{"id":108794,"date":"2019-05-09T12:38:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T19:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=108794"},"modified":"2019-05-09T16:35:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:35:17","slug":"spirituality-and-the-psychology-of-self-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/108794-spirituality-and-the-psychology-of-self-image","title":{"rendered":"Spirituality and the Psychology of Self-Image"},"content":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \n

Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G) is seeing a stream of fantabulous speakers in 2019. Tuesday, May 21 is no exception. At 7:30 pm Dr. Romi Ran and Dr. Paul Kaye will facilitate a workshop entitled Spirituality and the Psychology of Self-Image<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Romi Ran received a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oxford. At Harvard University she pioneered studies on self-harm and suicide. Dr. Ran is also an eating disorders specialist.<\/p>\n

Dr. Paul Kaye is the co-author with MSIA<\/a> Founder John-Roger of Living the Principles of Health and Wellbeing<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> He\u2019s also a popular meditation teacher, sound journey artist AND YouTube star of Sugar Rant<\/a>. (It hasn\u2019t cured my penchant for frosted carbs. But it\u2019s given me pause and influenced the quantity consumed.) You can read more about Paul and his tips to happiness and good health here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What follows is a synopsis of my chat with Dr. Ran (who prefers to be called Romi.) Wondering about Romi\u2019s motivation for entering the field of eating disorder psychology, I asked, \u201cDid you ever have an issue with body image or weight?\u201d<\/p>\n

Romi\u2019s background is clearly scientific sprinkled with a generous dose of spirituality: \u201cThankfully no diagnosable eating disorder,\u201d she says. \u201cMy journey with eating disorders early on was studying the mechanisms, restricting and how self-love and kindness (can shape a) relationship with (one\u2019s) body and eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self Harm, Suicide and Eating Disorders<\/u><\/p>\n

Q: Does your Harvard research about self-harm dovetail with your current focus of eating disorders? Do you find a correlation between the desire to do harm to oneself and over or under eating?<\/p>\n

A: Absolutely. It is self-injurious behavior. Eating disorders are a form of self-harm.<\/p>\n

Challenging Patients<\/u><\/p>\n

Q: My novice understanding of the work of a psychologist is to uncover denied or latent feelings of anger, rage, envy, guilt and all those shadow parts of a personality. Do you find it is harder or more of a challenge working with those on a spiritual path? After all, \u201cspiritual\u201d people are supposed to be forgiving and transcend negative feelings.<\/p>\n

A: (Adamantly, Romi says<\/em>) I never encourage cutting off emotions. Spirituality is not cutting things off. I might (however) offer a different perspective on feelings.<\/p>\n

Honesty is a key. The people I\u2019ve met who are on a spiritual path (can be) more reflective (and ready to) introspect. Spirituality – It\u2019s not a light switch.<\/p>\n

Writer\u2019s Note: At this point, I was swept up in Romi\u2019s wisdom, compassion and commitment to healing work. The following is not an exact quote.<\/em><\/p>\n

Successful strategies can be taught to those who are not on a spiritual path. However, when the ego is strong and a consciousness is closed off, therapy is more challenging. Ultimately healing comes from some kind of belief in a greater power.<\/p>\n

Healing & Treatment Plans<\/u><\/p>\n

Q: Your method and approach to treatment?<\/p>\n

A: The presentation (of an eating disorder) looks similar but the mechanisms are different. So too are the treatments. There are flavors (of eating disorders): One may have a problem with food due to sexual abuse, another may have been an alcoholic and then turned to food.<\/p>\n

I take a holistic approach:\u00a0 Awaken and uncover patterns and (look at) early age development. (I employ) lots of modalities, CST (Cognitive Simulation Therapy) anger management and other helpful strategies.<\/p>\n

Spirituality and the Psychology of Self-Image Sampler<\/u><\/p>\n

Q: Are you willing to give us a taste, a sampler of the event on May 21?<\/p>\n

A: My goal is to help people awaken to an understanding of eating and their bodies. (I\u2019ll be teaching) new approaches of how to listen to their bodies; to understand physical hunger and when to stop eating. How, when, what to eat \u2013 not another diet plan! Mindful eating. Anybody who hands you a plan \u2013 no matter how nicely packaged \u2013 is (handing you) a diet. (This workshop is designed so you can) be your own guru.<\/p>\n

For tickets, visit PeaceLabyrinth.org\/Events<\/a><\/p>\n

~Kim Watkinson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G) is seeing a stream of fantabulous speakers in 2019. Tuesday, May 21 is no exception. At 7:30 pm Dr. Romi Ran and Dr. Paul Kaye will facilitate a workshop entitled Spirituality and the Psychology of Self-Image. Dr. Romi Ran received a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":108812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,257],"tags":[6508,128,6507,6509,6506,165],"class_list":["post-108794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-spotlight","category-ndh-archives","tag-eating-disorders","tag-healing","tag-psychology","tag-self-harm","tag-self-image","tag-spirituality"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}