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Eating disorder treatment has a perilous past with regard to family involvement. Historically, parents (particularly mothers) experienced blame for their children's illnesses from treatment providers, which contributed to resistance in seeking care, perpetuated maladaptive family dynamics, and ultimately led to more intractable illnesses. Now we know better. Families showing up for treatment are a shadow of who they were before their child's eating disorder, as the family system reorganizes around the chronic illness and parents respond from a place of fear rather than empowerment.

Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) takes a Trauma Informed Care approach with families, which better equips caregivers to provide the support that is needed to help their child recover from an eating disorder. EFFT begins with the empowering stance that there is no one better equipped to help a child (of any age) recover from an eating disorder than their parents. This healing power arises from neurobiological connections and the nature of the attachment relationship. Through learning "advanced caregiving skills," parents can gain both the behavior coaching skills necessary to fight the eating disorder as well as the emotion coaching skills that are essential to help their children better understand and process their own emotional experience. With this kind of support in place, over time, there is less and less need to use an eating disorder to cope.

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