In today's episode of the Understanding Disordered Eating Podcast, we will be sitting down with Jill Lewis. Jill is a licensed clinical social worker and is a certified eating disorder specialist, supervisor, and a certified group psychotherapist. She has a group practice in Atlanta, and they specialize in eating disorders and some other things like anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, family dynamics, etc. Jill works relationally, and offers individual couples family and group therapy. She also supervises other clinicians, is an active member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association where she serves as the private practice co-chair. She is also involved in the Atlanta Group Psychotherapy Society, where she is the social chair and is an active member of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals.

In this episode, Jill is going to dive deep into working with her clients relationally, how it looks like, how it works, and how a person can form an interpersonal working group.

[00:01 - 8:40] Opening Segment

• I introduce our guest for this episode
• Jill explains the meaning of psycho relational
  • cognize that the therapeutic relationship is a parallel process to relationships outside
  • discussing the emotional experience that comes up
• What transference looks like vs countertransference
  • Transference: the feelings of the client and their reactions toward the therapist
  • Countertransference: how the therapist feels towards the clients

[08:41 - 33:52] What you Need to Know Interpersonal Working Groups

• How people with eating disorders have relationships that got fractured
  • They tend to withdraw in their relationship when they're more entrenched in their eating disorder
  • Avoidance of the world and connection
  • interpersonal process groups and the interpersonal relational helps clients connect
  • Helping clients show up as themselves
• How an interpersonal working group can help
  • It's all about how we connect through relationships
  • group work is the primary modality that tends to help even more so than individual
• Working with clients in group or in individual therapies
  • How having different energy from clients that aren't your own can help
  • What usually happens in a process group
• Requirements to join a process group
  • Must show up for 3 months
  • Informing the group if you cannot join the group
• Roles of the therapist in the group
  • Helping bridge between the individual sharing
  • Subgrouping, linking people together
• Steps to join a group
  • Check out American Group Psychotherapy Association
  • Ask the advice of dieticians
  • Have 10-minute phone conversation to assess if the group is the right fit
  • Schedule a consultation
• Therapist who want to incorporate process groups in their practice
  • Join trainings and webinars

[33:53 - 43:34] The Importance of Supervision for Therapists

• How Jill approaches supervision and group therapy
• Shoutout to Morgan
• Connect with Jill through the links below
• Final words

Tweetable Quotes:

"Most of the experiences that clients are struggling with when it comes to disordered eating and eating disorders is avoidance of the world, and avoidance of connection." - Jill Lewis

"I don't think [people with disordered eating] can probably heal in the way they need to, without getting to some sort of relational work." - Jill Lewis

Connect with Jill Lewis on Facebook, Instagram, or send her an email at [email protected]. You can also check out her website at www.jlewistherapy.com.

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You can connect with me, Rachelle Heinemann on Instagram, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected].