If you are a parent - Girl Lost is an excellent primer on the basics of your child's eating disorder. It gives you invaluable insight into your child's internal battle and into the eating disorder she is battling. It is vital you understand the dynamics going on between her and the illness so you can confront the eating disorder thinking and behavior. This life and death information will empower you so you can help her get better. The other reason this book is for you, the parent; is it is like a letter you can give your child about what she is experiencing. It is written specifically to her by an objective person; so she may be more open if she has reacted defensively with you who most love her. Girl Lost will help her be more objective about her illness because she is learning it is not her fault. It will also show her the eating disorder is not just about whether or not she will attend an appointment but how she wants to live the rest of her life. If you are a professional - I always wished I'd had something attractive, simple and educational to send home with each new client. I was never able to find anything that met this need satisfactorily. This desire was one of the purposes for Girl Lost. It is supposed to be a quick and easy read to increase the chance your client will actually read it. Girl Lost will give you and your client a common and immediate language to ground you in your early work together. If you are a young person - If someone handed you this little book and asked you to read it, chances are you have a battle going on in your mind about food. How severe the battle I don't know, but most likely something isn't quite right. If you relate to the title at all Girl Lost: Finding Your Voice Through Eating Disorder Recovery; then you may feel like you have lost your own voice. The voice you hear most now is in your head and it may be mostly about food. If someone has taken the time to research, find this book and order it they must love and care about you. My guess is it took a lot of courage for them to give it to you because they don't want to upset you. I would encourage you to read it and try to have an open mind and heart. Its a quick and easy read and you'll learn a lot whether you are already getting help for eating issues or not. If you aren't getting help, or haven't been willing to; minimally you will understand yourself better and why you think and feel the way you do sometimes. This book isn't just about whether or not you get or receive help. It is not only about appointments you choose or choose not to attend. It is about how you want to spend the rest of your life. How you want to feel, what you want to do, who you want to be with, and who you are going to be as a person. It will challenge whether or not you want to live a bigger life or stay within the confines of the tiny, tunnel vision life of an eating disorder. It will ask you to listen to your own voice as you ponder the questions, "What do you want?" and "Who am I?" It will remind you, yes the eating disorder has a voice; but so do you. You have a voice that is too, too quiet because the eating disorder is too, too loud. If you listen carefully you will hear what your voice is saying. The bigger question than will you listen is; what will you do with what you hear?
About the Author: About the Author Lynn wrote Girl Lost for selfish reasons; she needed it to work more quickly and effectively with her young clients and families. At the urgent request of other treatment team professionals she finally agreed to publish it so you could have it too. It is similar to how she began specializing in eating disorders. A 17 year old girl was referred to her with severe anorexia and there were very few therapists in the area qualified to help. So out of necessity, even desperation; she immersed herself in ED literature and training. When asked how she learned about treating eating disorders; she often responds, "I ate, drank and slept eating disorders for 3 years." Lynn has her Master's degree in Counseling and has been in the counseling field for over 25 years. She is licensed in the State of Iowa as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and has specialized in eating disorders for over 11 years. She is an Eating Disorder Parent Coach, psychotherapist, author and artist. Lynn and her husband live in their little brown house in the woods in Indianola, Iowa. Her creativity is inspired daily by nature, wildlife (deer, fox, bunnies, hawks, a dog and 2 cats) and the comfort of home and rural community. If you want more help Lynn coaches parents in re-feeding using the Maudsley Approach. She will also consult with you regarding your specific situation if you desire. You may contact her through her website at www.why-my-daughter.com. There you can sign up for her free e-book called Eating Disorder Basics for Parents. This will take you straight to her, where you can email her if you so desire