Emotion-focused family therapy for eating disorders in children and adolescents

Abstract

Family-based therapy (FBT) is regarded as best practice for the treatment of eating disorders in children and adolescents. In FBT, parents play a vital role in bringing their child or adolescent to health; however, a significant minority of families do not respond to this treatment. This paper introduces a new model whereby FBT is enhanced by integrating emotion-focused therapy (EFT) principles and techniques with the aims of helping parents to support their child's refeeding and interruption of symptoms. Parents are also supported to become their child's 'emotion coach'; and to process any emotional 'blocks' that may interfere with their ability to take charge of recovery. A parent testimonial is presented to illustrate the integration of the theory and techniques of EFT in the FBT model. EFFT (Emotion-Focused Family Therapy) is a promising model of therapy for those families who require a more intense treatment to bring about recovery of an eating disorder.

Key practitioner message: More intense therapeutic models exist for treatment-resistant eating disorders in children and adolescents. Emotion is a powerful healing tool in families struggling with an eating disorder. Working with parent's emotions and emotional reactions to their child's struggles has the potential to improve child outcomes.

Keywords: eating disorders; emotion; emotion-focused therapy; family-based therapy.