Family Treatment of Teen Eating Disorders in Complex Families

The pandemic fueled a rise in adolescent eating disorders and an increased demand for multi-faceted treatment. Since inclusion of families is pivotal to successful treatment and families are often complex and non-traditional, treatment providers are asked to be specialty-trained, multifaceted, and flexible in their approaches. This program will focus on eating disorder treatment challenged by diverse family backgrounds. Three cases will demonstrate three evidence-based, family-involved treatments with recommendations to increase self-efficacy in divorced/separated parents, parents raising LBGTQ youth, and parents with their own disordered eating.

• Describe five basic principles of each of three family-involved treatments for adolescent eating disorders.
• List five factors used to match individual families with different family-involved eating disorder treatments.
• Identify key sequential phases of eating disorder treatment for Family Based Treatment, Adolescent-Focused Therapy, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy-Enhanced for adolescents.

Cris E. Haltom, PhD