Last week I revealed that one of my favorite things about working with hoarders and the chronically disorganized was hearing their stories. Well, another perk of the job is meeting the experts who study and treat the people afflicted with these various disorders. Recently, I asked questions of some very well-respected experts in their particular fields of study and today’s post is from one of those interviews with Dr. April Benson.
Note that Dr. Benson works with compulsive shoppers not hoarders. Many people, incorrectly, think that overshopping and hoarding are the same. This is not true. If you, or someone you know, is a compulsive shopper it is recommended that you seek help from a therapist specializing in treating shopping disorders, not a hoarding expert.
What is your name, area of expertise and location where you practice?
April Lane Benson, Ph.D. I’m a psychologist and founder of Stopping Overshopping, LLC. I specialize in working with compulsive buyers. My office is in Manhattan, New York and I work with overshoppers all over the country by telephone and I train therapists both in the U.S. and outside of the country by telephone as well.
Do you meet clients/patients in your office or do you meet them in their homes?
I work with clients/patients in my office and sometimes I work with them in stores.
What special qualifications do you have for working in your area of specialty?
I’ve edited one book about compulsive buying, I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self (Aronson, 2000), which was the first book for professionals about this disorder in English, and I’ve written another, To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop (Trumpeter, 2008). This book is a comprehensive program for stopping overshopping. I’ve also written two chapters for other books about compulsive buying and am currently writing a third. I’ve worked with compulsive buyers individually and in small groups for the past 14 years.
Are there new developments in diagnosing / treating your area of specialty?
There is a new assessment tool called the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale which has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of compulsive buying and seems to outperform the older scales. As far as treatment is concerned, the program that I’ve created, which combines cognitive behavior therapy, psychodynamic concepts, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness is a new development, which I plan to test empirically, beginning in 2010.
Would you describe your approach to working with your specialty as holistic, conventional or integrative?
As described in the previous question, my approach is holistic and integrative.
Do you collaborate with Professional Organizers? How do you structure the collaboration? How can P.O.s help you? What shouldn’t P.O.s do?
I’ve made referrals to professional organizers and have been referred clients by professional organizers, but I haven’t collaborated with organizers on an ongoing basis.
General Principles Regarding Intervention
- Realize that there’s only so much you can do. Your client has to really want to change and see some value in changing for it to happen.
- Preserving your relationship with your client is the first order of priority.
- Overspending clients can evoke very strong feelings in all of us. Envy, competitiveness, anger, contempt, and disgust are common. Pay close attention to your thoughts and feelings before you intervene.
- If you notice your client becoming defensive, back off.
- In your desire to help, it’s easy to promise more than you can deliver. Don’t get in over your head. You could both drown!
- There’s no shame, and more likely wisdom, in telling your client that some of what he/she needs goes beyond your area of expertise and that you’ll assist him/her in getting help. There are a variety of sources of help and support you can tell your client about.
To your knowledge, what is the cure rate for patients/clients seeking help within your area of specialty?
Very hard to assess. We don’t have a lot of data. In my own practice, for patients that have stayed more than two or three sessions, I’d say that at least 90% are no longer buying compulsively when they finish with treatment. In the telephone groups, of those who complete the group, I’d say the success rate is closer to 80%.
What are some of the biggest misunderstandings regarding public perception about your field of specialty?
The biggest misunderstanding of compulsive buying is that it’s not a serous problem. It’s actually thought of as the “smiled-upon” addiction, because consumption fuels our economy. It’s trivialized in the media; witness the scores of cartoons (many of which I have in a power point presentation), the ubiquitous bumper stickers (Shop til you Drop, He Who has the Most Toys When He Dies, Wins, Veni, Vidi, Visa) and the many jokes.
What are the criteria for diagnosing a hoarder/shopper/addict?
Definition of Shopaholic:
One who practices chronic, repetitive purchasing that provides immediate short-term gratification, but ultimately causes harm to the individual or others.
Who Needs Help?
- Do you use shopping as a quick fix for the blues?
- Do you spend more than you can afford?
- Are some of your purchases unused or hidden?
- Do you feel guilty or ashamed about this behavior?
- Would your life be richer if you were shopping less?
- Have your attempts to change been unsuccessful?
The more of these questions that someone answers in the affirmative, the more likely it is that he/she could be addicted to shopping/an overshopper/a problem buyer. Only a trained clinician can make a definitive diagnosis, however.
Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale
6 questions scored on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 meaning strongly disagree and 7 meaning strongly agree.
- My closet has unopened shopping bags in it.
- Others might consider me a shopaholic
- Much of my life centers around buying things
- I consider myself an impulse purchase
- I buy things I don’t need
- I buy things I did not plan to buy
A score of 25 or above suggests compulsive buying disorder. Only a trained clinician can make a definitive diagnosis.
What is the course of treatment once someone comes to you for help?
During the course of the first five weeks, you begin to take your first important steps to:
- Free yourself to make decisions without the burdens of old baggage by discovering why you overshop and how it all began.
- Successfully resist the impulse to buy things you don’t need and won’t use by identifying your shopping triggers.
- Protect your resources, your livelihood, and your relationships by looking closely at what your habit is costing you.
- Learn what you truly want and need, and have money available for those things by reducing unnecessary spending.
- Develop the habit of spending on what matters most so that there’s money for savings and any emergencies that might arise.
- Make better and more informed choices about using credit so that you enrich yourself, rather than a credit card company.
- Deal effectively with the new opportunities and choices that emerge by learning what to expect as you stop overshopping.
During the course of the last seven weeks, you continue the journey and:
- Hand tailor constructive ways to meet your authentic underlying needs so your life is enhanced, not eroded.
- Discover the specific pulls of major shopping venues and forms of social pressure so that you can more mindfully resist them.
- Create an effective way to plan your purchases when you do need to shop so that you stay grounded and in control.
- Become fluent in the language of your body and your heart so you can enlist then effectively when the urge to splurge strikes.
- Recognize your automatic, distorted thinking and learn to restructure it so that you don’t think that overshopping is a solution.
- Access your spiritual needs and hungers and formulate a related action plan to reconnect with wonder, hope and gratitude.
- Troubleshoot about lapse, relapse, and upcoming high risk situations so that you can handle them effectively when they occur.
How long are sessions? Does the time vary based on the age of the patient?
Sessions vary from 50 to 75 minutes. The time varies based on a number of factors, one of which is whether I’m seeing the patient individually or in a small group.
When seeking help, should the patient/client expect to be in treatment for at least 30 days? 6 months? 1 year?
The groups that I offer are 12 weeks. Sometimes group members continue beyond the twelve weeks on a less frequent basis. For individuals, the treatment length varies considerably. It depends upon how long the patient wants the support, whether there are other related issues to be worked on, and whether the patient has a primary therapist that he or she is seeing concurrently.
Approximately how much should someone expect to pay when they come to you for help?
The fee for the 12 week group that I offer is currently $1195. My fee for individual therapy/coaching is between $275 – $350 per session. I have two colleagues that I’ve trained in my method whose fees are considerably lower.
Is there a profile available of your typical client who seeks help?
About 80% of my clients have been women between 20 and 65. About 20% have been men in the same age range. Almost all have at least a college education and many graduate degrees. Most are high functioning, although some are not.
