Today, Kathy is joined by Dr. Anita Johnston and their topic is “there’s meaning in the struggle.” Anita uses this phrase because in her experience when you can understand the meaning, “hope walks into the room.”
For Anita’s free gift on food and metaphors please click here.
Anita Johnston, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist, iaedp Certified Eating Disorder Specialist & Supervisor, and author of Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through Myth, Metaphor, and Storytelling, which has been published in six languages. She has authored book chapters in Eating Disorders: Bridging the Research-Treatment Gap and The Psycho-spiritual Clinician’s Handbook, along with numerous articles in professional journals.
Dr. Johnston has been treating eating disorders for over 35 years. A pioneer in the field, she founded the Anorexia & Bulimia Center of Hawaii in 1982, developed Hawaii’s first inpatient eating disorders treatment program at Kahi Mohala Hospital in 1986, and created the very first eating disorders Intensive Outpatient Program in the U.S. on the island of Oahu in 2001. In 2010, she developed Australia’s first intensive outpatient eating disorders program in Sydney.
Currently she serves as Clinical Director of ‘Ai Pono Hawaii Eating Disorders Programs which has a Residential Program in Maui and Intensive Out-patient Programs in Honolulu and the Big Island of Hawaii. She is the co-creator of the Light of the Moon Café, an international, interactive e-course, and online “workbook” for Eating in the Light of the Moon.
As a recognized international workshop presenter, Dr. Johnston lectures around the world to professional organizations, conferences, universities, medical institutions, and the community at large. She is best known for integrating metaphor and storytelling into her training as a clinical psychologist to explain the complex issues that underlie disordered eating behavior and other struggles with eating, weight, and body image.