Tag Archives: bulimia

Family Groups

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Family Group is a very important part of Charter’s addiction treatment programme.  Currently costing just £150pa per family member for unlimited access, the groups provide an introduction to addiction and vital peer and counselling support for family members of an addict.

The familiar position of lose:lose is the domain of the families of addicts, where it is so hard to know what to do as your loved one perpetually holds the proverbial gun to their own head and, finger on trigger, reacts what you say and do.

At Charter we advocate re-establishing a sense of nourishment and self respect in the family member so that they too can make a decision instead of just reacting to a situation:- fire fighting. This takes time and commitment and I am proud to say that we have a core group of hard working family members cementing the changes with their increasing understanding and personal growth. When one person changes, the dance changes. So whether your addict is on board (yet) or not, working in the family group can make all the difference to the possibility and nature of recovery in your life.

We also hold family workshop weekends that provide a more intensive introduction to letting go with love, enablement vs tough love and how to take care of you – many family members recoil from such apparently new age statements (as did my own parents many years ago) – but these workshops have proven to be of fundamental use to those struggling to gain purchase on this slippery and destructive condition in the life of someone they love.

Addiction is all consuming, self centred, provocative and relentless. It takes experience to know how to behave around it, and courage and compassion not to feed it.  The group will support you while you learn…

Charter Residential at Primrose Hill

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With a history of relapse and poor management I sometimes wonder at my wisdom of taking on Primrose Hill as we had such a climate of prejudice to overcome.

Fortunately, under the careful and attentive management of Clare Sole, we have been consistently busy there since opening in 2010. I believe we are now gaining ourselves a reputation by earning it as a boundaried, accountable safe housing service for those needing extra support in their recovery journeys.

We have 10 beds and admit males and females from 18-65 years at different stages of their recovery, as long as they are abstinent and actively engaged in a 12 step programme or in treatment. It’s a lovely mid terrace Victorian house, has a support worker in residence and provides a temporary home from home.

We provide drug and alcohol testing, weekly planning and support, cooking support, an introduction to fellowship, community living with therapeutic duties, curfews and peer responsibilities.

Alongside treatment, or as extra support through transitions geographically, work-wise or relationship-wise, Charter Residential provides an extraordinary service that is affordable, effective and grounding.

We work with you to get well in the context of your life.

Specialist Eating Disorder Services Needed

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Eating disorders are about the relationship between food and emotions, where a person seeks a sense of control over their emotions, over how they appear and over the impact their world has on them. It is common for an eating disorder to develop in a person’s early teens and so it would seem appropriate for there to be services specifically targeted for this age group. CAHMS do a great job, and I have met many people who have benefited from time with this service, but eating disorders – and addictions in general – require specialist knowledge and intervention. This is not about simply getting someone to eat, it’s about attending to the disturbance of self and your typical eating disorder will be extremely reluctant to put their eating disorder down. I think Helen Missen raises a very important issue in this report and I for one would be a willing signature on her petition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18755034

More About Charter

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Charter Day Care was launched in 2008 to provide intensive, effective and affordable addiction treatment in central London, where a person  can get well in the context of their lives. It has been hugely  successful in terms of client numbers as well as quality of recovery,  with a thriving aftercare service that is testament to this fact. Working from a psychodynamic approach and employing the 12 step  method alongside motivational interviewing, gestalt therapy, creative arts and body workshops, somatic experiencing (for trauma) and CBT techniques, Charter has a well rounded and successful treatment  programme.  In 2010 we opened Charter Residential, a 10 bed sober  living house in Primrose Hill with 24/7 on site residential support,  boundaries and community living. This is for people needing extra support either through treatment, some sort of transition ( e.g. geographical or relationship) or through a difficult period.

We treat most addictions including substance misuse, co dependence  and sex and love addiction, bulimia, over eating, work addiction and  crucially involve family members whenever appropriate. Many of our  clients are relapsers who haven’t been able to get well elsewhere, the costs are surprisingly affordable.  Our programme is flexible so  that minimum attendance is one full week after which we can agree a schedule of attendance according to assessment – containment is key  and we will never agree a care plan that we feel sets the client up to fail.

We mean business in terms of recovery and go the extra mile to ensure the quality of recovery gained is sustainable. This is a small and personal organisation where every team member, including admin, knows every client, and where the director and founder is hands on so that you are as likely to see her in group, in an intervention or making the team a cup of tea! We are FDAP accredited and approved with several different insurance companies.

Once you are part of the Charter family, the door is always open.

Fiona Geraghty

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I was very sad to read the reports of 14 year old school girl, Fiona Geraghty’s tragic suicide due to bullying over her weight. She was bulimic. I was bullied at school and I know how lonely and desperate it can feel. I also know the risky means I took to try and cope. It is heartbreaking that this beautiful young girl took such drastic measures to alleviate her overwhelming feelings of self loathing. It is appalling too that despite public school resources and professional help she slipped through the net. Too easy to happen, too easy to believe the feeling of hopelessness, to listen to the illness  and become a casualty of this treacherous condition.  For me news like this spurs me on in my intent to go the extra mile in our work at Charter and in schools, and to remind all those that will listen that we are responsible for Step 12….there is hope and it lives in every one of us who is committed to walking the walk…we can do what I can’t. Pray for her family who will feel such a huge loss…I will –  there but for the grace of God go mine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-18521916