59: Cracking the Hunger Code Through Storytelling and Metaphor
Posted: September 11, 2020
Welcome to the podcast! Today I am joined by Anita Johnston, Ph.D. who is the Director of the Anorexia & Bulimia Center of Hawaii which she co-founded in 1982, and the Clinical Director and the Founder of the ‘Ai Pono Intensive Out-Patient Eating Disorders Programs in Honolulu and ‘Ai Pono Maui, a residential treatment facility in Maui. She is also Senior Clinical Consultant to EATFED intensive outpatient program in Sydney Australia.
Dr. Johnston developed Hawaii’s first inpatient eating disorders treatment program at Kahi Mohala Hospital in 1986 and is an expert in treating a wide range of eating disorders.
She is the 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, and the co-creator of the Light of the Moon Cafe, an online e-course and support circle http://www.lightofthemooncafe.com
Dr. Johnston has a private practice specializing in women’s issues and is a recognized international workshop presenter, lecturing widely to professional organizations, universities, medical institutions, and the community at large.
In her work, she uses metaphor and storytelling in addition to her training as a clinical psychologist to explain the complex issues that underlie disordered eating behavior.
What you’ll hear in this episode
- How Anita became involved in this work
- Fitting in vs. belonging
- The red herring in disordered eating
- The significance of the feminine principle in understanding disordered eating
- What the food choices/qualities in disordered eating can reveal
- Redefining your relationship with food
- The significance of the moon & the inner mother
- The experience of dis-ordered eating