3 FAQs about Family Therapy for Eating Disorders

Family therapy for families with loved ones struggling with eating disorders can be a pivotal part of treatment. However, there are often a lot of uncertainties that keep families from engaging in treatment. Here are three quick FAQs to provide more understanding of what to expect.

1.        This is not like individual therapy. An individual therapist is focused on individual healing and addressing the eating disorder directly. While a family therapist wants healing for you, too, they are more focused on the dynamics of the family and how each member exists within the family unit. There will be times when focus shifts to you as an individual member of the family and the dyadic relationships you have, while other times the focus might be on your parent’s relationship, for example.

2.        A family therapist is not interested in proving that families cause eating disorders, nor do they believe that to be the case. Some families resist family therapy because they think that is what the therapist is going to say. Is there an environmental and biological component to your struggles? Sure. This can be said about almost any other struggle out there as well. Placing blame doesn’t really solve anything.  The focus will be on the underlying structural components that may be causing everyone to remain enmeshed or in unhelpful patterns.

3.        You get out what you put in. If you start  family therapy, you will be respectfully challenged and asked  to consider trying something different (this goes for the rest of your family members, too). Change is hard, and your family therapist understands that. A whole family changing is even harder. Here is where families get stuck. It’s not that they are beyond help, it’s that they refuse to change or at least try something different. So once more, challenging yourself and putting in the hard work gets you closer to the results you’re working for. 

Written by Chris Brown