Joanna Poppink

Joanna Poppink's Eating Disorder Recovery Psychotherapy Practice

If you are a person with an eating disorder, no matter how good your life looks on the outside, you know more about suffering and despair than most people. Sometimes even you don’t know how deep your anguish goes because the numbing power of an eating disorder can anesthetize you to pain you only become aware of once recovery begins.

My lifework is dedicated to eating disorder recovery. My own experience with bulimia, long before it had a name, and my recovery journey deeply informs my work with others. Each person’s experience, history and challenges in recovery are different, but the misery of living with an eating disorder is the same – a kind of desperate despair.

The good news is that recovery is possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. I see it often. Seeing yet another woman take her place in life free of the eating disorder and free to live according to her authentic self makes the hard work worthwhile.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs...

Ask yourself what makes you alive....

because what the world needs

are people who have come alive."

Ranier Maria Rilke

Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery.

10573 West Pico Blvd. #20

Loa Angeles, CA 90064

website and blog: http://www.eatingdisorderrecovery.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joannapoppink

e-mail: joanna@poppink.com

phone: (310) 474-4165

I’ve been a Los Angeles psychotherapist since 1980, ( MFT #15563) and specialize in treating adults with eating disorders who seek more health, inner peace and power to live successful lives. The work is confidential, personal and moves at a pace set by the client.

My approach to treatment has four main themes:

1. slow down and eventually stop acting out behavior,
2. heal emotional wounds,
3. restart emotional/psychological development that was stalled at a critical

time in the person's life,
4. support tentative entry into newly perceived world as individual relies
on greater vision and newly developed courage, inner strength and realistic
trust.

Cognitive behavioral approach that leads to psychodynamic work, journal writing, art therapy, humor, readings, body work and most of all, a relationship between myself and the woman I’m working with that can weather, survive and thrive under the stresses of recovery. Often our relationship is the first trustworthy, sturdy and honest relationship the woman has ever had.

The specialized psychotherapy helps free clients to relax and move through crisis situations to the ongoing work of healing from bulimia, compulsive eating and binge eating. It helps them work through personal stress situations that somehow are related to eating disorders because they trigger acting out behavior. My practice is in a garden setting.

People wait in my garden before their private sessions, an experience most people find comforting, soothing and sometimes inspiring.

"Freedom from compulsions, development of self confidence and inner peace, an ability to recognize who and what is trustworthy and confidence in knowing how to make wise and self caring life decisions are goals clients and I strive to achieve."

Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, Los Angeles, CA bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery, www.eatingdisorderrecovery.com

Typepad Features Joanna Poppink's Blog, "Eating Disorders Today"

February 21, 2008

Eating Disorders Today

As issues such as body image and beauty continue to be top of mind, so too, are the aftereffects: eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Psychotherapist Joanna Poppink’s blog, Eating Disorders Today offers a welcome blend of professional and personal advice, knowledge, and guidance for those with the disorder and those close to them.

Specializing in eating disorder recovery, Ms. Poppink utilizes her site to dispense treatment news, create a supportive community, and provide invaluable information.

Understanding and treating eating disorders can take many forms, as Ms. Poppink’s post on dreams and their effect on health demonstrate.

Praise for Joanna Poppink’s Healing Your Hungry Heart, Conari Press



“Finally—a book that speaks beyond the stereotype of eating disorders as the ‘little girl’s disease,’ reaching out to women who have lived with these devastating disorders for years, and offering practical, sound, and insightful advice on how to begin, and sustain, real recovery.”

—Marya Hornbacher, author of Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia



“If you struggle with food or body image, Joanna Poppink’s Healing Your Hungry Heart is sure to help! Through her story and those of others, Joanna assures us that true recovery is both real and attainable. This is an important addition to the recovery bookshelf.”

—Jenni Schaefer, author of Goodbye Ed, Hello Me and Life Without Ed



“This book offers a variety of valuable tools and practical ways for those with eating disorders to nourish both their bodies and their spirits. It also offers real solutions and hope for its readers.”

—Christine Hartline, M.A., founder and director, Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center, EDReferral.com



“Joanna Poppink’s Healing Your Hungry Heart answers two questions I frequently hear from troubled eaters: ‘How do I begin my recovery?’ and ‘What can I do to sustain it?’ Her chapter on the warning signs of an eating disorder is especially helpful to those who aren’t sure if their relationship with food is unhealthy or not. Other chapters gently guide the reader in an exploration of what is needed to recover from deregulated eating—mindfulness, self-reflection and honesty, bona fide emotional nourishment, and daily practices for skill acquisition and moving toward true fulfillment. I would certainly recommend this book to my clients and students.”

—Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed., author of The Food and Feelings Workbook and Nice Girls Finish Fat

“For three decades as a therapist, and now as an author, Joanna Poppink has used her personal experience with bulimia, insights into healing, empathy, and knowledge to help women recover from eating disorders. In this book, she shares stories from many of her former patients and covers diverse topics ranging from mindful contemplations on eating to an intimate discussion of sexuality. Practical, personal, and powerful!”

—Leigh Cohn, coauthor of Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery, editor-in-chief of Eating Disorders: The journal of Treatment and Prevention