How does a family therapist work in the case of eating disorders?

A case of eating disorder treatment is reported that can be used to illustrate that it is worth insisting on working with the whole family,

i. e. not only with the patient with an eating disorder herself, but with her parents at the same time. In this case, the whole therapy

consisted of five sessions and the central topic was the struggle whether or not the father would get involved. Successful treatment

was finished shortly after the father had been persuaded to cooperate. The text was written little by little as a therapist’s notes from

the individual sessions with minimal stylistic revisions and with several explanatory notes. The names as well as some other identifying

characteristics have been changed in order to protect the identity of the family who gave consent for publication more than five years

ago upon termination of treatment. Our paper proceeds from the concept of separation as social birth in which rapprochement with

the father is one of the conditions for further progression of the separation process, as we reported elsewhere (1). This particular case

illustrates that, in order for the process to advance, not many therapeutic sessions are required. Bulimic (or anorexic) behaviour ceases

as soon as some advancement is made. During the course of social birth, a crisis often occurs in the parental couple. A stubborn symptom

takes away the space for other, hidden topics to be dealt with. In our experience, the use of narrative therapy with externalization

is more beneficial than other approaches.

Keywords: anorexia, bulimia, family therapy, eating disorder treatment