Anorexia and other Eating Disorders - by Eva Musby (Paperback)

About the Book

Practical and emotional skills for parents of a child or teen with an eating disorder, using a family-based treatment approach.

Book Synopsis

The most effective treatment for eating disorders is family-based, and parents play an essential role. Yet most struggle to know what to do and how to do it.

With a wealth of practical examples and tips that have helped many tens of thousands of relieved parents, Eva Musby guides you through each stage of your son or daughter's recovery. She provides solace and confidence, while addressing the real-life questions that parents struggle with.

The practical and emotional strategies in every chapter rest on up-to-date knowledge distilled from published research, from families, and from therapists worldwide. These pages will boost your effectiveness with an excellent treatment team, and will also help you succeed when you don't have access to cutting-edge care. With her lived experience and that of the hundreds of parents she has coached, this book will empower you to be effective right away, from the first successful meal all the way through to recovery.

* Make meals work in spite of your child's resistance

* Deal with distress, inflexibility, exercise compulsion, bingeing and purging

* Don't stop at weight-restoration - skilled support all the way to recovery

* What to say and what not to say in difficult situations

* Actively support your child all the way to recovery and prevent relapse

* Recognise the treatments that work and the ones that don't* Grow your own emotional resources

This book is recommended by experts on family-based treatment (FBT, or 'Maudsley'), the evidence-based approach recommended by all major health institutions. It is used by parents and clinicians alike.

"A godsend. This wonderful book gave me the strength and guidance I needed at such a difficult time"

"Your book is packed with helpful information for parents and has been brilliant for my patients and for our team." Esther Blessitt, Senior Systemic Psychotherapist, writing on behalf of the Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders Service (CAMHS), Maudsley Hospital

Note: If the eating disorder you are dealing with doesn't involve food restriction, some of the practical tools might not apply to you. Most of the emotional ones will.

Review Quotes

"Your work is a tremendous source of information and support"

Daniel Le Grange, PhD, Professor in Children's Health, Eating Disorders Director, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF. Co-author of many books and scientific articles on Family-Based Treatment

"Therapists and other clinicians can learn from this book - not only about some of our own limitations and foibles that so often confuse and baffle the families we hope to help, but also about how we might better help families to understand those dilemmas and develop possible solutions to them."

James Lock, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine: Director of the Eating Disorder Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Co-author of many books and scientific articles on Family-Based Treatment

"Your book is packed with helpful information for parents and has been brilliant for my patients and for our team. It conveys the right message in an accessible way; that parents are an essential resource and with the right support can find their own strengths to support their child to recover."

Esther Blessitt, Senior Systemic Psychotherapist and co-author of the Maudsley service manual, writing on behalf of the Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders Service at the Maudsley Hospital, London

From parents:

"The most practical advice I've ever come across."

"The information in this book is lifesaving and if you had to gather all this information yourself it would take years. I have bought other books on the subject but I keep returning to this one. When I wake up in the middle of the night worrying I read this and feel reassured and empowered to carry on."

"Each time I get a bit down, I read your advice and I'm filled with confidence."

"These are just the practical tips that I need and that I feel a lot of books don't address, as they are so concerned with getting the kids away from death's door, but as we have discovered that is just a first step."