Help your Child or Teen Achieve Recovery from Anorexia with Family-Based Treatment in the St. Louis Area - Get Support, Resources, and Compassionate Nutrition Counseling
What is FBT for anorexia?
Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is an evidence-based therapy for anorexia nervosa, particularly effective in adolescents. FBT has demonstrated effectiveness in improving weight restoration, reducing eating disorder behaviors, and promoting long-term recovery in adolescents with anorexia nervosa.
What are the three phases of Family-Based Treatment?
The various stages can be A LOT but it's totally doable for you as parents AND your child. We like to remind parents that having your child live with an eating disorder for the rest of their life is much more debilitating than successfully getting through the various stages of FBT.
Phase 1 - Weight Restoration: Parents are responsible for ensuring their child restores weight to a healthy level. This often involves monitoring and supervising meals, as well as providing emotional support and encouragement.
Phase 2 - Returning Control: Once weight restoration is achieved, control over eating is gradually returned to the adolescent. Parents still continue to provide support, but shifts towards promoting autonomy and self-management of their eating behaviors.
Phase 3 - Establishing Healthy Identity: In this final phase, the focus is on addressing underlying psychological issues, rebuilding relationships, and fostering a healthy sense of identity and self-esteem.
What are the five principles of FBT?
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Family Involvement: FBT prioritizes family participation in treatment.
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Externalization: It separates the illness from the individual.
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Weight Restoration: FBT focuses on restoring a healthy weight.
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Parent Empowerment: Parents are empowered to manage meal supervision and behaviors.
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Transition to Autonomy: It gradually shifts responsibility from parents to the adolescent.
Does insurance cover nutrition therapy for anorexia?
We are in-network with many insurance companies. Insurance-based nutrition counseling is based on your insurance provider's approval and specific insurance plan. We can only provide services based on what they allow, following their specific guidelines. Such perimeters include:
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Limitations in visits
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Requiring a certain amount of time in between appointments
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No additional support between appointments
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Check your medical nutrition therapy benefits here.
While nutritional counseling can be beneficial for various conditions, we find that, specifically for those suffering from disordered eating, continuous support and ongoing accountability is the game changer in achieving recovery.
We believe that full recovery is possible with the right support and treatment. We look forward to being part of your healing process.