Why Seek Treatment at Our Eating Disorder Specialty Practice?

Why is it important to see an eating disorder specialist for your eating disorder?

There are many kinds of therapists with many different degrees. You may wonder why you might want to choose to receive treatment from a practice that specializes in eating disorders, like ours does.

Eating Disorder Specialist Therapists

The primary reason is that at Eating Disorder Therapy LA, every one of our therapists specializes in eating disorders. Two of our therapists have the Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS) and approved supervisor (CEDS-S) credential. Together they supervise all of our other therapists: the licensed therapists, the pre-licensed therapists, and the doctoral trainees. The cumulative effect of this is that every patient seen by our practice receives therapy overseen by a recognized specialist in the field.

Consider how you would choose an orthopedic surgeon. Most orthopedic surgeons can do a range of orthopedic surgeries on various bones throughout the body. Some, however, will have specialties in particular structures such as hands or hips. The advantage is that those who specialize in one of the other see so many more hands or hips and develop further expertise in this niche. In particularly sensitive areas specialization is very important.

So it is with therapy. Any therapist degree is a general credential. Most therapists can treat a range of common problems like anxiety and depression. Most general therapists do not get any experience or training with eating disorders without deliberately pursuing advanced training or experience. Eating disorders are unique among mental health disorders for their impact on nutritional and physical health and potential for causing serious medical issues including death. Eating disorder therapists need to have knowledge of these domains as well.

Ongoing Eating Disorder Training for All Staff

At EDTLA where all our clinicians all focus on eating disorders, we have 3 hours of staff meetings each month where we discuss cases. And we attend multiple trainings and peer consult groups monthly led by peers and other experts in eating disorders. We attend annual conferences focused on eating disorders. All of us focus extensively on eating disorders.

We are constantly expanding our skills and increasing our specialization in the treatment of disorders. This allows us to stay abreast of the latest developments in research. We continually update our knowledge and ensure you are receiving treatment informed by the latest research in the field.

Patients can benefit from our broad experience in even finer subspecialities within the field of eating disorders. Dr. Muhlheim, for example, specializes in FBT for adolescents and young adults. One of our therapists focuses on eating disorders in older adults. Several of us are pursuing further training in the treatment of adults, adolescents, and even younger children with ARFID.

We also maintain a list of professionals in other disciplines to whom you may need to refer during eating disorder treatment: primary care providers, pediatricians, registered dietitian nutritionists, and psychiatrists. If you or your loved one needs a higher level of care, we are also very familiar with local and national centers that offer residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs.

Specialized Eating Disorder Treatments

We provide the most up-to-date evidence-based treatment for eating disorders, specifically, CBT-E, FBT, and CBT-AR and are all aligned with Health at Every Size®. Few practices nationwide offer the depth and breadth of experience that we have with eating disorders.

Many of our patients tell us that they did not get the treatment they needed from nonspecialist therapists. Early intervention in the case of eating disorders can reduce longterm consequences and increase the potential for full recovery.

Contact our Eating Disorder Specialist Therapists in California

If you are looking for eating disorder help in California, please reach out now.