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BFPA · Resource Center

About the resource center

A clinician-founded resource for body-focused process addictions.

The BFPA Resource Center was founded by Chaille DeFaria, MCC and Karen Pickett, LMFT to offer a credible place to learn about body-focused process addictions and find support for them. These are behaviors that have too often been treated as personal failings rather than what they are: a form of behavioral addiction.

The BFPA framing

Why 'process addiction'?

A Body Focused Process Addiction (BFPA™) is a type of behavioral addiction that encompasses behaviors commonly referred to as Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs), including skin picking, hair pulling, nail biting, and related behaviors.

Framing these behaviors as process addictions, rather than habits or disorders alone, opens up treatment models developed for addiction. It accounts for the role dopamine and other neurotransmitters play, and acknowledges the cycle of tolerance, coping, and return that many people describe from the inside.

Chaille and Karen developed this framing to fold modern addiction research into clinical work with populations that have historically been overlooked. The goal is simple: better outcomes, less shame, more precise support.

The founders

Who runs this.

Chaille DeFariaMCC, CDWF

Co-founder · Mental Health Consultant & ICF Master Certified Coach

Chaille DeFaria is a Mental Health Consultant and ICF Master Certified Credentialed Coach (MCC) who specializes in helping people heal from BFPAs™ (Body Focused Process Addictions), behavioral addiction, anxiety, and shame. As the co-founder of the BFPA™ Resource Center and a former member of the TLC Foundation for BFRBs Board of Directors, Chaille is dedicated to providing effective BFRB treatment. She is certified as a Daring Way™ Facilitator of Dr. Brené Brown's research, running workshops and working individually with young adults and parents. Chaille also presents at conferences, including NAMI, and writes a monthly column in the Culver City Neighbors magazine called ‘Cultivating Courage with Chaille.’

Karen PickettLMFT

Co-founder · Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

Karen Pickett, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist and co-founder of the BFPA™ Resource Center. She specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders and Body Focused Process Addictions (BFPAs™), including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Skin Picking Disorder, and Trichotillomania. As an expert in behavioral addiction, Karen is a Certified Trauma and Addiction therapist and a former member of the TLC Foundation for BFRBs Board of Directors. She has been featured as a psychotherapist on A&E's series Obsessed, served as faculty in counseling psychology at USM, and held the position of Clinical Director at the OCD Center of Los Angeles. Karen has also co-produced three performances of This Is My Brave™, a live show aimed at ending the stigma surrounding mental illness.

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