Episode 42: Phototherapy as a Healing Technique with Shauna Frisbie

Peace Meal

Episode description: Dr. Shauna Frisbie is a Licensed Professional Counselor, an approved Supervisor for Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC-S), a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist (CEDS), and a National Certified Counselor (NCC). She has taught psychology, family studies, and counseling since 2001 and is currently a Professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Lubbock Christian University. Shauna joins us in this episode of Peace Meal to discuss the value of sharing and discussing visual content in therapy. Her phototherapy techniques are described in her 2020 book, A Therapist’s Guide to Treating Eating Disorders in a Social Media Age. Images, Shauna explains, and the stories we attach to them provide insight into deep emotional processes and responses. “When I do phototherapy with clients, I’m really trying to help them explore the meaning behind these images,” she says. In treating images as communicators of meaning, she and other trained therapists can help facilitate emotional awareness and processing with clients. Shauna outlines how social media and smartphones have made images more relevant than ever, especially for young adults in a developmental stage of identity searching and relational skill development. For those susceptible to eating disorders, this increased exposure to images can be especially problematic. Shauna explains how phototherapy can help uncover how visual content impacts clients’ relationship to their bodies and/or sense of identity, as well as offer means of healing. Learn more about Shauna at drfrisbie.com, and find A Therapist’s Guide to Treating Eating Disorders in a Social Media Age at norton.com/author/22703/shaunafrisbie. Learn more about The Emily Program online or by calling 1-888-364-5977. — About the podcast: Peace Meal is an Emily Program podcast that discusses topics related to eating disorders, body image issues, and how society may contribute to distorted thinking. You can find Peace Meal on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. If you enjoy our show, please rate, review, subscribe, or tell your friends! Are you interested in being a guest on Peace Meal? Email [e-mail] for more information.