CAMSATM: An Integrated Model for Treating Eating Disorders
At treatment centers and in group practices, there is often a team of clinicians who share in a common mission even if their training and experience are vastly different. At the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, the clinical leadership team took on the task to find commonality in their methods so that a clear treatment approach could be employed. The goal was to honor different academic and theoretical contributions, while creating a model that could be used to easily and consistently train staff and treat patients.
A year-long creative collaboration led to distilling individual theories, combining them with an understanding of the specific needs of eating disordered individuals, and developing core concepts that would act as the backbone of the Eating Disorder Center of Denver's bio-psycho-social-spiritual treatment model. The outcome was five core concepts called CAMSATM: Connection, Acceptance, Mindfulness, Sense of Self and Action.
These are in no way new ideas; rather, they represent the concepts present in many theoretical orientations that the Eating Disorder Center of Denver staff has chosen to serve as a foundation for treatment.
Connection
In the intense treatment environment, opportunities are available every day for Eating Disorder Center of Denver patients to practice building connections. Aside from the connection with the therapist, patients practice the push and pull of individuation and connection daily. Therapeutic interventions are crafted in group psychotherapy and in experiential therapies, providing patients with opportunities to risk connection while also maintaining or developing a sense of self.
Acceptance
At the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, acceptance starts with the admissions process. Clinicians model acceptance by taking the patient where she is in her recovery. Meal therapy, body image and movement groups, along with process and individual therapies, help the eating disordered sufferer to experience herself, again, as she is and to release her struggles. When patients release their struggles, self-directedness toward health can blossom.
Mindfulness
Eating Disorder Center of Denver clinicians work to consistently teach patients the “what” and “how” skills of mindfulness. “What” skills include: observing or just noticing what is going on both within and without, describing what is observed, and finally participating to the fullest extent of awareness without predetermined expectations. “How” skills incorporate a nonjudgmental stance, focusing attention on one thing at a time or “one-mindfulness,” and, finally, applying one’s action in a way that is consistent with one’s values.
Sense of Self
To help patients with building a sense of self that is balanced and whole, Eating Disorder Center of Denver clinicians begin their treatment by asking them to write an autobiography. By looking at themselves in a realistic and open manner and sharing their stories, patients are able to identify and accept their strengths and weaknesses. In individual and group sessions they are taught that the better they understand themselves, the better they are able to accept who they are.
Action
An emphasis on “action” begins when the patient enters the Eating Disorder Center of Denver partial hospitalization program. The patient makes a conscious choice to commit to recovery or to interrupt her eating disorder behaviors. The patient is expected to stay recovery-focused at the end of the daily program until the next day, which means stopping eating disorder behaviors and practicing new behaviors and skills. Relying only on treatment enforced structure (i.e., the food police) is not an option. The experiential therapies—psychodrama, art therapy, movement therapy, and yoga—provide a container for patients to actively explore expressing their authentic selves and to be connected to their bodies and selves in new and creative ways.
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