Eating Disorders Program
Individual Eating Disorder Treatment
For adults with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders, CCI offers a treatment program called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). The focus of CBT is on the ‘here and now’, and involves working to change the behaviours and thoughts (cognitions) that keep your eating disorder going, even though you are likely to feel very anxious about making these changes. In treatment you will actively work on managing your anxiety so that you can work towards recovery from your eating disorder with your therapist. Treatment is time-limited and involves regular weekly attendance. In the first phase of treatment you will focus on developing normal eating habits and working to achieve and maintain a healthy weight for you. To help you do this, there are a number of essential treatment components. These include: being weighed each week and reviewing your weight with your therapist; monitoring your eating and associated thoughts and feelings; and making changes towards normalising your eating and weight. In the middle phase of treatment, we focus on addressing the fears and beliefs that may be keeping the eating disorder going. The final phase of treatment focuses on relapse prevention and maintaining the changes you have made. As CCI forms part of the public mental health system, the service we offer is free; and as a result there is an associated wait list. If you are interested in attending individual treatment at CCI for your eating disorder, please ask your GP or psychiatrist to refer you to our service.
For more information, see the information sheets and brochures below:
Please note that referrals to the program must be made by a GP or psychiatrist.
Family-Based Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa
For adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, we offer Family-Based Therapy (FBT). This is the recommended treatment for adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa in cases of recent onset (less than three years). Treatment focuses on empowering parents to help their adolescent recover from this life-threatening illness. Family based therapy is an intensive outpatient treatment approach that places parents at the centre of their adolescent’s treatment. Stage one involves empowering parents to temporarily assume responsibility for all food and eating-related decisions in order to facilitate the adolescent’s weight restoration. In stage two, families support the adolescent to resume responsibility for their food choices and maintain a healthy weight. In stage three, families help the young person return to their normal developmental path, which may have been disrupted by their illness. As CCI forms part of the public mental health system, the service we offer is free; and as a result there is an associated waitlist. If you are interested in family-based treatment at CCI for your child’s eating disorder, please ask your GP or psychiatrist to refer you to our service.
For more information, see the information sheets and brochures below:
Please note that referrals to the program must be made by a GP or psychiatrist.
Eating Disorders Support + Skill Building Group for Family and Friends
The Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) Eating Disorders Program offers free two-part group for carers, family members, and/or friends of people with eating disorders. Based on Janet Treasure, Grainne Smith and Anna Crane’s 2007 book Skills-based learning for caring for a loved one with an eating disorder – the New Maudsley Method, these interactive groups are designed to provide information about eating disorders in addition to giving participants the opportunity to share their personal experiences and to learn and practice helpful strategies relating to their loved ones eating disorder. Whether you are a parent, sibling, partner, extended family member, friend, housemate, or child of a person with an eating disorder, this group will be valuable for you. The groups are held at regularly at CCI. Topics to be discussed include:
- The nature and complex causes of eating disorders
- The impact of insufficient nutrition on how people think, behave and manage emotions
- Recognising signs of medical risk in a loved one with an eating disorder and how to respond
- Treatment options and helpful resources
- The challenge of recovery and how to support a loved one on the path to recovery
- The impact of eating disorders on relationships - Why carers should be involved and how they can help
- Helpful communication techniques
Groups run for 2.5 hours in the early evening and will be held on the same day across two consecutive weeks. Please see flyer for further information.
To register please complete our online registration form, and you will then be contacted by the group coordinator with further information.
For more information, see the information sheets and brochures below:
Last Updated:
16/01/2024