Anne Hammond-Meyer, PhD
Anne Hammond-Meyer, PhD is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in the state of Washington.
Dr. Hammond-Meyer's clinical interests include feminist theory, attachment theory, personality theory, and the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology. She is extremely interested in how American culture, and misogyny in particular, influences the emotional health of women. She began her clinical career working with the college population and has worked with adolescents, young adults, middle adults, and seniors. Her newest interest is how pre-menopause, or menopause changes a woman's lived experience. How does this normal developmental and biological stage of life interact with the onset and/or maintenance of eating disorders? How can a woman experience this process with an increased sense of personal power?
Dr. Hammond-Meyer also believes therapy and activism are one and the same. Therefore, she is active in causes that seek gender justice, intersectionality, and justice for all. This includes the body positive movement. She is committed to helping women find their authentic voice.
In her life outside of her clinical work she is a mentor, partner, mother and grandmother. She also enjoys interior design, gardening and is (by her self-report) a really decent home cook. Her personal approach to living is to seek out creative experiences, find the beautiful in life, and to enjoy the art of living well. Given the current political climate, she has also learned how important it is to be a patriot, and is using her voice to fight for our democracy.
P. S. Anne loves dogs 🙂 …actually, all animals. She currently lives with four cats, a dog, and a Holland Lop bunny named Effie… And one human, whom she adores.
Areas of Treatment
Clinical issues Dr. Hammond Meyer treats in adult women:
- The full spectrum of subclinical and clinical eating disorders
- Issues related to eating and weight triggered/worsened by menopause
- Evaluation to determine appropriate level of care for eating disorder treatment
- Anxiety and depression
- All Issues that are relevant to adult women throughout their lifespan
Approach
Dr. Hammond-Meyer's dissertation was titled: Stabilizing Eating and Weight Using a Non-Dieting Treatment as a Means to Improve Biomedical Health Parameters in an Overweight Population of Women: A Health at Any Size Perspective. This work, as well as other work from feminist theory, attachment theory, personality theory, and interpersonal neurobiology forms the basis for her theory-driven approach to treatment.
Like other published empirical work, Anne's study demonstrated that women can improve health parameters apart from a weight loss focus. In fact, stabilizing eating, developing a positive relationship with food, and relying on appetite, hunger, and fullness cues can improve and support bio-psychosocial wellness. Dr. Hammond-Meyer supports the Health at Every Size philosophy. She believes that a body project and a focus on food restriction is one of the most demoralizing experiences a woman can have. The future is female1 and we cannot afford to be trapped in a body project.
Dr. Hammond-Meyer is a strong supporter of theory and science driven treatment. At the outpatient level it is important to gather all relevant clinical data, subjective and objective, and begin a clinical formulation of the patient, to individualize care and not become intervention driven. She has grounded her treatment approach in the belief that at the outpatient level of care the whole patient is addressed and treatment trends in the clinical community do not supersede the often complex needs of the individual human being. In other words, she treats people not just disorders. At the end of the day, people heal in relationship. Co-creating a securely attached relationship with the patient is the primary goal of all therapy.
This is the reason that all treatment begins with a psychological evaluation to gather the objective data unique to each person.
1. Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2017
Contact
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