One woman's journey from anorexia to health: An exploration of the combined use of existential philosophy and art therapy

The purpose of this personal process research was to examine the effects of existential philosophy and art therapy on my attitudes surrounding eating disorder issues. Having used a combination of these two tools successfully in my battle against anorexia nervosa several years ago, I hypothesized that they would once again prove to be powerful healing forces, now that I have resolved my anorexic behaviors and am working on addressing related attitudes. In this study, I read from existential literature on a daily basis. After each reading, I did an art task that related to the particular existential or eating disordered topics that arose that day. A review of my personal process after fifteen days indicated that the combination of art therapy and existential philosophy was indeed beneficial. Implications for future research are discussed.