The Inner Spiritual World of Women who have Overcome Eating Disorders
The Health Service Executive (HSE) estimates that almost 190,000 Irish people will experience an eating disorder at some point in their lives, of whom three quarters are women. Eating disorders have the highest mortality and morbidity rates of all the mental health disorders. Therefore, the need for a diverse, effective range of interventions is acutely recognised.
The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the contributions made by spiritual teachers/practices to the journey of recovery from eating disorders for women in Ireland aged between 35 and 65. International research has found “growing empirical evidence that spiritual approaches to treating clients are as effective, and sometimes more effective, than secular ones.” (Richards et al., 2018). No research has been conducted in Ireland to assess the extent to which women have used spiritual interventions in recovery from eating disorders. However, articles in the media have provided descriptive accounts of effective spiritual interventions assisting in the journey of recovery.
This study will identify useful spiritual interventions by conducting deeply reflective interviews with women who have given media accounts of their journey. It will analyse and distil the stories of participants to identify characteristics of spiritual resilience specific to Eating Disorder recovery.
For this project, desk based, narrative, and contemplative research methodologies will be employed. The methodology will be Heuristic/phenomenological – to understand vivid accounts of the lived experience of participants.
The HSE’s National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders (2018, p.110), states the need for “specialist care” for spiritual issues. This project has the potential to incorporate the spiritual dimension into eating disorder recovery models by developing healthy whole-person-centred pathways of recovery, that is a psycho, social, bio and spiritual model of care. The findings of this study will inform and influence future directions of treatment for those suffering with eating disorders.