FBT Treatment Team Members

FBT Treatment Team Including Therapist, Dietitian, and Medical Doctor in Los Angeles, California [Image description: Purple scrabble tiles spelling "FBT Treatment Team"]

Family-based treatment (FBT) is the leading evidence-based treatment for teens with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In an ideal world, every person with an eating disorder would have access to a full treatment team. This team could include a therapist, a dietitian, a medical doctor, and a psychiatrist. However, manualized FBT calls only for a …

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Nana’s Poundcake, Food, and Cultural Connection

Nana's Poundcake, Food and Cultural Connection [Image description: photo of Nana's poundcake on a white plate] Eating Disorder Therapy LA

Cultural Connection–Through Food Cultural Connection happens through food. Food for us comes from our relatives, whether they have wings or fins or roots. That is how we consider food. Food has a culture. It has a history. It has a story. It has relationships. –– Winona Laduke Food is about more than sustenance. It is …

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When Your Teen With an Eating Disorder is Sick….

When your teen with an eating disorder is sick during recovery [Image description: drawing of a daughter in bed and appears ill and her mother is holding her head and a thermometer] Represents a parent caring for a teen with an eating disorder in Los Angeles, California

Guest post by Dr. Jennifer Johnson What if Your Teen With an Eating Disorder is Sick? One of the most common questions that arise when parents are renourishing a teen with an eating disorder is what to do when they get sick. Parents are sometimes totally overwhelmed when that happens. Some families may back off …

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Family-Based Treatment Can Help Depression and Self-Esteem Too!

FBT Depression and Self-Esteem

  Family-Based Treatment Family-based treatment (FBT) is the leading evidence-based treatment for teen eating disorders. It represents a paradigm shift from older treatments that focused on helping teens become independent from their parents in order to recover from their eating disorders. In FBT, parents are central members of the treatment team. Parents are charged with …

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On Empowering Parents—Not Pathologizing Them

Empowering Parents

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 …

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A Viewing Guide for “To The Bone” Movie

Eating Disorder Film Guide

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. …

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For Teens With Bulimia, Family Based Treatment is Recommended

Teens With Bulimia Family Based Treatment

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 …

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Presentation at NEDA 2015 conference

Lauren and Katie presenting NEDA 2015

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 …

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FBT Insights from the Neonatal Kitten Nursery

FBT Insights from the Kitten Nursery

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 …

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Recognizing and Managing the Subtler Signs of Starvation in Children with EDs

Signs of Anorexia

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.  …

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