Eating Disorder

CBT-E is the abbreviation for “enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy”, and is one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders. It is a “transdiagnostic” treatment for all forms of eating disorder including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other similar states. It was developed as an outpatient treatment for adults but is available as an intensive version for day patients and inpatients. There is also a version for younger people. Detailed treatment guides are available for CBT-E.

When working with people who are not significantly underweight, CBT-E generally involves an initial assessment appointment followed by 20 treatment sessions over 20 weeks, lasting 50-minutes each. CBT-E isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” treatment. CBT-E is a highly individualised treatment. The therapist creates a specific version of CBT-E to match the exact eating problem of the person receiving treatment. CBT-E has four stages.

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With people who are underweight, treatment needs to be longer, often involving around 40 sessions over 40 weeks. In this version of CBT-E, weight regain is integrated with addressing eating disorder psychopathology. Before embarking on weight regain, patients and therapists spend the first weeks of this treatment carefully considering the reasons for and against this change. The goal in CBT-E is that patients themselves decide to regain weight rather than having this decision imposed upon them. During the final step of weight regain the patient becomes accomplished at maintaining their weight.