Rebecca Carpentier noticed a lack of proper eating disorder treatment facilities in upstate New York when she experienced anorexia nervosa as a teenager.

As the program director of the Sol Stone Center facility in Syracuse, she now provides care to those experiencing eating disorders in central New York. 

Sol Stone serves as a partial hospitalization program which provides help to individuals with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder and those who exercise compulsively. The facility’s Syracuse location opened in August and is part of the Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service. 

Cactus decorations and encouraging signs that say “good things take time” and “recovery is possible” fill Carpentier’s office. Her personal struggle with eating disorders led her to help those who are facing similar issues now. 

“The best part of my job is that I can 100% say that I have left here, and I have cried on my way home because of how beautiful it is to watch people heal and better connect with each other,” Carpentier said.

Sol Stone provides help to individuals experiencing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder and compulsive exercise. TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer

The Sol Stone Center’s staff consists of three therapists, a diet tech, a case manager, a resident nurse, an intern and a psychiatrist. The current staff is all women, as are the five patients. Patients stay at the facility for an average of four to 12 weeks, Carpentier said.

Patients eat meals together, facilitated by a dietician and a diet tech, Carpentier said. They get their body composition checked by the resident nurse to track their progress. At community meetings, patients set goals for the day, participate in mind-body wellness activities and nutrition education, and participate in group and individual therapy sessions. 

“We really try to diversify the experiences they’re having with food and really try to normalize that for them,” Carpentier said. “We really try to think about what they’re going to face outside of here and how can we simulate that here to help them know how to deal.” 

In addition to the new Syracuse location, the Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service has Sol Stone Centers in Elmira, Vestal and Ithaca and a nutrition clinic office in Liverpool. 

Chelsea Finn entered the Sol Stone Center in Elmira for treatment of an eating disorder when she was 24 years old, two months after she got married. She found the facility online and went in for metabolic testing, which measures the rate at which an individual consumes energy. The testing is helpful for doctors to see how severely an eating disorder is harming the body. 

Finn received treatment from the Sol Stone in Elmira for almost two months, living at the center since her home was three hours away. She still goes to nutrition and therapy appointments close to home but said Sol Stone helped her reacclimate to the real world and utilize her support system. 

“It made it a lot easier to go back into real life because they give you the life skills and the meals that you need to eat on your own,” Finn said. “So, it was really good to transition out of there because they didn’t just want to get you better they wanted to keep you better.”

For Finn, her eating disorder was an isolating and lonely experience that caused her to push her family and closest friends away. The encouragement she got from Sol Stone and the way she was submerged into the program were important for her path to recovery, she said.

The center’s clients are in a lot of pain, and their interactions with Sol Stone staff can be really hard, Carpentier said. These interactions are one of the hardest parts of the job, she said.

Sol Stone Centers are located in Elmira, Vestal and Ithaca. A nutrition clinic office is also located in Liverpool. TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer

“Sometimes I have to make decisions that are difficult for them, I have to push them in ways they’re not comfortable with, and we have to sit with that discomfort together,” Carpentier said.

Eating disorders often become a coping mechanism for those experiencing trauma and other forms of mental illness, Carpentier said. At Sol Stone, patients are taught through a variety of treatment methods that there are other ways to cope with trauma that don’t involve harming their bodies, she said. 

“It is the most beautiful thing you can do and the best gift you can give yourself to recover and be present in your life, with your family, with the people around you and with the experiences you are going to have,” Carpentier said. 

Published on November 5, 2019 at 10:53 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu