Two Unique New Psychotherapy/ Body Awareness Groups
Forming in Highland Park

 Adult Group

Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP psychotherapist, author, nationally renowned eating disorders expert, and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, will facilitate a unique psychotherapy/support group experience for adults struggling with eating disorders, disordered eating, and/or body image disturbances. This fall, group sessions will take place on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 PM in Highland Park, Illinois. Offering a unique opportunity to heal through combining traditional (psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral) treatment techniques with a novel experiential approach to self-awareness and learning, (The Feldenkrais Method, Awareness Through Movement), each hour-long psychotherapy/support group experience will be accompanied by one half hour of Feldenkrais body movement.

The Feldenkrais method has been proven to be particularly effective with victims of eating disorders and body image disturbances by facilitating self-awareness on a deep and profound level, and by offering increased options for making changes, solving problems, and integrating mind and body.   Research results from studies that have tested the efficacy of using the Feldenkrais Method as an adjunct to traditional eating disorder treatment can be found on Abigail’s web site, www.empoweredparents.com  in an abstract translated into English from German (posted originally on Entrez-PubMed) called The Therapeutic Effects of the Feldenkrais Method "Awareness Through Movement" in Patients with Eating Disorders by Laumer U, Bauer M, Fichter M, Milz H University at Regensburg.

Eating disorders are not just diseases of childhood. Contrary to popular belief, people do not grow out of these disorders simply because they grow up. When people bring unresolved eating and body image issues to their adult years, their functioning within all life spheres, personal and professional, becomes compromised. It is well known that 87 percent of the eight million people with eating disorders in America today are under the age of twenty; the remaining 13 percent of the afflicted population has been overlooked and ignored, unidentified and untreated…until now.

This psychotherapy/support group was inspired by several women in our community who died of heart attacks in their early forties after having suffered from chronic, long-term eating disorders. Group participants are highly functioning individuals, professionals, partners, and/or parents who have carried unresolved emotional issues and eating disorders into their adult lives. Adults with eating disorders typically feel isolated and alone, harboring a disease that is secretive and feels shameful. Group members will experience relief, optimism, and a sense of community through sharing life experiences with others like themselves, addressing feelings that emerge through the here-and-now dynamics of group process, and becoming more personally aware of the experience of living inside their own body.

Contact Abigail at anatenshon@empoweredparents.com or telephone 847-432-1795. 

Teenage and Young Adult Group

Abigail Natenshon will also facilitate a group this fall for high school and college age individuals.  Offering a unique opportunity to heal through combining traditional (psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral) treatment techniques with a novel experiential approach to self-awareness and learning, (The Feldenkrais Method, Awareness through Movement), each hour-long psychotherapy/support group experience will be accompanied by one half hour of Feldenkrais body movement.  This group will meet on Sunday afternoons in Highland Park from 1:00 to 2:30 PM.

Contact Abigail at anatenshon@empoweredeparents.com or telephone 847-432-1795.

License: IL Lic. # 149-000191
Listed: 9-24-04