Recipient of the 2008 Contribution to the Profession Award

The Role of Forgiveness in Eating Disorders

Michelle Watson is a licensed professional counselor with a private practice in Oregon, as well as an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. Watson, who earned a Ph.D. in Psychology with a specialization in Health Psychology from Walden, has focused her research on the impact of forgiveness on the symptoms of eating disorders. In nominating Watson for the award, her dissertation committee chair, Dr. Rebecca L. Jobe, said that Watson's work “forged a new area of research within eating disorder therapy, one that bridges an important gap among social psychological, health, and counseling approaches to treatment.”

How did you begin your work with eating disorders? I’ve had an eating disorder and I have a sister who had anorexia, so I come to this with a personal passion. I started my own counseling journey as a client, when I was 29, at the tail end of my eating disorder. After coming through healing, I wanted to turn around and walk with other women (and some men) through their own process. I’ve had a private practice in counseling for 10 years.

How did you discover the importance of forgiveness in eating disorder therapy? In my classes at Walden, I was drawn to looking at different aspects of eating disorders. Then one of my former professors from Lewis and Clark asked me to participate in a forgiveness project. I never did the project, but it spurred my thinking. I discovered that the toxic effects on health from an eating disorder are almost identical to the toxic effects on health from lack of forgiveness. I thought, there’s got to be a link, but no one has ever linked them.

How would you describe the relationship between the two? My favorite definition of forgiveness is letting go, and women with eating disorders don’t like to let go, because a large part is about control. I decided to focus more on forgiveness of the self, rather than forgiveness of the other. Looking at a subscale of symptoms from the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3), my research revealed a 42 percent correlation between unforgiveness of the self and a drive for thinness, a 30 percent correlation between unforgiveness of the self and body dissatisfaction, and an 18 percent correlation between unforgiveness of the self and bulimia.

What’s the most important thing to keep in mind when trying to help someone you suspect has an eating disorder? If you’re a parent, remember that eating disorders are not about food. Oftentimes, that’s where parents’ focus will be—nagging about not eating. And I love the saying, “Rules without relationship equals rebellion.” Eating disorders are not just a label; they’re not just a diagnosis. They’re a person who is hurting and who needs extra amounts of love, not extra amounts of rules. If you’re a friend, address what you’re noticing in a loving way, and expect there to be denial. Say the truth of what you’re seeing, but in love, not in judgment.

If someone thinks they themselves might have an eating disorder, what should they do? One starting point is to get information about what an eating disorder looks like, so you can evaluate yourself in relation to that. The National Eating Disorders Association Web site (http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/) is a good resource.

What are you working on now? I want to heighten awareness so people can get the help they need. In addition to giving presentations and publishing ar ticles on my research, I’ve written handouts to equip other colleagues in the field with better resources to treat eating disorder clients. And I’ve recently been asked to be an auxiliary board member of FINDINGbalance, a national faith-based organization dedicated to helping people with eating disorders.