Sovereign Health Discusses Eating Disorders in New Television Interview

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Feb. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Health, a national behavioral health system, announces a new television interview about its Eating Disorders Program. The interview, featuring Janet Whitney, M.A., LMFT, Eating Disorders Program Consultant at Sovereign Health of San Clemente, was first broadcast live on the NBC affiliate KMIR's program "Desert Living" on Wednesday, Feb. 8. In the interview, Ms. Whitney defined different eating disorders and why people believe they should be skinny. Sovereign currently has an adult program for women at its San Clemente facility and an adolescent program at its Rancho San Diego facility. Both programs specialize in the treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, providing both inpatient and outpatient services. In addition, the programs offer patients individualized treatment plans, encompassing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Patients also participate in individual and group sessions, nutrition and body-image therapy, and experiential treatments, such as art and equine therapy.

"Anorexia is when people will deny themselves food, bulimia is when people will vomit or use laxatives to get rid of the food they have eaten, and now there's binge eating," said Ms. Whitney. "Binge eating has really taken over; someone will sit and eat an incredible amount of food in one sitting."

As Ms. Whitney notes in the interview, eating disorders have been influenced through magazines and television. "In recent news, Lady Gaga did the Super Bowl halftime show and the media has been calling her overweight. She had some extra skin on her stomach, and media is turning this into a much larger story than it needs to be."

When asked why thin people think they're overweight, Ms. Whitney replied, "There are changes in the brain after you've been starving yourself. A person will not see themselves correctly anymore. When we get better at diagnosing that, we'll be able to let the patient know what nutrient or stimulation the patient will need."

Sovereign Health operates nine treatment facilities in five states: California, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah. The facilities are fully licensed and have been awarded Gold Seal accreditation by The Joint Commission, the highest level of accreditation available in the behavioral health field. "Desert Living" is a 30-minute TV program broadcast from Palm Springs in the desert's Coachella Valley.

About Sovereign Health

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

SOURCE Sovereign Health

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