Monte Nido
Treatment Center
Monte Nido Treatment Center
27162 Sea Vista Drive
Malibu, CA 90265
Monte Nido Treatment Center, http://www.montenido.com, is a residential treatment facility for women for anorexia, bulimia and compulsive exercise. Eating disorders are progressive and debilitating illnesses requiring medical, nutritional and psychological intervention. Individuals suffering from eating disorders often need a structured environment to achieve recovery. Our residential program is designed to meet the individual needs of clients and their families in a way that gives them a higher level of responsibility and "teaches" them how to recover. The atmosphere of Monte Nido is professional and structured, but it is also warm friendly and family like. Our dedicated staff, many of whom are recovered themselves, serve as role models; and our environment inspires people to commit to overcoming obstacles that interfere with the quality of their lives. The program at Monte Nido is designed to provide behavior and mood stabilization, creating a climate where destructive behavior can be interrupted. Clients can then work on the crucial underlying issues which caused and perpetuate their disordered eating and dysfunctional behaviors. We provide a structured schedule with education, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy, corrective eating patterns, healthy exercise, life skills training and spiritual enhancement, family therapy, and discharge planning. To come to Monte Nido you don't have to be ready to give up your eating disorder. We are here to show you how and help you decide. We encourage you to call or visit us in order to get more detailed information and a personal feel for the program, the staff, and the environment.
Telephone |
310-457-9958 |
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Contact Person |
Carolyn Costin, M.A., M.Ed., M.F.C.C. or Fredda Kurtz(Administrative Office) |
|
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mntc@idt.net |
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Web page |
http://www.montenido.com |
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Hours |
8 am to 8 pm PST |
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Service Areas |
Worldwide |
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Ages |
Adolescents and adults; males and females |
|
Disorders Treated |
Primary resource for Eating Disorders. Also work with all types of dual-diagnosis cases (i.e. Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, OCD, PTSD, Substance abuse, Personality Disorders,etc.) Can assist in addressing all types of mental health issues. |
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Staff |
Multi-disciplinary treatment team |
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Methods |
Eating Disorder Treatment, Dual-diagnosis |
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Transition |
Yes |
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Support Groups |
Yes |
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Outreach |
Yes |
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Medications |
Yes |
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Outpatient |
Yes |
|
Inpatient |
No |
|
Referrals |
Yes |
|
Walk-ins |
Yes |
|
Call-ins |
Yes |
|
Insurance |
Yes |
Monte Nido Treatment Center
A Residential Treatment Facility for Women for anorexia, bulimia and compulsive exercise.
Eating disorders are progressive and debilitating illnesses requiring medical, nutritional and psychological intervention. Individuals suffering from eating disorders often need a structured environment to achieve recovery. Our residential program is designed to meet the individual needs of clients and their families in a way that gives them a higher level of responsibility and "teaches" them how to recover. The atmosphere of Monte Nido is professional and structured, but it is also warm friendly and family like. Our dedicated staff, many of whom are recovered themselves, serve as role models; and our environment inspires people to commit to overcoming obstacles that interfere with the quality of their lives. The program at Monte Nido is designed to provide behavior and mood stabilization, creating a climate where destructive behavior can be interrupted. Clients can then work on the crucial underlying issues which caused and perpetuate their disordered eating and dysfunctional behaviors. We provide a structured schedule with education, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy, corrective eating patterns, healthy exercise, life skills training and spiritual enhancement, family therapy, and discharge planning. To come to Monte Nido you don't have to be ready to give up your eating disorder. We are here to show you how and help you decide. We encourage you to call or visit us in order to get more detailed information and a personal feel for the program, the staff, and the environment.
About Our Founder and Clinical Director
Carolyn Costin MFCC,MA MEd.
Carolyn recovered herself from anorexia nervosa over twenty years ago. Her own recovery is a primary factor in her understanding of and establishing empathy with her clients. The combination of her personal experience and extensive training as both a therapist and an educator have given her a special aptitude for grasping the underlying conflict, stresses, perceptions, distortions and self-worth issues involved in disordered eating and related issues. Carolyn believes that client's need empathic but firm attention in order to be healed. Carolyn gains her clients' confidence and cooperation in solving their problems.
Carolyn originally founded The Eating Disorder Center of California which continues to provide outpatient therapy for individuals throughout southern California. In addition to this Carolyn served as director for several hospital programs but soon realized the need to have a more home like environment for optimum treatment to take place. Carolyn began searching for ways to open her own unique treatment center and eventually founded Monte Nido ( mountain nest) in the foothills of Malibu. Despite her other responsibilities and her busy schedule Carolyn continues to maintain a hands on approach at Monte Nido providing both individual and group therapy.
Carolyn's unique combination of experience, training, and passion have led to national recognition as well as many accomplishments in the field of eating disorders. Carolyn is a frequent speaker at national eating disorder conferences and is a member of several national eating disorder organizations. She writes and is quoted frequently in several magazines and publications. Carolyn is also the author of two books and another small manuscript and is on the editorial board of The Eating Disorder Journal of Treatment and Prevention. Carolyn attends every national eating disorder conference and stays versed in the etiology and treatment of eating disorders on the cultural, developmental, biological and psychological levels.
Under Carolyn's direction Monte Nido provides a wide variety of therapies, activities and experiences, including all those expected in any sophisticated and accredited eating disorder program. However, all of this takes place on a much smaller scale in a home like environment.
Carolyn believes that in each of her clients, to a greater or lesser degree, there exists a "healthy self" and a separate "eating disorder self. " The eating disorder self has it's own set of needs, feelings, thoughts and behaviors which are different from those of the healthy self and need to be understood. Empathizing and working directly with this eating disorder self to learn why it exists and what it needs is a key part of Carolyn's philosophy of recovery. Carolyn and her staff work hard to understand every client's healthy self and eating disorder self. The ultimate goal is to align with each client's healthy self, nurturing and strengthening it so that it will then have the motivation, desire and skill to deal with the eating disorder self.
Carolyn has developed several unique strategies along with a creative, soulful, individualized approach which achieves extraordinary results.
Comments from Carolyn Regarding Her Own Personal Story and Recovery
Having been through an eating disorder myself has been a major advantage and asset to my success in treating others suffering from disordered eating and related issues. I understand these dilemmas in more than an intellectual way. Instinctually, I often know what will and will not work, what to and not to say. Helping others recover became a passion that fueled my private practice as an eating disorder therapist and ultimately the opening of my unique treatment center, Monte Nido.
There was a time when I thought I would never recover. I now know most of my clients have felt this way too. There was a time when I asked myself, "Who will I be without my eating disorder?" My client's ask the same question. There was a time when it didn't matter to me that I couldn't take a bath because I was so bony it hurt to sit in the tub. It didn't bother me that when I slept on my side I had to put a pillow between my knees because the bones had no padding and hurt without it. It didn't make much difference that I was cold all the time and my hair was falling out. I was thin and being thin seemed more important than anything. Now I know it was much more than that.
When my mom took me to our family doctor he told me that my weight was too low but all my blood tests were normal. He told me that nothing was wrong with me now but eventually problems would show up and I would pay for it later. I gloated about the "nothing was wrong now" part and ignored the "pay for it later part" and no one knew what to do.
My mother became increasingly worried. I guess everyone was worried but me. I thought they were all exaggerating. So what if I seemed depressed, it had nothing to do with my weight. I felt fine. I jogged and exercised every day. I did 205 sit-ups every night. The extra 5 were in case I did a few sloppy ones along the way. Looking back to that time and at my clients now, I am amazed at the power of mind over matter and at what the human body can endure.
Comments such as, "You look awfully thin!" I took as compliments. I had an inner voice. It was as if a little man was living inside my head. He plotted out the day's food allowance. He automatically calculated calories of any food that was in front of me or was about to go into my mouth. He always told me I didn't need this or that food item. If I ignored him he punished me with guilt and pain and tears and made me eat even less food and do more exercise to repent. He made me say "no", when I wanted to say "yes", study when I wanted to play, starve myself almost to death when what I really wanted underneath was to eat, to live and be happy. Recognizing this other part of me is how I came to develop the concept of the "eating disorder self." I knew I had to relate to that part of me, find out why it existed and what I could do to find other ways to satisfy it's needs.
It took seven years but I recovered. I am recovered from the desire to be thin at any cost, from the need to be perfect and from the illusion that what I look like is more important than who I am. Recovery takes time and is a process. I cannot pin point the time when I became recovered. It was more like a looking back and realizing that something very terrible was now gone and something more true to my real self had taken it's place. It would be false and misleading to say that as a female in this society I do not have thoughts about my body and it's attractiveness. I also exercise. But I eat Haggen Daz in my bubble bath at night, share bags of M&M's with my Labrador, Goner, and I drink, instead of pass up, champagne. I will no longer sacrifice for the sake of being thin. I will no longer betray myself or my body in the pursuit of some cultural standard, or in the quest for acceptance or praise for my external qualities. I have found a balance. I have made peace with food and with myself. It is with my client's eating disorders and with our appearance obsessed society that I do my battling now. Monte Nido was founded so that I can best accomplish these goals.
Carolyn Costin
