I often write about the importance of including parents in the treatment of adolescents and young adults. My work is informed by my training in Family-based Treatment (FBT). A central component of this treatment is empowering parents to help their ailing children with eating disorders return to health. When asked why families should be the …
Ten Things I Want Viewers of To the Bone to Know “To The Bone,” Marti Noxon’s semi-autobiographical film about her experience as a young adult living with anorexia, was released today on Netflix and has already stirred up much controversy within the eating disorder community. Generally, I do not see things in black and white. …
I had the honor of presenting a workshop yesterday along with Therese Waterhous, PhD/RDN, CEDRD. and Lisa LaBorde, Outreach Director for Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders (FEAST) at the IAEDP Symposium 2016. Our workshop was entitled, From “Worst Attendants” to Partners in Recovery: Empowering Parents as Agents of Change for Children and Adolescents …
My original eating disorder training began in 1991 with learning Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for bulimia nervosa (BN) under G. Terence Wilson, the co-author with Dr. Christopher G. Fairburn, of the treatment approach that preceded CBT-E. In 2010 I underwent training in Family Based Treatment (FBT) for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and became certified in …
College Readiness When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder How do you know whether your child with an eating disorder is ready for college? Sending a child to college usually raises anxiety for most parents. And you may have even more anxiety if your young adult has or has struggled with an eating disorder. Dr. …
Katie and I had the honor of presenting in the Individual, Family, and Friends track at the National Eating Disorder Association Conference in San Diego yesterday. The title of our talk was: Family Based Nutrition Therapy: Creating A Supportive Environment. It was a chance to share the way we work to support families who are …
I recently began volunteering at the Best Friends Neonatal Kitten Nursery. Best Friends Los Angeles opened its neonatal kitten nursery in February 2013. The nursery is staffed with a dedicated coordinator and supported by volunteers who sign up for two hour feeding shifts 24 hours a day to help the kittens grow and thrive. If …
![family at family meal in FBT [Image description: a family with their backs to us sits around a table] Represents a potential family in California receiving FBT for their teens eating disorder](https://www.eatingdisordertherapyla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DALL·E-2023-12-01-19.14.32-a-family-is-seated-around-a-brown-conference-table.-There-are-2-parents-and-2-teenagers-sitting-and-their-backs-are-to-us.-Off-to-the-side-a-therapist5.png)
Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is the best-researched outpatient treatment for teen eating disorders, including anorexia. In FBT, the family plays a central role in treatment. Through family meals, parents restore their teens to health and interrupt eating disorder behaviors. In FBT, parents plan, prepare, serve, and supervise meals. Usually, parents are left wondering 1) how to …
This interaction on twitter caught my eye: Watching cooking shows, collecting and reading recipes, and cooking for others (but not eating it oneself) are some of the earliest signs of anorexia that are often missed and misinterpreted by parents. In Keys’ landmark study “The Biology of Human Starvation” male volunteers were put on starvation diets. …
ICED 2014 in New York provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues from around the world who share a commitment to providing treatment to those suffering from eating disorders. Among the highlights for me were the well-attended, first-ever tweetUP and my official appointment as Board Director for Outreach of the Academy for Eating Disorders. …