For four years I worked at The Adolescent Medicine Clinic at Dell Children’s Medical Group in Austin founded by Dr. Maria Monge MD. I was the senior Clinical Social Worker who treated patients with disordered eating and eating disorders in a therapeutic setting. Eating disorders are mental health disorders that can easily go undetected until the multitude of medical complications begin to become evident. It is an incredibly difficult and serious diagnosis, and treatment involves a team of mental and physical health professionals working together alongside the parents and/or caregivers.  

FBT is recognized as “the gold standard” in treatment care for individuals diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia. When an individual has an eating disorder, everyone in the family is living with that diagnosis as well. FBT places the parents and/or caregivers in the primary role of feeding their child, much as they did when their child was much younger. Once an individual begins to be renourished by the medicine of food, the rigid control of the eating disorder begins to lessen and the child can begin to return to their activities and goals with a healthier sense of control.

In addition to FBT, I highly recommend parents engage in therapy themselves (either individually or together) as well as join a support group with other parents of children with an eating disorder. I provide both of those for my clients. 

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