of practitioners from traditional psychiatry, psychotherapy, and medicine who work closely with complementary medicine practitioners. Every member of the Mirasol staff is an experienced, caring professional who is certified and/or licensed in his or her area of practice and is knowledgeable in the field of eating disorders. Our team lends its support and expertise in assessment, treatment, and aftercare planning, providing the best care and guidance possible.

Each client is an individual and her treatment plan will reflect her individual needs. Each client will fully participate in those modalities that she and the staff feel will be most beneficial for her.

We offer the following alternative treatments:

Acupuncture
Bodywork
Dance Movement Therapy
Expressive Arts Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Naturopathic Medicine
Neurofeedback
Psycho-Emotional Acupuncture
Yoga

Acupuncture
In Oriental medicine, all illness is seen as resulting from an imbalance of energy in the mind-body-spirit as a whole. In Oriental medicine, acupuncture aims to restore health by readjusting, improving, freeing and/or balancing energy. We've found acupuncture especially helpful for clients with digestive problems and food allergies, and often for those with cravings. It is also extremely effective in helping a client detox from sugar, alcohol and drug use. For clients uncomfortable with needles, we also employ a gentle system of acupressure using points of light. Acupuncture is prescribed on an as-needed basis.
Adult Unit only

Biofeedback
Biofeedback sessions use special equipment to reveal a client's psychophysiological responses through sight or sound to help them learn skills of self-soothing. Clients are able to discover the relationships between different psychophysiological responses and learn how to change habitual patterns of thought and behavior.

Bodywork
"The body remembers what the mind wants to forget," is an underlying tenet of bodywork. At Mirasol, we use polarity therapy, cranial therapy, Reiki and other methods to help integrate the mind-body-spirit. Our professional bodyworkers are able to individualize care so that each client only receives what she is able to tolerate.

Dance Movement Therapy (DMT)
Dance/Movement Therapy is defined by the American Dance Therapy Association as "the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, cognitive and physical integration of the individual". Dance and movement are basic forms of authentic communication. Experiences of past physical, emotional and sexual trauma stored in the body may be evoked through movement expression, offering new ways to express emotions without the need for words. DMT is also a powerful antidote to distorted body images that are common in eating disorders. Movement and body-centered techniques can help individuals learn new, healthy ways to integrate their internal world with their external world.
Adult Unit only

Expressive Arts Therapy
Art therapy is used to uncover and heal issues that are brought to awareness through the subconscious mind. Jungian mandala work and other expressive art forms are used at Mirasol to help each participant discover and develop her own unique identity.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
The focus of EMDR treatment is the resolution of emotional distress arising from difficult childhood experiences, or the recovery from the effects of critical incidents, such as automobile accidents, assault, natural disasters, and combat trauma. Other problems treated with EMDR are phobias, panic attacks, distress in children, and substance abuse.
Adult Unit only

Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic medicine is based in the philosophy that disease is a natural phenomenon that is best treated with natural resources. The philosophy includes the belief that the body fights illness through its own "vital curative force" and health is regarded as a balance in all aspects of being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. At Mirasol, our naturopathic physician is our Medical Director.

Neurofeedback
EEG biofeedback or "neurofeedback" directly reveals brain wave activity. It's used at Mirasol to help clients focus better, integrate trauma memories and learn to change brain wave patterns associated with anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Each client receives neurofeedback several times per week to enhance her ability to actualize brain wave change during her treatment stay.

Psycho-Emotional Acupuncture
Psycho-Emotional Acupuncture is the integration of all levels of human existence into one treatment modality. Chinese Medical models are used to bridge the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual levels of experience, and to identify, translate, harmonize and transform imbalances resulting from trauma. Chinese medicine clearly shows how each energetic organ system of the body corresponds to a feeling reality. Thus, the core issues of trauma, such as shame, fear, and pain, can be release from the cellular memory of the body and readily processed. Conversely, psycho-emotional progress experienced during the process of recovery can be imprinted into the cellular DNA, creating and facilitating a quicker, stronger, stabilized foundation of the body for future recovery work.
Adult Unit only

Yoga
Yoga is a practical spiritual science that does not belong to any particular region or religion. It brings positive results independent of one's belief in its effectiveness. Yoga encourages a balanced, all-around development of human potential. Yoga contains in itself specific teachings that lead to bodyily health and emotional well-being; it leads to intellectual, creative, intuitive and spiritual awakening. It prepares the body for the spiritual path via physical and breathing exercises. Yoga prepares and conditions the body so that the mind can practice meditation more or less without obstacles.