272 pg, paper, '95

Written for those concerned with food and weight issues, this book is intended to help readers see food as their friend and nourisher, not their enemy. For people with compulsive eating, chronic dieting, body dissatisfaction, anorexia nervosa, or bulimia.

French Toast for Breakfast is filed with practical exercises, dialogues form actual therapy sessions, straightforward answers to common questions, an in-depth comparison of treatment options, and a look at relapse—how to prevent it and what to do if it occurs. It also includes a unique questionnaire to help readers determine which path to peace is best for them.

Focusing on healing the emotional side of eating problems, the first half explains how fear of fat, shame, intimacy, anger, sexuality, and fear of success can contribute to food abuse. The second half discusses a wide range of approaches to overcoming food problems from which readers can create their own healing program, including an examination of the addiction model, the no-diet/no-deprivation approach, psychotherapy modalities, use of medications, and an insightful look at relapse.

CONTENTS:

I. The Inner World of an Emotional Eater
1 – The Fear of Fat: Decoding the Obsession
2 – Shame and Intimacy
3 – Sexuality and Self-Expression
4 – Anger and Alertiveness
5 – Overcoming the Fear of Success

II. The Tools and Techniques for Change
6 – Addiction: When You are Powerless
7 – No More Diets, No More Deprivation
8 – Habits: Breaking the Chains that Bind
9 – Psychotherapy: Getting Help with Healing
10 – Medication, Mood, and Mallomars

III. Creating Your Own Plan for Peace
11 – How to Plan Your Own Path
12 – Relapse: Lessons Along the Path
13 – Questions & Answers

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mary Anne Cohen is a professional psychotherapist and director Of The New York Center for Eating Disorders. She hosted the popular new York radio show on eating disorders, French Toast for Breakfast, and has authored a series of self-help tapes on resolving eating problems that have sold internationally. Ms. Cohen has also appeared on national television, and lectures extensively to professional and community groups.

REVIEWS:

"A wise and wonderful, sensitive and sane contribution. Cohen offers a user-friendly guide to understanding and healing he battle with food, fat, and body hatred. Beautifully written."
— Judith Ruskay Rabinor, Ph.D., Director, The American Eating Disorder Center of Long Island

"Dialogues from actual group and individual therapy sessions take readers directly into the treatment experience and make them part of the healing process."
— Janet David, Ph.D., Eating disorders therapist, The Renfrew Center

"A very helpful resource for understanding the inner workings of our obsessions with food, thinness, and dieting. A clear path for beginning the healing process."
— Rebecca Ruggles Radcliffe, Author, Enlightened Eating

"French Toast for Breakfast express's everything you wish your therapist had told you about how to resolve your eating problems. Terrific examples, awesome."
— Joanne Gerr, MSW., CSW, past faculty, Harvard Medical School