Women-Only Facilities for Sustainable Recovery
By Dr. Mehri Moore Since founding THIRA Health, a clinic in Bellevue, Washington, offering intensive, focused, and individualized mental health treatment for women and girls grappling with anxiety and depression, one of the most frequent questions I receive is, “Why a women-only facility?” Though there are a number of convincing arguments to be made in response to this question, in my view the answer comes down to the very nature of mental illness itself. After spending decades working with women suffering from eating disorders – some 90% of whom experienced a co-occurring psychiatric disorder like anxiety or depression – I realized that the underlying issues plaguing a majority of my patients revolved first and foremost around the development of the self. The Double-Bind of Womanhood As I’ve written before,...