Cadence Child & Adolescent Therapy specializes in eating disorders. Based in Bellevue and serving the Greater Seattle area, Cadence provides therapy and support for those struggling with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and other food and body related challenges. If you are working to identify an eating disorder program for yourself or your child, please contact us at (425) 658-3200 or use our contact form to get in touch.
We know that families seeking treatment for eating disorders are often scared and overwhelmed. They may find themselves with questions like:
Our team of child & adolescent psychologists here in Bellevue, WA will support your family with compassion, guidance, and state-of-the-art eating disorder treatment options based on scientific research. Treatment plans may include a combination of individual therapy, skills groups, and nutrition services. As part of an interdisciplinary clinic, we are able to take on complex cases and engage expertise across our DBT and Anxiety & OCD programs to target co-occurring diagnoses.
There is a national shortage in clinicians that are professionally trained in eating disorder treatment. The number of eating-disorder specialist clinicians who report adhering to evidence-based protocols and manuals is between 6 and 35 %. We are committed to combatting this reality and developing a generation of therapists that are 100% trained in the most effective and evidence-based treatments. As such, our team engages in rigorous training, supervision and oversight on a weekly basis under the leadership of a psychologist with 20 plus years of clinical experience in our clinic located in Bellevue.
Our providers track weight at each session, and we utilize routine outcome monitoring, as well as interdisciplinary outcome data from medical and nutritional providers, to assess age-appropriate independence around food. Treatment efficacy is evaluated in 3 month intervals to determine appropriate levels of care.
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Our primary approach to treating eating disorders is a therapy modality known as Family Based Treatment or FBT (sometimes referred to as the Maudsley approach to treating adolescents with eating disorders). Research shows that FBT is the most effective treatment path for adolescent eating disorders in an outpatient setting.
The hallmarkfeatures of FBT include:
While traditional eating disorder treatments often focus on the family’s role in causing the eating disorder, studies show that eating disorders have a strong biological component. Genetic predisposition to anxiety, perfectionism, and obsessive traits can play a role in developing eating disorders. As a result, FBT does not focus on why the eating disorder developed or who is to blame, and instead focuses on how to move forward.
FBT maintains that adolescents suffering from an eating disorder are not in control of their eating behavior, so parents must take control over their child’s eating. Parents may be paralyzed with guilt or uncertainty around how to effectively support their child’s eating in the context of a child who is low weight, failing to gain weight at the rate normal to their development, or is engaging in extreme measures for managing weight. FBT equips parents to move through indecision and, alongside the support of an eatingdisorder therapist, serve as the child’s best resource to overcome their disordered eating. Parents learn to separate the illness from the patient and take action against the eating disorder rather than their child.
As parents focus on feeding their child, the child is freed from the control of the eating disorder. Once the eating disorder is under control, parents return control over eating back to their child and encourage age appropriate independence and autonomy over eating practices. Once the child’s weight has been restored, an eating disorder therapist will address any other mental health conditions that may co-occur with the eating disorder.
Nutrition and weight restoration are viewed as a critical first step in recovery.As such, FBTinvolves a medical professional to partner with the primary therapist and follow the teen closely.
FBT is time-limitedand as such, teaches relapse prevention strategies to allow children to graduate from eating disorder treatment.A summary of the 3 phases of FBTover the course of 6-12 monthsis below.Our goal at Cadence Child & Adolescent Therapy is to achieve recovery and prevent future relapse while also graduating clients out of treatment in a timely manner. The duration of treatment depends on severity of eating disorder and comorbidities, medical stability, weight restoration goals, and family factors.