A spirited, engaging individual, Carolyn is a renowned clinician, author, and speaker acclaimed for her expertise, passion and accomplishments in the eating disorder field.
In her early twenties, Carolyn recovered from anorexia nervosa, earned two
masters degrees, became a teacher and began her career a psychotherapist.
After treating her first eating disorder client in 1979, Carolyn recognized it
was her calling. Her successful treatment of those with eating disorders led her
to bring her philosophy to the public through her speaking, her books and the
founding of her unique residential treatment center, Monte Nido.
Carolyn literally had a dream in the 1980's about
an eating disorder program she had created in a beautiful
mountain setting. In 1996, ten years later, Carolyn's dream
became a reality when she walked onto property near Malibu,
California known as Monte Nido. Carolyn recognized the
property and the house from her dream and knew she was
destined to turn it into the first licensed, eating disorder
residential program in a home setting.
Known for bringing "Care of the Soul" to her treatment
philosophy and work settings, Carolyn was the first to combine
eastern healing modalities, such as yoga and meditation to
state of the art eating disorder treatment.
Carolyn was also the first to openly hire recovered therapists, have staff and clients eat meals together like a family, and provide a unique level system where clients shopped and cooked for themselves prior to discharge.
Carolyn's humanistic, relational, approach, and her successful strategies on what it takes to be recovered, delineated in her books, combined with Monte Nido's highly successful outcome study (www.montenido.com) spurred the growth of Monte Nido, under her leadership, into 14 facilities offering a continuum of care, including another first; transitional living.
Since leaving Monte Nido & Affiliates in early 2016 Carolyn has remained very active in the eating disorder field. In addition to maintaining her private practice, Community Counseling, Carolyn is a highly sought-after speaker who shares her wisdom and expertise with professionals and the public through worldwide speaking engagements.
Outside of her work with Monte Nido, a large percentage of Carolyn’s career has been lecturing, training, teaching and supervising clinicians, dietitians and physicians. Many regularly attend a monthly study group for professionals that Carolyn started in the mid 1980’s. Carolyn also offers continuing education courses through the national Board of Certified Counselors and the California Marriage and Family Therapy association.
Carolyn is involved in several professional eating disorder organizations including The International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP) as a board trustee and the Academy of Eating Disorders, (AED) as a Fellow. Her advocacy work continues in many arenas including organizations such as Project Heal, Eating Disorder Hope and The Eating Disorder Coalition.
In early 2017, Carolyn opened The Carolyn Costin Institute, which offers Eating Disorder Coach Training, a Mentor program, Continuing Education for clinicians as well as other specialized training.
Explore Carolyn's Services Through This Website