Anita
Family Psychotherapist
Anita Sommers
Approach/Philosophy:
I am a Systemic Family Therapist with extensive experience working with individuals strug-gling with an eating disorder and their families. I take a non-judgmental approach to my work and take the stance that clients are experts on their own life. I invite clients to become curious about their lives in order to increase their understanding of themselves and their relationships.
Additionally, my focus is on how the systems around the client affect the client’s well-being and may contribute to the maintenance of the eating disorder. I focus on the clients’ relation-ships and how this may also impact the clients’ eating disorder. I often look at the “dance” between people rather than blaming one person for the relationship difficulties. My work can help relationships improve by helping each member to do something slightly different to im-prove their “dance”.
Family Therapy has been shown to play a significant role in improving outcomes for children and young people with eating disorders. The aims of family therapy include promoting the family’s understanding of the disorder, management of anxiety, and developing strategies to strengthen communication and support the individual in their recovery. This means that I in-vite key family members to be actively involved throughout the treatment process.
Qualifications/Experience:
I hold a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Edgewood College (Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A) and am currently UKCP Registered. Before starting my private practice, I was employed for six years as a Specialist Clinician for Children’s Social Care by the Cam-bridgeshire County Council. My main role was to provide a systems perspective to social workers to ensure that the multitude of factors that contribute to a client’s needs are discussed and effective interventions are implemented.
Prior to moving to Cambridge, I was the Program Director of Healthy Within, a clinic in San Diego, California that treated individuals struggling with an eating disorder and other co-morbid diagnoses such as: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Depression, Personality Disord-ers, and addictions. I conducted individual, group and family sessions. I also participated in community outreach to raise awareness of eating disorders, body image and self-esteem is-sues in schools and college campuses. I performed a similar role as a Day Treatment Clinician at Kids Peace New England (Maine, USA) where I was responsible for conducting indi-vidual, group and family sessions while performing detailed assessments and treatment plans for children with a wide variety mental health challenges.
