The Slender Trap is a self-discovery food and body workbook for girls and women who think they may have an eating disorder or a distorted sense of what their body looks like. Written by an expert art psychotherapist and licensed professional counselor who has practiced in the field of eating disorders for over 25 years, this manual takes the reader on a drawing and writing journey into wellness. It provides her with solutions to find the way out of her own mind and body traps. Each chapter assists the reader to gain control of the negative behaviors and symptoms that have taken over her life. The book provides the reader with the information that is needed as she draws, writes, answers questions, and assesses her feelings and emotions. By the end, the reader will learn to love herself for who she is and to appreciate her body for what it is. Individuals with eating disorders and therapists will find this book extremely helpful in dealing with these very difficult issues.
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By Vanessa Weisbrod
Dec 3, 2010
An Extremely Helpful Tool “The Slender Trap” is a wonderfully written workbook for any individual struggling with an eating disorder. As someone who has previously worked with children and adolescents who have eating disorders, and who has struggled in the past with my own disordered eating, I feel that this is an invaluable tool to becoming healthier. Lauren Lazar Stern’s expertise on the subject matter is evident on each page. The reader is not only encouraged to educate themselves, but to also strengthen themselves by completing worthwhile exercise. It provides the reader with a multitude of tools and resources to utilize, and also provides important guidance in terms of when someone should seek professional help. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is going through a struggle with eating-related and body image issues. You will discover a new sense of empowerment that you can, in fact, get out of the “slender trap”.
As someone who has suffered from eating disorders in the recent past, I can say that this book is extremely enlightening and helpful. It's a unique way to approach a very serious and complex subject. It's exactly like having a therapist who understands your story and your view point, which is crucial if you will ever get out of "the slender trap." Not only is it insightful, but easy to use. You choose your own pace to take a very difficult but self-cleansing, valuable journey. It's all about you, and recreating and finding the happy, healthy you. A stunning, remarkable book.
Thank you thank you for this food and body workbook. I love it! This isn't a book where you sit back and read and put away. It gets you the reader involved. It encourages you to actively participate in not just reading the book, but 'using' it. That's what sets it apart from the rest. It stimulates thought and turns you from reader to user, helping you understand your own patterns of behaviour. It's written in such a way that holds out a friendly hand and helps you uncover your own traps, personal challenges and a path to a more healthful approach to living and eating.
I have known Lauren Lazar Stern MA, ATR-BC, LPC for many years as a therapist in the field of Body Image and Eating Disorders. She is brilliant, talented and creative as exemplified in her new book the "Slender Trap". From a therapist point of view, this book is a phenomenal resource of fun, inviting collections of methods exercises, inventories and art therapy guidance to participate interactively with helping clients to bring about lasting internal change. The drawing, journaling and assessments help the client to express and contain the powerful feelings, thoughts and emotions they are experiencing during the week until they can process them at the next therapy session. The therapy session thus becomes much more alive, dynamic and action orientated, offering the ability to uncover deeper underlying core issues, patterns and themes that have contributed to keeping women trapped.
A TREAT to Read I believe that the Slender Trap is a workbook that girls and women with any type of eating disorder would find helpful, regardless of whether they struggle with anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating/binge eating disorder, or any mixture of these life-threatening illnesses. This workbook helped me understand that all types of eating disorders are manifestations of some of the same underlying problems, such as low self-esteem, difficulties with relationships, and fears of experiencing powerful emotions. In addition to those already diagnosed with an eating disorder, girls and women who do not have an official diagnosis, but feel that they struggle with eating and body image, can benefit greatly from this book because it helps you explore why food and body image play such an important role in your life. I personally am fully recovered from anorexia, but this workbook helped me explore my feelings about my "new" body after going through medication-induced... More > overeating that led to weight gain and discomfort with my body. These exercises helped me understand why my body shape and weight mean so much to me, and in doing so they took away the power that the number on the scale has over me. I have come to realize that I am a valuable person no matter what my body looks like, and as a result I am happier, more confident, and more secure in my self-concept. Each chapter of the workbook is structured similarly, with an introduction and instructions for a creative writing/drawing exercise, followed by space in which to complete the exercise, questions to ask yourself about your feelings during and after the exercise, and, most importantly, each chapter concludes with the author's own thoughts to help you process the meaning of the activities you have just completed. Reading the author's thoughts and insights makes you feel as though you are not alone in completing the exercise--it makes you feel as though you have a therapist right there in the room with you, even if you are going through the workbook in the middle of the night when you would normally feel isolated and alone with your problems. By the end of the workbook, you have a good idea of whether you need further professional help to overcome your eating problems and, if so, the book describes how to find the right therapist for you. The best part is that if you do decide to pursue therapy, sharing the work you have already done in this workbook with your therapist can give the therapist an understanding of your problems that is on a much deeper level than what he/she would get from a verbal conversation alone. Above all, you can definitely tell that the author is an expert in working with girls and women with eating disorders, and I would strongly recommend this workbook to anyone who struggles with food-related problems.< Less
