OVERVIEW

Professional Summer School Series is organized by The Renfrew Center Foundation and will be held from Jul 01 - Aug 31, 2026.

Description:
In this series, Renfrew experts will explore topics which include:

Addressing Ambivalence in Recovery
Eating Disorders in Midlife
Treating and Supporting Athletes
The Role of Culture, Identity, and Shame in Eating Disorders

Training #1
Feeling Torn: Meeting Ambivalence with Curiosity & Compassion
Presenter: Samantha DeCaro, PsyD

Ambivalence is a natural yet challenging part of eating disorder recovery, often leaving clients and clinicians feeling stuck. This presentation provides practical, evidence-based tools to approach ambivalence with compassion, curiosity, and confidence. Drawing on The Renfrew Center’s Unified Treatment Model, strategies will be offered to help clients clarify values, envision change, identify thinking traps, think more flexibly, and build intrinsic motivation. Attendees will also learn how to work with fear and support clients in taking manageable, concrete steps toward recovery. Through relatable examples and interventions, participants will strengthen connection, build trust, and guide clients from uncertainty toward meaningful action.

Training #2
Beyond Adolescence: Eating Disorders in Midlife
Presenter: Gaby DeParis-Hale, MS, LPC, NCC

This workshop explores the presentation, assessment, and treatment of eating disorders in midlife adults. While often overlooked, eating disorders can persist or emerge for the first time during this stage due to hormonal changes, life transitions, and sociocultural pressures. Participants will learn to distinguish between longstanding and late-onset disorders, identify subtle and atypical presentations, and apply developmentally informed, evidence-based interventions. Emphasis is placed on screening, clinical formulation, and treatment approaches that address identity, aging, and body image. This training equips professionals with practical tools to better recognize and support midlife clients struggling with eating disorders.

Training #3
Performance Under Pressure: Transdiagnostic Treatment for Athletes with Eating Disorders
Presenter: Laura McLain, PsyD, BC-TMH & Jessica Berens, MS, RD, LDN

Collegiate athletes with eating disorders face specific challenges that influence their recovery journey. The pressures of training schedules and physical demands, academic stressors, and social pressures on campus maintain eating disorder symptomology. This workshop provides clinicians with a framework for treating athletes with eating disorders using the Unified Treatment Model for Eating Disorders, collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, and harm reduction strategies. Special topics will include RED-S, navigating nutrition demands, subclinical eating disorder presentations, and body image concerns. Case presentations will highlight the complexity of this population and provide practical tools for professionals.

Training #4
Food Culture and Shame: Cultural Identity & Eating Disorders
Presenter: Mehak Merchant, MS, LPC, NCC

This workshop explores the intersection of food, culture, and shame in the development and treatment of eating disorders. Participants will examine how body and food related shame manifests around culturally specific foods and foodways, including migration-related changes, family practices, and school/community experiences such as lunchbox shaming. The session also addresses moralized “healthy eating” discourses and their role in exclusion. Using The Unified Treatment Model for Eating Disorders and a cultural humility framework, participants will learn to distinguish cultural foodways from disordered eating rituals and develop culturally responsive treatment strategies, including food exposure/avoidance hierarchies and case-based interventions that directly address food related shame.