6 Questions with Bernou Melisse

Tell us about your role at the Life Span Institute.

At CARE I will be focused on detection, assessment, prevention, and intervention of eating disorders. I'm specifically interested in eating disorders and comorbid disorders, digital health, digital intervention implementation, and increasing access to evidence-based care — but also bringing research into clinical practice, especially in underserved populations or regions.

As an assistant research professor, but also the associate director, I will help director Dr. Forbush with collaborations, grant applications, new research initiatives, strategic development, working on how the lab could grow, supporting implementation, or basically support wherever needed. I’ll supervise and mentor students, and I will conduct some clinical work or oversee those conducting clinical work.

What are you most proud of in your work?

The most I'm proud of is that I have contributed to increasing access to care, specifically to evidence-based care. In the Netherlands, that has been through developing digitalized treatments.

I have established the first eating disorder clinic here in Abu Dhabi. There was no evidence-based treatment. There was no eating disorder treatment facility, so I have also conducted a couple of studies on the digitalized care and also on eating disorders in Arab and African populations.

Through this, I increased access to care, but also spread more knowledge, especially in these underserved regions and populations.

In my experience, an eating disorder is an eating disorder. So, there is not much difference between eating disorders in Europe or in the Arab world. However, knowledge really differs, and also how eating disorders are approached. In the West we perceive eating disorders as psychological conditions, in the East it is rather approached as a biological condition. You have to invest in getting to understand the culture, the types of food they are eating, and also include culture in your treatment protocols. It is very important that you show that you understand people or that you want to understand their experiences.

What prepared you to do this work?

I was interested in eating disorders from a young age because I saw some people around me struggling with eating disorders, and it was hard for them to recover. I’ve also long been interested the psychological and the biological aspects to eating disorders. It's not just a psychological disorder. It comes with physical complications, and you need to work with a multidisciplinary team.

Another thing that interests me is that the field of eating disorders is evolving. Before, we mainly saw the development of eating disorders among teenagers. And now, recently, we see this happening also in younger children and men. But it occurs across the lifespan. My youngest patient was a 10-year-old boy, and my oldest one was a 72-year-old man.

What is unexpected or misunderstood about what you do?

Most people think that eating disorders involve challenges with food, but actually they are psychological problems. So, it's not simply going to a dietitian for a cure, you really need psychological interventions. Evidence-based care is very important.

Most eating disorders are invisible. You know, when we think about eating disorders, we usually have anorexia nervosa in mind. Well, with most of the eating disorders, you cannot see them, especially the non-restrictive ones. For example, those who are binge eating often have an average body size or a larger body size. It's only a minority that has a small body size.

Also, people may not realize that in research, it sometimes is not 9-to-5. There’s always deadlines, and yet the work is basically never done. You're not satisfied, or you think the work is not done yet, but you have to send something in.

Who do you hope is helped through your work?

Well, first of all, those who struggle with eating disorders and their families or their relatives or friends. Also, junior clinicians and junior researchers who want to explore and develop themselves in the field.

Who are you when you’re at home?

My husband is a very good chocolate chef. He worked for various royal families. I'm the first one to volunteer to try his new collections and his new creations. So, I would say a chocolate taster.

I like to exercise a lot, like going to the gym, swimming, and doing yoga. Right now, we live near the beach, so I like to go to the beach and do some stand-up paddling. I like to travel, and when I used to live in the Netherlands, I really liked to go to the cinema.