The Seasoned Clinician's Notebook: Amy Olson

I Want You to Want Me: Understanding desire in the treatment of an eating disorder

Presented by Amy H. Olson, LCSW, CEDS-S
Licensed Psychotherapist, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist
Approved Supervisor, International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals

Program Description:

Finding, articulating, and elaborating desire are cornerstones of recovery from an eating disorder. For patients with an eating disorder, the development of desire has gone awry. Stuck concretizing desire in food, weight, and shape, their focus is on being an object of desire (Am I thin enough? Smart enough? Good enough?) rather than becoming a desiring subject whose impact is felt.

The presenter plans to draw insights from the myth of Persephone and Demeter, along with psychoanalytic theory and case examples, to understand the factors that facilitate or foreclose the development of desire. Special attention will be given to the process of separation and individuation from the maternal relationship and the significance of the paternal function in the recovery from an eating disorder. Practical suggestions for encouraging dissociated states of desire into the clinical encounter will be offered.

About the Presenter: 

Amy Olson, LCSW, CEDS-S, is a licensed psychotherapist, certified eating disorders specialist, and International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals supervisor. She is a graduate of the Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program at the William Alanson White Institute and the Eating Disorders, Compulsions, and Addictions Program at the White Institute.

She received the 2016 Teachers Academy Fellowship from The American Psychoanalytic Association. In 2023, she published her first book, Chrome & Creativity: Expressive Pole Dance, Embodiment and Psychic Change.

Throughout her 23-year-long private practice in Cary, NC, Amy has demonstrated a commitment to helping individuals recover from eating disorders and explore a healthier relationship with their bodies. She is deeply interested in understanding how women develop a sense of self in the world, exploring mind-body issues, and investigating personal growth through creative movement practices.

This event is free of charge, but registration is required by 02/29/24.

CEUs will not be offered for The Seasoned Clinician’s Notebook, but Letters of Attendance will be sent upon completion of a program evaluation survey.