Spiritual Issues and Interventions in the Treatment of Patients with Eating Disorders

Abstract This article examines the roles of religion and sprituality in the etiology and treatment of eating disorders. After briefly reviewing the relevant research, we discuss the most common and significant religious and spiritual issues that we have observed with patients with eating disorders, including negative images or perceptions of God, feelings of spiritual unworthiness and shame, and fear of abandonment by God. We briefly describe process considerations for sing spiritual interventions and conclude by describing seven spiritual interventions that we have found especily useful in treating eating disorderpatients, including spiritual teachings, spiritual bibliotherapy, and pmyer.