Proceeds of book to benefit the National Association for Diabetes and the National Association for Eating Disorders

For Immediate Release - Glen Falls, New York - “It’s Not Me ... It’s You!” Publishing, a company specializing in books promoting emotional wellness, today announced the publication of Friendly Mirrors and Contended Closets: A guide to strengthen healthy eating attitudes, reduce compulsive overeating, and eliminate weight cycling by clinical psychologist Gina Scarano-Osika, Ph.D.

Friendly Mirrors and Contended Closets is based on a group treatment program run by Scarano-Osika for overweight people who are drawn to binge eating. Organized as a collection of the latest research and intervention treatments, the book is designed to inspire those who suffer from eating disorders. Readers afflicted can accomplish lifelong weight goals by following the steps outlined in Friendly Mirrors and Contented Closets.

Scarano-Osika has filled the pages with interviews, biographies, and stories from actual patients. Their message is translated into a compilation of helpful and inspiring stories of hope. Friendly Mirrors and Contented Closets includes exercises to help uncover the triggers of overeating and weight cycling. Also, each chapter closes with an attitude checklist that helps transition the lessons learned into daily behavioral changes. General themes addressed in the book include the physiology of weight control, awareness of hunger and fullness cues, all-or-none eating, emotional eating and stress management, unbalanced personality styles, relationship skills, and conflict management.

“I hope that those who suffer with eating disorders can look to Friendly Mirrors and Contended Closets as a source of hope and inspiration,” said author Gina Scarano-Osika. “I want people to know that they are not alone in this fight and that they really can make small changes everyday that will grow into lifelong accomplishments.”

An audio version of Friendly Mirrors and Contended Closets is available on www.friendlymirrors.com. The website also includes user friendly audio-visuals, a web mail service, support chat rooms, and online Q&A seminars with the author.

Author Gina Scarano-Osika was born in Saratoga Springs, New York and currently resides in Queensbury. As a practicing clinical psychologist, Scarano-Osika founded “It’s Not Me ... It’s You!” Publishing to give a voice to emotional wellness and to help put to rest the stigma of mental health treatment and psychiatric illnesses. Two additional titles are also in the works. In August 2004, Scarano-Osika was asked by the New York State Department of Health to be a member of a task force to help develop six Centers of Excellence within the state of New York to specialize in the treatment of anorexia and bulimia. Five percent of the proceeds from Friendly Mirrors and Contended Closets will be donated to both the National Association for Diabetes and the National Association for Eating Disorders. The book can be purchased by calling 518.745.0079 or by visiting www.friendlymirrors.com.