Excerpt from the Foreward by Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh
What has been missing is a book that puts the practical and the best available science in one place. This is that book. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is about your teen. In this year. In your care.
—Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh is a writer and activist for improved eating disorder treatment after the recovery of her teen daughter from anorexia. Her book Eating With Your Anorexic is a memoir of her family’s experience.
Editorial Reviews
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
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
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
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
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
— Jennifer J. Thomas, PhD, codirector, Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital; associate professor of psychology, department of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; author of Almost Anorexic and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
Lauren Muhlheim’s book walks readers through the terrifying terrain of helping a teen recover from an eating disorder. She offers evidence-based information and practical advice in a reassuring, matter-of-fact tone, which is exactly what parents need when they’re in the thick of a child’s illness.
—Harriet Brown, author of Shadow Daughter: A Memoir of Estrangement, Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight—and What We Can Do About It, and Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia (2010); professor, magazine journalism, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
This is the best workbook for parents that I have reviewed. Dr. Muhlheim does an outstanding job of emphasizing the importance of parents in the recovery process and offers evidence based, practical advice on how to accomplish recovery. This is the book that I will recommend to families as an introduction to the illnesses and what the challenges of recovery will be…excellent contribution to the field.
—Craig Johnson, PhD, CEDS, FAED, chief science officer and codirector of the Family Institute, Eating Recovery Center; clinical professor of psychiatry, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder empowers readers with practical information and evidence-based tools for navigating these illnesses as a family. It’s a hopeful, helpful guide written with the understanding that parents truly are on the front lines of eating disorder recovery.
—Claire Mysko, chief executive officer, National Eating Disorders Association
Any parent with a loved one suffering from an eating disorder, as well as clinicians treating them, will benefit from this treasure. As a Clinical Psychologist devoting my career to including families as part of the treatment team, I strongly recommend this book to help you navigate best practices to restore your loved one to health.
—Roxanne E. Rockwell, PhD, director, adolescent eating disorders services , Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research, USA; assistant clinical professor, UC San Diego department of psychiatry, School of Medicine
This is an outstanding, practical guide that can help any parent or caregiver navigate the daunting terrain of helping their loved one fight an eating disorder, and one of the best books out there. To parents looking for a guide: pick this one up, read it, and move forward with renewed confidence that you are not alone. Hear the voices of other parents who have been through this. You’ve got this, and Dr. Muhlheim is there to make sure you know you are your child’s greatest asset in fighting this disease.
—Rebecka Peebles, MD, director of research and quality innovations, Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; assistant professor, The Craig Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine; department of pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Muhlheim offers a practical, accessible guide to helping your teen recover from an eating disorder. Her book offers step-by-step guidance on how to manage meals, as well as the emotions and conversations that occur around food. More, she provides hope that teens can recover and empowers families to facilitate the healing at home.
—Stacey Rosenfeld, PhD, psychologist, certified group psychotherapist, certified eating disorders specialist, and author of Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation’s Fixation with Food and Weight
Dr. Muhlheim was interviewed by Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. of the Los Angeles Psychologist about the book.
Read A Q & A with Lauren Muhlheim PsyD on her book on teen eating disorders (PDF).