When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder - by Lauren Muhlheim (Paperback)

Number of Pages: 168
Genre: Family + Relationships
Sub-Genre: Children with Special Needs
Format: Paperback
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Age Range: Adult
Author: Lauren Muhlheim
Language: English

About the Book

Having a teen with an eating disorder can leave parents feeling helpless. To help empower these parents, a clinical psychologist and expert in eating disorders offers an evidence-based program using family-based treatment (FBT) to help parents and caregivers take charge of their teen's nutritional rehabilitation, which includes normalizing eating behaviors, managing meals, expanding food flexibility, teaching independent and intuitive eating habits, and utilizing coping strategies and recovery skills to prevent relapse.

Book Synopsis

If your teen has an eating disorder--such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating--you may feel helpless, worried, or uncertain about how you can best support them. That's why you need real, proven-effective strategies you can use right away. Whether used in conjunction with treatment or on its own, this book offers an evidence-based approach you can use now to help your teen make healthy choices and stay well in body and mind.

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder will empower you to help your teen using a unique, family-based treatment (FBT) approach. With this guide, you'll learn to respectfully and lovingly oversee your teen's nutritional rehabilitation, which includes helping to normalize eating behaviors, managing meals, expanding food flexibility, teaching independent and intuitive eating habits, and using coping strategies and recovery skills to prevent relapse.

In addition to helping parents and caregivers, this book is a wonderful resource for mental health professionals, teachers, counselors, and coaches who work with parents of and teens with eating disorders. It clearly outlines the principles of FBT and the process of involving parents collaboratively in treatment.

As a parent, feeding your child is a fundamental act of love--it has been from the start! However, when a child is affected by an eating disorder, parents often lose confidence in performing this basic task. This compassionate guide will help you gain the confidence needed to nurture your teen and help them heal.

Review Quotes

"When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is an absolute must-read for parents who would like to support their child's recovery at home. This validating and accessible self-help guide walks parents through the most evidence-based treatment approach for child and adolescent eating disorders--FBT. The detailed case examples, step-by-step action plans, and helpful worksheets bring FBT to life and demonstrate exactly how parents can implement its useful and timely strategies calmly and confidently at the very next meal."
--Jennifer J. Thomas, PhD, codirector of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital; associate professor of psychology in the department of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and author of Almost Anorexic --Jennifer J. Thomas, PhD

"When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder empowers readers with practical information and evidence-based tools for navigating these illnesses as a family. It's a hopeful, helpful guide written with the understanding that parents truly are on the front lines of eating disorder recovery."
--Claire Mysko, chief executive officer, National Eating Disorders Association--Claire Mysko

"Any parent with a loved one suffering from an eating disorder, as well as clinicians treating them, will benefit from this treasure. As a clinical psychologist devoting my career to including families as part of the treatment team, I strongly recommend this book to help you navigate best practices to restore your loved one to health."
--Roxanne E. Rockwell, PhD, director, adolescent eating disorders services, Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research, USA; assistant clinical professor, UC San Diego department of psychiatry, School of Medicine--Roxanne E. Rockwell, PhD

"Eating disorders are serious diseases that can have a major impact on the physical and mental health of those affected. They can easily go unrecognized and untreated. In her book, eating disorders expert Lauren Muhlheim helps readers become fully aware of practical strategies and helpful tips to apply FBT--the only evidence-based treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. As Lauren states, a parent's involvement and understanding is crucial for better outcomes. This is a book that is worth reading, and I am sure many parents and families will benefit greatly. I loved it and I give my most enthusiastic applause for this addition to the eating disorders literature!"
--Eva Maria Trujillo Chi Vacuán, MD, past president at the Academy for Eating Disorders; medical director and founder of Comenzar de Nuevo, A.C., International Treatment Center for Eating Disorders;clinical professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey School of Medicine--Eva Maria Trujillo Chi Vacuán, MD

"In this groundbreaking book, Lauren Muhlheim provides a wise, inspiring, and compassionate guide through the complicated journey of an eating disorder. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is a must-read for anyone who cares for a young person suffering with disordered eating and negative body image. Above all, this book provides true hope that healing does indeed happen!"
--Jenni Schaefer, author of Life Without Ed; Almost Anorexic; and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me--Jenni Schaefer

"Lauren Muhlheim's book walks readers through the terrifying terrain of helping a teen recover from an eating disorder. She offers evidence-based information and practical advice in a reassuring, matter-of-fact tone, which is exactly what parents need when they're in the thick of a child's illness."
--Harriet Brown, author of Shadow Daughter, Body of Truth, and Brave Girl Eating; professor of magazine journalism, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications--Harriet Brown

"This book fills a necessary gap in helping parents to feel effective and engaged in tackling their child's eating disorder. The calm, compassionate voice of Lauren Muhlheim describing the challenges and engagement associated with family-based re-nourishment provides a necessary succor for families engaging in FBT. Her commonsense, easy-to-read, and insightful book is like having a seasoned FBT therapist on speed dial. Muhlheim's work with families, as well as her keen interest in and development of FBT practice for therapists, coalesce into this great book."
--Kathleen Kara Fitzpatrick, PhD, psychologist and director of the Outpatient Eating Disorder Clinic in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and Stanford Children's Hospital--Kathleen Kara Fitzpatrick, PhD

"This is the best workbook for parents that I have reviewed. Muhlheim does an outstanding job of emphasizing the importance of parents in the recovery process and offers evidence-based, practical advice on how to accomplish recovery. This is the book that I will recommend to families as an introduction to the illnesses and what the challenges of recovery will be. ... Excellent contribution to the field."
--Craig Johnson, PhD, CEDS, FAED, chief science officer and codirector of the Family Institute, Eating Recovery Center; clinical professor of psychiatry, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine--Craig Johnson, PhD, CEDS, FAED

"This outstanding book concisely and methodically takes you through the steps needed to treat your teen's eating disorder. Everything parents absolutely must know is in here. Lauren Muhlheim is an experienced clinician who really understands the practicalities of what happens at home."
--Eva Musby, parent and author of Anorexia and Other Eating Disorders--Eva Musby

About the Author

Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD is a clinical psychologist and eating disorders specialist. Muhlheim trained at the Rutgers Eating Disorder Clinic, and is certified in family-based treatment (FBT) by the Training Institute for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders. She is certified as an eating disorder specialist (CEDS) through the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP), and has worked in a variety of settings, including an obesity research center, inpatient hospitals, outpatient clinics, group homes, and in private practice where more than 80 percent of her patients present with eating disorders.

Muhlheim conducts workshops and seminars for parents, treatment professionals, graduate students in psychology, and psychiatry residents approximately six times per year. She has her own website and blog, is the eating disorders expert for www.verywell.com, and is clinical director for the eating disorder information website, Mirror-Mirror Eating Disorder (www.mirror-mirror.org/eatdis.htm). She's affiliated with a number of eating disorder and psychology organizations, and is very active on social media. She has built a solid professional platform around eating disorder recovery using FBT. Currently, she is director of Eating Disorder Therapy LA, a multidisciplinary, specialized outpatient eating disorder practice in the heart of Los Angeles, CA.

Foreword writer Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh is a writer from Virginia who became an activist for improved eating disorder treatment after the recovery of her teen daughter from anorexia. Her book, Eating with Your Anorexic, is a memoir of her family's experience. She has written two books on eating disorders, a memoir, and one book of fiction. She has helped found three eating disorder organizations, and currently serves as outreach director for one of them: F.E.A.S.T., the only international organization for parents of eating disorder patients. She is also owner of Circum Mensam LLC, where she is a consultant and educator. She has been an invited speaker for many organizations. Collins is also frequently interviewed by the media, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, BBC News, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR, and the Los Angeles Times.