THERAPY AND TREATMENT SERVICES

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  ASSESSMENT

  Assessment will involve a standard interview with the young person and parents. Psychometric testing will be used to assess behaviour, emotions, and personality for children and adolescents aged 6 to 21 years.

  The initial assessment session will take 90 minutes.
  Therapy sessions will be 60 minutes duration.

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  FAMILY BASED TREATMENT

  Family based treatment (FBT) is the preferred treatment for a young person who has anorexia nervosa and sometimes bulimia nervosa. FBT, which is often called the “Maudsley approach” named after the London hospital where it was developed.
  It involves weekly appointments with an FBT clinician and may include the whole family.

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  ADOLESCENT AND PARENT TREATMENT

  Adolescent and Parent Treatment (APT) is a manualised treatment specifically designed for adolescents 12-24 years of age with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Atypical Anorexia Nervosa (AAN). APT takes a comprehensive and holistic approach that addresses many of the limitations of other eating disorder treatments for adolescents. APT takes the view that both physical and psychological recovery is required to be truly free from anorexia. Weight restoration alone is insufficient for recovery.

  
  

   

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  COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY ENHANCED VERSION

  Young adults with eating disorders can benefit from another form of treatment called ‘cognitive behaviour therapy – enhanced version’ (CBT-E). CBT-E focused on identifying and challenging the abnormal thoughts about food and body image associated with binge eating and/or purging. This type of treatment is generally provided in a one on one setting.

   

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  INTERPERSONAL THERAPY

  Interpersonal therapy helps reduce psychological problems by helping the young person understand their current problems within the context of ongoing personal relationships. Techniques commonly taught include self-monitoring of feelings, identification of the link between feelings and events and communication skills role-playing of real world situations.

   

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  Behavioural Interventions

  This treatment approach is most commonly used for ADHD, social and behavioural problems. The interventions focus on training social-cognitive skills or altering specific behavioural patterns in order to increasing the rate of positive social contact and cooperation and decreasing the rate of aggression and disruption. Individual child sessions are combined with parent sessions.

   

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  Mindfulness Based Approach

  Mindfulness is a skills based approach that helps young people develop healthy coping strategies to manage intense distress. Mindfulness skills include mindful breathing, mindful activity and breathing meditations. These skills can help a young person to become mindful of their thoughts and feelings, to become observers, and to tolerate distress.