BOOK REVIEWS: Re-versing the Numbers
By Kelly Coutee, RN, MA, LMFT, LPC
Reprinted from Eating Disorders Recovery Today
Fall 2008 Volume 6, Number 4
©2008 Gürze Books
Re-Versing the Numbers A Poetry Workbook for Eating Disorders |
Re-versing the Numbers is a poetry workbook for eating disorders by award-winning poet and psychotherapist Cynthia Bloomquist Gustavson, MSW, LCSW, ACSW. It is designed for use by both psychotherapists and individuals and is appropriate as a preventive intervention for those who are just beginning to show signs of disordered eating, as well as those who are hospitalized or discharged from the hospital for eating disorder treatment, or are being treated on an outpatient basis.
This user-friendly workbook is designed with a poem on one page and a writing exercise about the subject of the poem on the next. The idea of using poetry is to bypass the more rational area of the brain to allow expression of the emotional center, thus allowing a better understanding of feelings that may be difficult to express—a hallmark of eating disorder recovery.
Re-versing the Numbers addresses issues important to recovery in emotionally sensitive ways. Understanding the body and one's relationship to food and emotions are thoroughly explored. Also addressed are behavioral changes, irrational thinking, self-talk, communication skills, family dynamics, interacting with the world, and health and wellness.
