On Wednesday, May 10th, 2013, there will be Tribute Luncheon at the Dubsdread Ballroom to raise money and awareness for the White Picket Fence Foundation. The event will honor Blanche Stokley, a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (IAEDP) with 28 years of experience in the Central Florida area. Blanche has been connected with the White Picket Fence Counseling Center for many years, providing professional training and mentoring, as well as co-leading some of our client groups and intensive therapy programs.
Blanche has also been helpful in contributing ideas for the White Picket Fence Foundation, and will hopefully be presenting more professional training in the future. On May 10th she will talk about how the eating and weight disorders community has evolved over the years and how treatment options have changed.
Also at the luncheon, a male, in recovery from anorexia, will talk about how the Foundation has helped him, giving his unique perspective on dealing with an eating disorder. This event is open to mental health and medical professionals, dieticians, community members, advocates, educators, school counselors, students, clients and families. Our intention is to raise funds that will enable us to provide even more programs for the eating and weight disorders community and the professionals who help them.
The reason we started the White Picket Fence Foundation was that we were getting so many calls from people for treatment who had no insurance and minimal or no funds. Since these are the types of disorders that require a lot of treatment, both in length of time and intensity, they were simply not able to get that level of care. Now we have a place to direct those calls
The Foundation has graduate school interns who see people for individual therapy, as do I and a couple of other trained therapists. Along with these low-fee counseling options, there are also free support groups that meet there, free yoga classes specifically for people with eating and weight disorders, free weekly meditation sessions, and free weekly “lunch and learn” sessions. We also serve as a resource by providing referrals for treatment, as well as helpful books and handouts in our resource room.
To support the professional community and ensure there are more people trained to help with these specialized issues, we also offer professional trainings, providing continuing education credits for licensed mental health counselors, social workers, nurses, marriage and family therapists, student and post-graduate internships. We also go into businesses and colleges to give talks about eating disorders and any related topics such as dealing with the emotional factors of obesity. We really want to provide value in the community and give back. The opening of the White Picket Fence Foundation has been a long time coming; we love doing this.
For more information about sponsoring the May 10th event, please visit https://whitepicketfencecounselingcenter.com/tribute-luncheon-sponsorships.html.
To attend the event, please visit https://whitepicketfencecounselingcenter.com/blanche-stokley-tribute-luncheon.html.
For more information about the White Picket Fence Foundation, please visit https://whitepicketfencecounselingcenter.com/white-picket-fence-foundation.html.
Thank you for celebrating with us!