Center for Change

The past two days the Center for Change (an eating disorder clinic in Orem, Utah) and the BYU-I counseling center, put on eating disorder seminars. There were 7 in total, I could only go to 4 of them though. I was able to go to one yesterday, it was called "Preventing Eating Disorders: What You Can Know Now That I Didn't Know Then" It was my Becky Mann who currently works as a nurse for the Center of Change. She struggled with an eating disorder starting at the age of 12, but through therapy was able to overcome it. She talked about ways to "eating disorder proof" your home. It was really good.

My favorite one was the one this morning. It was by Lynette Taylor and was called, "The Healing Power of Music in Making Changes from Addictive Behaviors with Food, Diets and Eating Disorders." Lynette is the music therapist at a Center for Change, which is exactly what I want to do! She went here (well Ricks College), and then transferred to Utah State which is exactly what I am planning on doing! She talked about different types of things she does during a therapy session, and it all seems so exciting to me! She did a demonstration with a crystal bowl. When you run a mallet type thing along the outside of the bowl it makes a noise (like running your finger around the edge of a crystal glass), only this was a low noise. You can feel the sound reverberate all up and down your body. When a part of your body is out of alignment the sound will migrate to that place and stay there. For instance if you are having anxiety problems the sound will settle in your stomach, emotional problems you heart, mental problems (like studying too much!) your head. It was so weird to feel it! I felt it in my legs and arms....not to sure what that means yet! But I plan on finding out!

The next when was by Becky Mann again, it was called, "A Personal Journey of Faith, Hope and Recovery From the Ravages of an Eating Disorder." She talked about her personal struggle with an eating disorder, where it came from, how it affected her life, and how she got help. The last one was by Michael Berrett, Gwena Couliard, and Randy Hardman, and they talked about positive self-esteem and stuff like that.

There was about a 30-minute break between two of the seminars so I went and talked to Lynette, the music-therapist. And we were talking and she was telling me how the music-therapy program at Utah State (one of 4 on the West coast) is kind of hard to get into, but if it's something you're really passionate about and really dedicated to, they won't deny you. She was really excited for me! She had gotten e-mail addresses of people who wanted to know more about music therapy and she had me star my name and she was like "Keep in touch! When you get into the program and you need help just email me!" And then she told me that when I was ready I could go down and intern for her!! Ahh! I'm so excited! It was a really good day! And I learned a lot! Now I can't wait to transfer and get to learn more about it! :)