Recently a past client made contact with us saying that she felt like writing to us and that she wanted to say thank you for the treatment she received at Imani and to let us know that she is well. She says “I am a ‘functioning’ member of society (working in a hospital in my last year of anaesthesia residential programme) and am currently 22 weeks pregnant, the biggest blessing! Without Imani and your support, I wouldn’t have the “life beyond my wildest dreams”!”

We asked if she could share some of her reflections and thoughts, below are the words of Elisa, recovering ED.

“I booked myself into Imani in 2016 with a huge suitcase coming from Germany and very little hope of ever getting better after a 14 years-long battle with severe anorexia and exercise addiction. After multiple hospitalizations in different treatment centres for eating disorders in Germany my body, soul and life were broken and the possibility of ever healing from my eating disorder had escaped me, my family and friends completely.

At Imani, I was greeted with a warm welcome and from the beginning could experience people in my treatment team who had been as hopeless and ill as me and were now living a happy and free life in a healthy body. This gave me hope and differed from the approaches before where I never felt quite understood by professionals with no personal background of an eating disorder. For the first time in a treatment centre my anorexic behaviour was stopped firmly and compassionately by my treatment team and, unlike in other treatments before, the eating disorder could not continue to be active “under the radar”, which, in hindsight, I consider crucial for healing.

The highly professional approach of trained medical, psychological and counselling staff that cared for me 24/7 along with the support of the 12-step approach and the family-like treatment atmosphere with other inpatients helped me to get my life back. For the first time, I gained, along with necessary body weight, a life back that was not ruled by food restriction, exercise compulsions, self-flagellation and a controlling anorexic mindset. Since discharge from the treatment centre, I graduated medical school and now work as an anaesthetic resident in Germany.

I am a happy and functioning member of society. I have freedom around food and exercise and my body has healed so that I am now 22 weeks pregnant, the biggest blessing of my life. For helping me to get my life back after the hell of chronic severe anorexia, I cannot thank and recommend Imani enough”