FAI/ACORN Food Addiction Professional Training
At the request of the Food Addiction Institute, ACORN administers the Food Addiction Professional Training. It is a three-year experiential program focused on learning food addiction recovery from the inside out, assisting experienced food addiction professionals, and developing ways to make a unique contribution to food addicts and the field of food addiction. Minimum requirements include: two residential intensives with other professional trainees each year; a weekly recovery and professional support meeting by phone; two years of stable recovery in food – one year before assisting and two years before certification; completion of a detailed history of personal powerless over food or another addiction; and thirty days of supervised assisting and completion of a professional competence demonstration.
The training program began when a graduate student in addiction studies wanted to find and internship in food addiction. She had done a previous practicum for alcoholism and drug addiction in a hospital based chemical dependency treatment center, but there were no such programs for food addiction. Since ACORN’s Primary Intensive was developed to offer the experience of residential recovery from food addiction, she asked if she could do an internship using ACORN’s Primary Intensive. A training program was developed following the philosophy of staff training at Glenbeigh Psychiatric Hospital’s residential eating disorder and food addiction treatment program. The trainees participated in the program first as a clients, second as an assistants to an experience staff members, and then as co-professionals while demonstrating their professional competency working on their own. Delores Proto, MA decided to try this program over a three year period and became its first certified graduate. She went on to develop her own private practice, Gladness Recovery House, and her own creative contributions to the field of food addiction.
There are three year-long segments to the training:
- Phase one: two intensives, weekly support call, a year of food abstinence, work on unresolved mental, emotional and spiritual issues, complete a detailed description of powerless ness over food or some other addiction.
- Phase two: two intensives, weekly support call, two years of stable food abstinence, twelve papers relating food addiction theory to practice, on-going recovery work as needed, and thirty days of assisting with a food addiction professional.
- Phase three: two intensives, weekly support call – facilitating for Living in Abstinence and newer members of training,developing and implementing a project demonstrating unique abilities and competence as a food addiction professional.
Enrollment is on a yearly basis. Some take more than a calendar year to complete the requirement of each phase of the program. There is a Living in Abstinence program for those who want to participate in the structured yearly long support for their recovery during stage one without planning to necessarily do the other two phases of the program.
The Director of the Professional Food Addiction Training Program is Philip Werdell, MA. Since 1972 Mr. Werdell has taught writing, counseling, group work and other human service courses at the undergraduate and graduate level at the College for Human Services, Campus-Free College, College of New Rochelle’s School of New Resources, New Hampshire College, Sarasota University, Manatte Community College and, currently, Springfield College. This year he will teach a two day course for professional at the Florida Institute for Addiction Study. He has worked with over 4000 food addicts at the Glenbeigh Psychiatric Hospital of Tampa’s residential food addiction treatment program, the Rader Institute of Washington’s out-patient eating disorder program, ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services and in his private practice. His food addiction publications include “Beyond Ordinary Eating Disorders: Food Addiction” in the IAEDP Clinical Forum, Food Addiction Recovery: a new model for professional support, The ACORN Primary Intensive Handbook, Bariatric Surgery and Food Addiction: preoperative considerations, and “Physical Craving and Food Addiction: A Scientific Review for FAI. Education and Honors: BA Yale University, Scholar of the House. President of Torch Honor Society; MA, Beacon College, Human Service and Higher Education; Corning Fellowship; Fulbright Fellowship; post-graduate study at Columbia University, University of South Florida; Certified Food Addiction Counselor, Glenbeigh Psychiatric Hospital of Tampa.
ACORN/FAI Food Addiction Professional Training Program: Box 50126, Sarasota, Florida, 34232; Phone: 941 378 2122; Fax 941 342 7414; www.foodaddiction.com.
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