Conference of the European Council on Eating Disorders, Vilnius - 2017, my report (10.09.2017)

From September 7 to 9, I was proud to represent Ukraine at the ECED conference.

The geography of the conference was surprising - despite the declared European format , there were also psychologists and psychiatrists from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia... a total of 158 people.

The program is packed, you can't help but burst - lectures, master classes, presentations, debates.
I'll tell you about the highlights. On the first day, after the welcoming speeches of the Minister of Health of Lithuania and the organizers, Paul Robinson spoke, introducing MBT for eating disorders ( Mentalization-based therapy ). Looking ahead, I will say that MBT was discussed a lot at the conference. This approach, unfamiliar to me, is used in eating disorder clinics in Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden.

The second day began with a joint viewing of the film " Emma " wants to live ", is the story of the life and illness of a patient with anorexia. The film is very powerful, many had tears in their eyes after watching it. Immediately after it, debates began about the admissibility of forced treatment, different points of view were presented by Ferenc Tury (Hungary) and Rachel Mathews (UK): The debate about the ethics of forced treatment was very heated, but in the end the parties agreed that in some cases forced treatment is possible to save lives.

After the break, there will be a symposium where representatives from South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Finland and others will talk about the state of eating disorder therapy in their countries.

Because of the symposium, I had to miss a wonderful master class on attachment theory, but it is impossible to visit all the halls at the same time, alas.

The next choice in the line was also not easy - to figure out what is MBT with Paul Robinson or the master class "Body - friend or foe" by Michel Probst, Belgium ( Michel Probst ) and Gerard Butcher , Ireland ( Gerard Butcher ). Since Paul already had a little idea of MBT (the approach is closer to psychodynamic, but in the "here and now"), I went to the cheerful Jerry. Jerry revealed the theoretical aspects of working with the body image and through the body in the therapy of eating disorders, and Michel gave several practical exercises with volunteers from the audience. There were a lot of questions and a lot of interest in the workshop, a summary at the end from Michel and Jerry - all the exercises are good, but they are only an invitation to contact, the main thing is a therapeutic alliance.

The third day was memorable for the Hospital Treatment section. Outcomes in Anorexia Nervosa , representatives of different clinics shared their work experience. In the photo on the right - psychotherapists from Norway present in person a dialogue between a therapist and a patient with anorexia, which ends with the patient agreeing to have a liquid cocktail for lunch, adding at the end - but I hate you (but I hate you). I asked if they monitor patients to make sure they don't induce vomiting, and if so, how. They monitor it by sitting with the patient for 30 minutes after each meal .

After the break there was a debate on " Focusing on body image is an essential treatment component for recovery in eating disorders ", which were led by Gerry Butcher ( Gerry Butcher ), and the speakers were Fernando Fernandez -Aranda, Spain ( Fernando Fernandez-Aranda ) and the gorgeous, absolutely amazing Cynthia Bulik , USA ( Cynthia Bulik ). Cynthia insisted that it is not necessary to focus on body image when working with eating disorders, since there are cases when it is not important, it all depends on the cultural context, and Fernando - that it is necessary.

Cynthia's presentation was like a theatrical show, every step was thought out and verified, at the end there was simply a storm of applause and assurances that everyone would vote for Cynthia in the presidential elections))

Looking back, I realize that if I had been asked to highlight the main themes of the conference, or, as in scientific publications, key words , it would definitely be therapeutic alliance, trigger, body image, attachment theory and probably MBT.

I really liked Vilnius , huge thanks to the organizers for the well-planned excursions, beautiful premises and warm welcome.

Special thanks to Dalia Nasritienė ( Dalia Nasrytiene ), Department of General Psychology of Vilnius University, which showed the University from the inside. Until next time!