Book by Our Practice Owner, Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D.

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder:

Practical Strategies to Help Your Teen Recover from Anorexia, Bulimia & Binge Eating

Now Available in Spanish: Libro en español

If you have a teen with an eating disorder—such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating—you may feel powerless, worried, or uncertain about how you can best support them on the road to recovery. Grounded in evidence-based strategies, this book will help give you the confidence you need to help your teen make healthy choices and heal in body and mind.

Practical Strategies for Parents

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder offers a unique family-based treatment (FBT) approach you can use to help your teen recover. You’ll learn how best to support your teen’s nutritional rehabilitation, normalize eating behaviors, and manage meals. You’ll also discover how to help your teen adopt independent and intuitive eating habits, expand food flexibility, and use coping strategies and recovery skills to prevent relapse. With this compassionate guide, you’ll feel empowered to nurture your teen and help them stay on the road to recovery.

See select endorsements below and the full list of endorsements here.

Read the Book Review by Camden Matherne, Ph.D. in the Academy for Eating Disorders’ AED Forum.

Read the detailed review by colleague Rachel Bachner-Melman, Ph.D.

Buy directly from the Eating Disorder Therapy LA store or from one of our retail partners

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder has been translated and published into the following additional languages: Spanish, Russian, Turkish, and Bulgarian.

Full 1

“When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is an outstanding resource for parents who are confronted with the various challenges that come their way when their child has an eating disorder. This book provides parents with a ringing endorsement that they are the ones who should take center stage in their child’s treatment, and that it is the parents who ultimately will be instrumental in bringing about recovery for their child. Dr. Muhlheim’s depth of experience working with such families shines through in this practical guide of how to make sense of the everyday challenges that a diagnosis of an eating disorder brings to such families. Most important, this book provides parents with a steady dose of practical strategies to employ while engaged in family-based treatment, and thereby adds a critical resource in this struggle to overcome their child’s illness.”

— Daniel Le Grange, PhD

Co-developer of family-based treatment; Benioff UCSF professor in children's health, and eating disorders; director in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco; and coauthor of Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder and Treatment Manual for Anorexia Nervosa

Full 2

“This book fills a necessary gap in helping parents to feel effective and engaged in tackling their child's eating disorder. The calm, compassionate voice of Lauren Muhlheim describing the challenges and engagement associated with family based renourishment provides a necessary succor for families engaging in FBT. Her common-sense, easy to read and insightful book is like having a seasoned FBT therapist on speed-dial. Muhlheim's work with families, as well as her keen interest in and development of FBT practice for therapists coalesce into this great book.”

— Kathleen Kara Fitzpatrick, PhD

Psychologist and director of the Outpatient Eating Disorder Clinic in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and Stanford Children’s Hospital

Full 3

“Eating disorders are serious diseases that can have a major impact on the physical and mental health of those affected. They can easily go unrecognized and untreated. In her book, eating disorders expert Lauren Muhlheim helps readers become fully aware of practical strategies and helpful tips to apply Family Based Treatment (FBT) the only evidence-based treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. As Lauren states, a parent’s involvement and understanding is crucial for better outcomes. This is a book that is worth reading and I am sure many parents and families will benefit greatly. I loved it and I give my most enthusiastic applause for this addition to the eating disorders literature!”

— Eva Maria Trujillo Chi Vacuán, MD

Past-president at the Academy for Eating Disorders; medical director and founder of Comenzar de Nuevo, A.C. , International Treatment Center for Eating Disorders;, clinical professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey School of Medicine

Full 4

“In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Lauren Muhlheim provides a wise, inspiring, and compassionate guide through the complicated journey of an eating disorder. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is a must-read for anyone who cares for a young person suffering with disordered eating and negative body image. Above all, this book provides true hope that healing does indeed happen!”

— Jenni Schaefer

Author of Life Without Ed, Almost Anorexic, and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me

Full 4 - copy

“This outstanding book concisely and methodically takes you through the steps needed to treat your teen's eating disorder. Everything parents absolutely must know is in here. Lauren Muhlheim is an experienced clinician who really understands the practicalities of what happens at home.”

— Eva Musby

Parent and author of Anorexia and Other Eating Disorders: How to Help your Child Eat Well and Be Well