As the doctoral students I supervise ask questions about Integrative Modalities Therapy (IMT) for eating disorders, I'll be addressing them in the Community of Professionals for Learning IMT group on Facebook. For a short period, these articles will be posted here as well.
Student Question: "Isn't removing triggers for body investigating/checking (e.g. covering the mirror) fostering body avoidance?"
Response: You can combine the techniques of removing triggers with body exposure exercises. For instance, having a patient cover mirrors at home towards the end of decreasing body investigating, does not mean that an additional body exposure exercises cannot concurrently be added to treatment. It is possible to both conduct in-session in vivo body exposures by looking in the mirror as well as assigning the homework of looking in the mirror for 5 minutes at home once per week.
In IMT terms, this means that you can teach the ROCKS skills for Body Investigating while also conducting in-session in vivo exposures as well as assigning them for homework.
Please feel free to join our private community of IMT professionals on Facebook! Building a sense of community is essential to collectively tackling these illnesses.
