Spread across Kansas City, Denver, and Omaha, EDCare is a network of rehabilitation centers catering to people with eating disorders. The treatment team at EDCare uses evidence-based approaches to facilitate recovery so that patients can achieve and maintain a high-quality life while minimizing the risk of relapses. These professionals understand how eating disorders can affect a person’s physical and emotional health and provide them with compassionate support and care essential for lasting recovery.

Treatment Philosophy at EDCare Rehab: The CAMSA Technique

The treatment philosophy at EDCare is based on mindfulness and aims to empower patients through the CAMSA approach, which includes Connection, Acceptance, Mindfulness, Sense of Self, and Action. Through these steps, patients can learn to develop positive coping mechanisms and acquire stronger recovery skills that can keep helping them throughout their life.

  • Connection: The first step begins with therapeutic interventions, such as individual and group therapy sessions that take place in an environment that supports openness and compassion. Each day, the rehab gives all patients enough opportunities to connect with themselves, their bodies, spirits, minds, and those who support them.
  • Acceptance: As a part of this step, all patients are supported enough to acknowledge their diagnosis and accept the associated feelings, weaknesses, strengths, and thoughts. With this acceptance, each patient is automatically empowered to make changes to promote recovery.
  • Mindfulness: This practice involves being connected to the movement with raised awareness. The EDCare team helps its patients focus on achieving mindfulness as a part of their recovery program while helping them identify and work on their personal values.
  • Sense of Self: The EDCare team helps patients slowly gain recovery by learning how to define and develop their true selves. These patients develop self-awareness, build a sense of identity, and gain self-worth through psychoeducation and talk therapy, in addition to many experiential therapies, like yoga, movement, and art therapies. During every step of treatment, each patient gets a chance to reconnect with their mind and body more creatively and healthily.
  • Action: Patients at EDCare learn how to apply their learned skills in real-life situations to sustain the recovery they have achieved. While this may take some time, it is entirely possible. Recovery for such people may include taking risky steps; however, the EDCare team encourages and supports them throughout the process.

Experiential Therapy at EDCare: What it Entails

EDCare Rehab currently provides the following experiential therapies, in addition to the standard treatment regimens, to optimize recovery.

Yoga, Movement, and Psychodrama

The majority of patients fighting eating disorders often view their bodies negatively and lose the positive perspective. For such people, the yoga, movement, and psychodrama training at EDCare Denver and other branches can help them appreciate their body values while developing a more realistic perspective. These therapies also help them learn how to develop a non-judgmental awareness centered around their present. Lastly, this therapy helps patients stop treating their bodies as the enemy and recognize them as a valuable assets that they must take care of.

Instructive Cooking

Patients suffering from eating disorders are usually fearful of what food can do inside their bodies. They overly think about the calorie counts of everything they eat to the extent that food becomes unhealthy. To help such people, EDCare organizes cooking classes under the supervision of its in-house chef to help such people start enjoying their food.

The instructive cooking classes at EDCare allow patients to participate in prepping different meals and dishes. Through their participation, patients gain a better understanding of nutrition and the role of food in their daily lives.

Art Expression

Art is a powerful way of expressing emotions and feelings for people fighting eating disorders. Hence, EDCare provides its patients with art therapy to tap into their authentic and creative selves and have a powerful tool to express their feelings and self-perception. [1] The artwork created by patients at EDCare also serves as a record of their progress.

Specialty Programs at EDCare Rehab

In addition to the programs for eating disorders, EDCare also provides its clients a chance to join the following specialty programs:

Substance Use Treatment Programs

These programs are for people struggling with an eating disorder and substance use disorder simultaneously. Research suggests that almost half of individuals with eating disorders also have underlying substance abuse. The risk of addiction for the former automatically increases to five times more than the general population. Many of these people start relying on substances to suppress their appetite, whereas others do so to avoid the truth about their eating disorders. EDCare helps such people tackle both issues at once for better recovery and healing.

Binge Eating Disorder Programs

With more than 3 million people suffering from binge eating disorder, EDCare provides a specialized program focused on people with this problem. The treatment team at EDCare is committed to giving these patients the tools they need to regain their control of life and food choices in a gentle and comfortable environment.

Trauma Programs

Many patients who come to EDCare for eating disorder treatment have endured some kind of trauma in their lives. Research also proves that certain types of trauma make people more vulnerable to acquiring eating disorders, such as sexual abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, and domestic violence. [2] For such people, an eating disorder is a way to manage their feelings about their underlying traumas in the past. For such people, EDCare has trauma programs to help them understand their trauma, its association with eating disorders, and how to manage both conditions with evidence-based therapies.

Athlete EDGE

This program includes compassionate, intensive care from professionals who understand the challenges of the sports world and help athletes get back to life.

FAQs

How soon can I join and begin treatment at EDCare?

There is no fixed way to determine the admission dates as they may vary depending on the availability of a program and a client’s desired schedule.

Does EDCare rehab treat adolescents?

EDCare Kansas City provides partial hospitalization programs and intensive outpatient therapy for teenagers falling in the age bracket of 13 to 17 years. These treatment centers generally welcome all ethnicities, sexualities, and genders and provide them with affordable accommodations. Remember that adolescent programs take place in separate suites from adult programs.

Can someone directly join an intensive outpatient program at EDCare?

EDCare only allows direct admissions to its evening intensive outpatient programs and partial hospitalization programs. This restriction is to ensure that the level of care a person joins is appropriate for them and can benefit them the most. In general, most people who enter an intensive outpatient program are the ones who have stepped down from a partial hospitalization program.

Does EDCare program provide housing to its patients?

Housing is available at EDCare Denver at the Connections House, whereas it is available in the form of apartments for people joining the Kansas City branch. Both housing options are extremely affordable and even offer a chance to pay for it on a sliding scale.

Will EDCare rehab cater to my special dietary needs?

The team at EDCare offers special accommodation to the dietary needs of people, such as gluten-free, lactose intolerance, veganism or vegetarianism, and any food allergies. However, the rehab requires proper documentation before making any arrangements to help people differentiate between eating disorder behaviors and food preferences.

Can I pay for treatment at EDCare through insurance?

EDCare Eating Disorder Clinic Denver is in network with more than 35 different insurance providers and offers clients various affordable payment plans. The rehab team can get into discussions with these insurance companies to negotiate single-case agreements and special coverage.

What are the levels of care available at ED Care Kansas City?

EDCare Kansas City caters to both adult and adolescent patients and provides them with treatment at various levels of care. These levels include a partial hospitalization program and an evening and transitional outpatient program for adults. For adolescents, the rehab runs intensive outpatient programs and partial hospitalization programs.

What levels of care does EDCare Eating Disorder Clinic Denver offer?

At EDCare Denver, clients can join intensive outpatient programs, outpatient programs, partial hospitalization programs, and aftercare services.

What do EDCare Denver reviews say?

Most reviews about this facility are positive and recommend it for seeking treatment in a comfortable and non-judgmental environment.

References

1 Bucharová M, Malá A, Kantor J, Svobodová Z. Arts therapies interventions and their outcomes in the treatment of eating disorders: scoping review protocol. Behavioral Sciences. 2020 Dec 9;10(12):188.

2 Convertino AD, Morland LA, Blashill AJ. Trauma exposure and eating disorders: results from a United States nationally representative sample. International journal of eating disorders. 2022 Aug;55(8):1079-89.

  • Address 4100 East Mississippi Avenue, Suite 1300,Denver, CO 80246, United states.