I provide compassionate, focused counseling to help those suffering from an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and compulsive overeating return to a healthier relationship with food and their body.  Because many factors contribute to the development of an eating disorder, the "best treatment" is one customized for each individual. In general, this includes

• Developing new, healthier behaviors around food
• Identifying and managing individual triggers 
• Learning to identify and express emotions
• Building self esteem
• Better coping for stress, anxiety
• Improving attitudes about body image
  

Effective treatment must address learning to manage the eating disorder symptoms but to achieve true recovery, we also work towards understanding and dealing with the underlying psychological, interpersonal and cultural forces that caused it. 

As needed, I work as a team with other medical professionals such as  dietitians/nutritionists and psychiatrists in addition to the primary care provider.   I may also suggest sessions with the entire family to help provide support and understanding for changing old patterns.

Family support

When someone you love has an eating disorder, it can be scary, confusing, exhausting, and frustrating.  In order to best help your loved one, you need support too. I believe that this is a critical piece of eating disorder treatment that is often overlooked. My treatment approach includes attention to the the needs of parents and partners.

The following handouts contain some helpful guidelines for families

Tips for Parents

What Parents Can Do Now

Eating disorders CAN be successfully treated, however, it takes  patience, commitment and courage.  

 CALL 425-233-2439 for an appointment 

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Family Based Treatment (Maudsley)

With adolescents, I recommend Family Based Treatment (also known as Maudsley) whenever possible.  This is an approach that uses the family in a loving, compassionate way as an active part of treatment.  With Family Based Treatment, we are not concerned with "why" the eating disorder developed.  The focus of treatment is eliminating the eating disorder behaviors as quickly as possible and returning the adolescent to health.  Issues such as emotions, self esteem, perfectionism and even body image are not addressed during treatment.  Family issues are also not addressed other than in relation to helping the youth recover from the eating disorder.

This method has been very well researched and found to be effective and efficient for many.  Treatment generally lasts for 20 sessions over 10 monthes and carries a significant success rate.   

Documented success rates show that patients with anorexia nervosa require no more than 20 sessions over 6 – 12 months and that 80% of patients are fully weight restored following treatment.  While originally developed for treatment of anorexia, Family Based Treatment has also been documented to show success in treatment of bulimia with almost 40% of patients in Family Based Treatment stopping their bingeing and purging.

I am happy to discuss this with you in more detail to see if it makes sense for your family.

Eating Disorder Support Groups:  Follow this link to find listings for some of the excellent local resources

http://www.counselingseattle.com/resources/support-group.htm