Join a collaborative community of clinicians at The 35th Annual Renfrew Center Foundation Conference for professionals, where meaningful connections spark professional growth. This immersive event brings clinicians, dietitians, psychiatrists, and advocates together for connection, insight, and shared purpose. Whether you’re deepening your clinical expertise, broadening your understanding of marginalized populations, or seeking new, evidence-based strategies for treating eating disorders, this is your opportunity to grow—professionally and personally. Whether you are here to earn CE credits, discover new frameworks, or reignite your passion for this work—you belong here. Register today!
Dr. Judith Brisman will be teaching an on-demand workshop with co-presenter Doug Bunnell, PhD, FAED, CEDS-S on the topic of “What Happens When: Disasters, Breakthroughs and Unexpected Strategies In the Treatment of Eating Disorders.”
Level: Advanced
Format: Didactic, Interactive
Content: Feminist Relational, Evidence-Based Practices, Skill Development
CE Hours/Credits: 2
Dr. Judith Brisman will be part of the talkback line up after the performance on October 19th.
Tamar Rogoff’s Drop Dead…Gorgeous ushers audiences into the studio of a TV game show that gives the contestants the chance to win their dream body. As they compete to shed pounds, gain inches, and reverse the aging process, the show’s charismatic yet troubled host offers the audience the opportunity to buy their way to beauty. This multimedia dance performance explores our culture’s obsession with the one “perfect“ youthful body and the intersection of money, media, and madness that keeps us going to greater, more dangerous lengths to find happiness in the mirror. As Rogoff reached puberty, the perfect ballet body alluded her. Out of those early struggles came her lifelong choreographic approach: body scripting. In Drop Dead…Gorgeous, this approach plucks the contestants from the world of the game and returns them to paradise—their birthright, where all bodies can be experienced as sensual and worthy.
Dr. Judith Brisman will be speaking at the following online seminar hosted by the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology as part of the Professional Vulnerability: Dread, Hope and Resilience Seminar Series.
Using Interpersonal theory and a discussion of dissociation as a backdrop for exploration, this seminar will discuss how the treatment of eating disorders allows for an expanded version of what we may consider a more traditional analysis.
Work with eating disorders involves an ongoing intermix of behavioral intervention and psychodynamic exploration. When are direct interventions with food and weight needed? When is this kind of behavioral focus a repetition of problematic relational patterns– both for the patient and for the therapist? And how can this work be considered psychoanalysis?
Ongoing there is a need to question what part of the patient– and what part of the analyst – is present at any given time. The goal overall is to allow for an exchange of hungers. Here, an awareness of the therapist’s hunger for change and hope, and alternately the shutdown of any needs, may be as critical as knowing the experience of hunger the patient has brought into the room.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to integrate behavioral interventions within a psychoanalytic framework.
- With Interpersonal thinking as a backdrop, learn how the use of the therapist’s self-experience can facilitate therapeutic work.
- Learn how to question the difference between developmental capacity and relational dynamics in the therapeutic exchange.
Part of the Professional Vulnerability: Dread, Hope and Resilience Seminar Series.
Dr. Judith Brisman will be teaching a 1.5 hour on-demand workshop with co-presenter Judith Rabinor on Mothers, Daughters and Eating Disorders From Adolescence Through Mid-Life.
The 31st Annual Renfrew Center Foundation Conference for Professionals: Perspectives on Feminism, Eating Disorders and Beyond beginning November 12, 2021. Since 1991, the Conference has provided eating disorders education and training for professionals in which to discover, debate and share the best of what we bring to our profession. This year, we recognize the importance of connecting as a community to build and reinforce our shared values, resiliency and hope for the future. Join us as we look back on the impact of this past year and explore treatment, cultural and familial influences, prevention, recovery, trauma and so much more. Featured Keynote- Gabourey Sidibe, Award-Winning Actress & Author. Gabourey made her film debut as the title character in Lee Daniels’ Academy Award-nominated film, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Gabby nimbly weaves her self-aware, witty takes on friendship, depression, celebrity, fashion, race, and weight into her presentation, delighting listeners while consistently challenging their pre-conceived notions of what it means to truly embrace yourself. She encourages everyone to be proud of what makes you different—and use that difference to make dreams come true. For questions, visit www.renfrewcenter.com or contact conference@renfrewcenter.com.
Join guest speaker Judith Brisman, PhD, for two presentations on the reasons behind our challenging relationships with food. Even if you know what to eat, maintaining healthy habits, and your happiness while doing so, can be challenging. Discuss why you stray from your food goals and how these failures can actually be opportunities. Get inspired to take charge in your relationship with food and learn how to live a more balanced, healthy life. Judith Brisman, PhD will speak on the following topics:
- June 10th, evening presentation:
What Goes Wrong When You Want to Eat Right?
Discuss the social factors (and more) that interfere with making choices you feel good about. Learn why you stray from your food plans/goals and how these “failures” can actually be opportunities.
- June 12th, evening presentation:
Are you Helping or Hurting? Raising Kids in a Covid World
Join guest speaker Judith Brisman, PhD, for presentations on the reasons behind our challenging relationships with food. Even if you know what to eat, maintaining healthy habits, and your happiness while doing so, can be challenging. Discuss why you stray from your food goals and how these failures can actually be opportunities. Get inspired to take charge in your relationship with food and learn how to live a more balanced, healthy life. Judith Brisman, PhD will speak on the following topics:
- What Goes Wrong When You Want to Eat Right?
Discuss the social factors (and more) that interfere with making choices you feel good about. Learn why you stray from your food plans/goals and how these “failures” can actually be opportunities.
- Surviving the Hard Times: Specific Strategies & Tools That Work For You
Even when you know what to do and why, eating healthfully – and joyfully – can still be hard. Trouble times are different for everyone. Working privately or in a group, explore details of where you get stuck and learn tools that address your individual concerns.
Dr. Judith Brisman will be teaching a Master Class with Judy Rabinor and Ann Kearney Cooke, on the topic of mother/daughter, family, and body-image issues.
This year, The Renfrew Center Foundation is celebrating its 30th annual Conference. Since 1991, the Conference has been dedicated to providing eating disorders education and training for professionals and creating a stimulating environment in which to discover, debate and share the best of what we bring to our profession.
To commemorate three decades of growth, outstanding scholarship and interpersonal connection, Conference 2020 has invited experts and luminaries in the field of eating disorders and women’s mental health to create an exceptional program. Through thoughtful reflection, research and clinical practice, we will explore treatment, cultural influences, trauma, genetics, and trends in neuroscience. In keeping with our Feminist-Relational roots, numerous events are planned to foster rejuvenation as well as networking with professionals from around the globe.
Dr. Brisman will be presenting with Dr. Judith Ruskay Rabinor on Saturday, November 9th, 10:30 am-12:30pm, a talk titled Relational Perspectives: Strategies, Interventions and the Healing Therapeutic Stance. Relational skills are needed for eating disorder recovery, yet the development of these skills within the therapeutic relationship is often overlooked. This workshop offers guidelines to create an emotionally- engaged therapeutic stance. Clinical and experiential material will focus on assessing relational patterns, deepening therapeutic exchanges and allowing for relational connection.
Discuss the social factors (and more) that interfere with making choices you feel good about. Learn why you stray from your food plans/goals and how these a“failures” can actually be opportunities.
