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CARF Commends Mirasol’s “Established Pattern of Excellence”

September 6th, 2010

CARF Accreditation

Mirasol has just received three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). The survey report commended Mirasol for its “dedication and commitment to improving the quality of the lives of the persons served” and its “established pattern of practice excellence”.

The CARF survey report described Mirasol’s residential eating disorder treatment program as follows:

  • Mirasol has a seasoned staff that is capable of helping women deal effectively with eating disorders and return to a lifestyle free from these disorders.
  • Mirasol CEO Jeanne Rust, PhD, is “a leader in the field in developing innovative interventions that will help individuals with eating disorders overcome their disorders”.
  • The outcomes data have shown over the last three years a dramatic reduction in depressive characteristics, an increase in self-esteem, and a reduction in personal destructive traits ….

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Mirasol Obtains Additional Licensing to Offer a Wider Range of Services

June 15th, 2010

Mirasol, an alternative residential eating disorder treatment center in Tucson, Arizona, announced this week that it has obtained additional licensing that will help many more women benefit from its services.

“Our new licensure will allow us to provide level 1 sub-acute care, which is a just a step below the level of care provided by psychiatric hospital,” says Jeanne Rust, PhD, founder and CEO of Mirasol. “This will enable us to serve clients whose insurance policies cover inpatient treatment as well as those who have residential benefits.”

Mirasol pioneered the mind-body-spirit approach to the treatment of eating disorders, combining traditional individual and group psychotherapy with proven alternative therapies including neurofeedback, acupuncture and EMDR. Since its founding in 1999, Mirasol has helped more than 700 women recover from eating disorders. Its residential treatment programs are licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Behavioral Health and certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

Rust hopes that the new license will make Mirasol’s unique integrative treatment program available to a much larger population. “We get calls every day from women all over the country who want to come to Mirasol, but whose insurance doesn’t cover residential care,” says Rust. “By broadening our scope of services, we hope to be able to meet the needs of many more women for effective alternative treatment.”

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Polarity Therapy Helps Balance Energy, Restore Health

May 6th, 2010

Polarity therapy is a form of energy healing that seeks to unblock energy fields within the body through gentle touch, rocking and point-specific touch. In a typical session, the practitioner assesses energy flow through palpation, observation and interview techniques.

The results of Polarity Therapy can include profound relaxation, relief from hypertension and anxiety attacks and a new appreciation of the importance of energy flow to optimal health and well-being.

Polarity therapy is an integral part of Mirasol’s mind-body-spirit approach to the treatment of eating disorders.

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Meeting Yourself in Mid-Air!

April 29th, 2010

As part of Mirasol’s family program, both clients and their families participate in high ropes challenge courses, including zip lines, high “V” and giant ladders.

Challenge Course

“We’ve been doing the challenge course for several years now, and it has become a really important part of our program,” says Mirasol Clinical Director Diane Ryan. “It’s a great metaphor for what the clients are going through in treatment. Recovery from an eating disorder is a huge challenge, but clients learn that they’re stronger than they think they are, that they can access different resources, learn to ask for support, and know that they’re not in this all by themselves.”

Since the challenge course was so powerful in the normal course of treatment, Ryan decided to incorporate it into Mirasol’s three-day family program.

“The exercises help women and their families see how they relate to one another,” says Ryan. “We talk a lot about things like enmeshment and enabling. But it’s one thing to talk about it, and it’s another to get up 40 feet in the air and be leaning on each for support and seeing that one of you is holding back and unwilling to trust. Or seeing how they can push through it by encouraging each other and being clear about communicating what they need.”

In the “High V”, two people clasp hands and traverse a set of cables in a “V” shape, each walking on one of the cables. The farther they traverse, the more they have to lean on one another. The only way for them to succeed is to put their total trust in each other.

“Adding the challenge course has created a whole different dimension. Families often tell us that it was the highlight of the program. It helps them feel connected and learn to communicate in a different way. So it really does what we want family program to do, which is put them in a place where they will have a whole different relationship going forward.”

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Cooking with Robert: Mirasol’s Creative New Chef

March 10th, 2010

There have been big changes in Mirasol’s kitchen, thanks to our new chef, Robert Kuzyk. Kuzyk, who joined Mirasol’s kitchen staff after working in four-star restaurants at country clubs in Kansas and Arizona, believes in maintaining an “open kitchen”, encouraging clients to repair their relationships with food by becoming more involved in the process of creating it.

“What I like to do is help the clients overcome their fears of certain foods by actually cooking those foods with them,” says Kuzyk. “Learning how to cook those foods makes them more comfortable with them when they leave Mirasol and return to the
real world.”

Robert describes his work with Mirasol clients as a ‘building process.’ “The first step is getting them to trust me, and then walking them through the process of preparing the food, so that they realize that what they’re getting is nutritional, healthy food that also fits into their meal plans. I have prepared beef for women who haven’t eaten beef in six years. Even some women who are strict vegetarians have been persuaded to try fish, or shrimp or crabcakes.”

“Robert is very good at encouraging women to come into the kitchen little-by-little and maybe coaxing them to try something they haven’t tried before,” says Mirasol Clinical
Director Diane Ryan. “He’s also really great about teaching them to prepare foods they really like — maybe something they remember from childhood, like a special dessert or even just macaroni and cheese. And they can develop recipes and recreate those foods when they return home, and we find that’s really good for aftercare and for the recovery process in general.”

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