Clients Graduation Ceremony from Magnolia Creek

Last week, I was able to attend a graduation ceremony for one of our clients. During our graduations, all clients in our program as well as Magnolia Creek Treatment Center for Eating Disorders staff are able to attend. It was a rainy afternoon and we were all huddled around inside the lakefront gazebo. During the graduation ceremony, all who attended spoke words of encouragement and presented the graduate with a magnolia necklace. During graduation there was emotion, laughter, crying and reminiscing about the graduate’s time here during their eating disorder treatment.

As the graduation continued, I thought back… During admission and upon entering our residential treatment program, the client was very doubtful, had a flat affect, and didn’t know if she would ever get control of her eating disorder (anorexia). She truly didn’t know where she was headed in life.

During graduation, she was transformed! She had a hopeful outlook on life, knew where she was headed, confident and bright spirited. All of these characteristics were missing upon admission, and gained during treatment. She had her life back! Although she understood that recovery wasn’t easy, she had HOPE!

I am grateful to work at Magnolia Creek and thrilled to witness the transformation of our clients from doubt to hope!