At Chrysalis, we believe that a supportive, healing environment is essential in order for change and growth to occur. We seek to offer such an environment to clients and help them create that in their lives and relationships. Our motto, “Restoring Hope, Empowering Change” summarizes what we strive to achieve via the therapeutic process.

Our Mission

Chrysalis Center’s mission is to offer expert level, integrative, evidence-based treatment to all of our clients. We believe that individualized care that targets every aspect of a person’s well-being is most effective and that a collaborative relationship amongst the treatment team and clients facilitates a path to successful outcomes. It is our desire to restore hope and health to clients by empowering them to fulfill their goals and make positive changes. We are also passionate about engaging in community outreach and education to raise awareness about eating disorders and other mental health issues. We aspire to demonstrate our core values in all of the work that we do.

Our Vision

To restore hope and empower change by providing expert-level, evidence-based mental health counseling and multidisciplinary eating disorder treatment in a compassionate and comfortable environment.

Our Values

Teamwork  *  Ethics  *  Quality  *  Integrity  *  Compassion  *  Acceptance  * Hope  *  Wellness

What Our Values Mean to You

Teamwork – A multidisciplinary approach to treating people with Eating Disorders is widely recognized as the gold standard. All members of a client’s care must communicate effectively to produce the best outcomes. At Chrysalis Center, we are fortunate to have mental health professionals, prescribers, and dietitians working within the same building and meeting regularly to discuss cases. This allows for effective, regular communication between these disciplines to ensure continuity of care. You can also expect your provider to be in regular communication with outside team members including physicians and any other health professional involved in your care.

Ethics – It is the ethical responsibility of all healthcare professionals to ensure treatment is effective for the problem being addressed. At Chrysalis Center, empirically validated treatments such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and in the case of adolescents, Family Based Therapy build the foundation of all therapeutic interventions. These evidence-based therapeutic modalities have been proven again and again to be the most efficacious approach to alleviating behaviors and symptoms contributing to disordered eating.

Quality – Of course, every clinician wants to believe they are providing high-quality care. At Chrysalis, we take an additional step to ensure we are providing the best quality services to our clients by employing Blueprint, a Guided Measurement-Based Care Service to analyze outcomes. Through Blueprint, our clinicians can objectively track client progress through the use of screening instruments, outcome measures, and digital worksheets. While clients are not required to participate in Blueprint, all clients are provided the opportunity to benefit from Measurement-Based Care.

Integrity – At Chrysalis, we recognize that no therapist is an island. Maintaining integrity often requires consultation and feedback. Our team meets regularly to discuss challenges in meeting client needs. Through these forums, our clinicians can receive support and care from a team of professionals meeting similar challenges and operating under similar values. We also employ certified eating disorder specialists who are recognized for their competency and are able to provide supervision to newer clinicians.

Compassion – Providing compassionate care is at the cornerstone of Chrysalis’ operating principles. Creating an environment of compassion for clients and staff alike is always front of mind at Chrysalis. It is our firm belief that a compassionate space is imperative when the goal is growth and change. Psychologist Sigmund Freud once said,“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.” Compassion-based interventions are helpful in working with the eating disorder population as they address shame, internalized weight bias, and self-criticism in ways other treatment modalities do not (Steindl et al., 2017; Braun et al., 2021). A systematic literature review on the relevance of self-compassion interventions in the treatment of eating and body image concerns (Turk & Waller, 2020) showed that higher self-compassion was associated with lower eating pathology, reduced body image concerns, and greater positive body image.

Acceptance – There are so many ways a person can feel stigmatized in our culture. Chrysalis Center is dedicated to acknowledging and addressing the shame, hopelessness, and isolation that result from stigmatization. In response to data that indicates that the Eating Disorder prevalence is 12-17% in gender-diverse communities (Coelho et. al, 2019), our organization-wide Health Equity Initiative is currently focused on reducing healthcare disparities common in the LGBTQIA+ community. While we continue to make strides to identify and address healthcare disparities, we hope our most recent efforts have made our practice a more inclusive environment for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. One cannot operate an Eating Disorder Centric practice without acknowledging the incredible impact weight bias has on society. From our individual therapy sessions to community outreach efforts, Chrysalis Center staff work endlessly to identify and debunk ideas that center and stem from weight bias.

Hope –“Restoring Hope” is part of our organizational motto. Chrysalis Center clients benefit from a treatment center that believes in the hope of recovery. Chrysalis Center clinicians take a strengths-based approach to all clinical work, striving to build on clients’ assets. As Alfred Adler once wrote, “I cannot forget what one of my cured patients once answered when I asked him: What do you believe was the reason that I could succeed to cure you after all these years of misery? He answered: I became sick because I had lost all hope. And you gave me hope.”

Wellness – Chrysalis attends to client wellness in many ways. We begin with our multidisciplinary and evidence-based approach to treatment. From there, our focus on wellness encompasses our entire practice, from our psychiatric nurse practitioner offering genetic testing to ensure only the most effective medications are used in client care; to our medical assistant who is available to draw labs without clients ever needing to leave the building. In addition, our registered dietitians utilize genetic testing and FDA-approved metabolic testing to customize care. Chrysalis is prepared to treat the whole person and to respond responsibly with referrals to client needs that go beyond the scope of our practice.

Expert Eating Disorder Treatment

A hallmark of our practice is our integrated eating disorder treatment program, which addresses all clinical and subclinical eating disorders and body image issues. We provide specialized treatment that is specific to client needs, offering the only comprehensive program for eating disorders in southeastern North Carolina. Because expert-level care is important to us, we employ the only Certified Eating Disorder Specialists in the region. In addition, one of our dietitians on staff is a Certified Eating Disorders Registered Dietitian. Services include specialized assessments; individualized treatment plans for one-on-one, family, and group counseling, on-site nutritional education, meal support, and collaboration with other providers for higher levels of care.

Nutrition Philosophy

Our nutrition philosophy is rooted in a non-diet approach, meaning we strive to teach everyone how to nourish their bodies, re-gain a healthy understanding of food, and explore eating without fear or judgment. We believe in learning to rebuild trust with the body’s internal cues so that one can achieve freedom from dieting, eating disorder behaviors, and food rules.

Our goal is to help clients experience peace and pleasure with food.  We look at not just the food consumed, but each person’s unique relationship with food.  We believe that all foods can fit, and that a healthy way of eating includes adequacy, balance, and variety. The wealth of nutrition information available can easily cause confusion; our dietitians help educate clients, debunk dieting myths, and teach clients a realistic way of eating that works for them individually.

We aid clients in discovering ways to move their bodies that are both fun and work with their life. By focusing on healthy lifestyle behaviors and changes, success is measured via improvements in self-care and how one feels physically.

We take pride in helping clients learn how to honor and respect their bodies with delicious food and joyful movement; feeling good is priceless!

If you’re ready to receive help or know someone who is, contact us today at (910) 790-9500.