T ammy was sitting in my office for the first time. She was medium height and thin but not too thin and her skin was clear. Her casual clothing was designed neither to highlight nor conceal and her dark brown ringlets were pulled back into a tight ponytail. Nothing about her screamed eating disorder but Rabbi Eckstein had given me a brief history.
Tammy 26 came from a traditional American family that had made aliyah when she was five. There was no major trauma or abuse in the family but in sixth grade her class shunned her — a complete cheirem. Extremely intelligent organized and logical Tammy was a creature of habit. And herein lay the problem. Tammy had a “habit” of purging once a day and she wanted to stop.
“The rabbi said to tell you I need ‘horseback riding plus ’ ” she began.
I smiled.
“What’s the plus?” she asked. “And why horses?”
