Our approach to eating disorder treatment
Entering a hospital for eating disorder treatment can feel overwhelming, but it's the first important step on your path to recovery. Here's what you can expect.
Priory's approach to treatment
At Priory, you’ll receive a bespoke eating disorder treatment journey, helping you to achieve the best possible outcomes for you. We don’t just look at your eating habits and physical symptoms - we also help you address the underlying emotional issues which could be contributing to your eating disorder. Our specialists will help you to:
- Understand the factors that are contributing to your illness
- Teach you skills and coping mechanisms for the future
- Help you to take steps towards a lasting, sustainable recovery
We can also work with your family and carers to help them understand how best to support you.
All of the eating disorder treatment we deliver at Priory is based on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which means you’ll be getting the highest quality support while you’re with us. Our expert team of eating disorder psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and other professionals, are committed to remaining up to date with current research, to make sure our practice is guided by the latest research.
Common eating disorder behaviours
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions. They cause people to become obsessed with their appearance, body shape and weight, which can lead them to develop unhealthy eating habits and behaviours. These behaviours may include:
- Limiting the amount of food you consume
- Eating large amounts of food in one sitting even when you’re not hungry
- Trying to remove calories from your body in harmful ways such as making yourself sick, abusing laxatives or exercising excessively
- A combination of these
Without expert eating disorder help, these unhealthy behaviours can have a negative impact on your physical and mental health, and can even be fatal. However, the good news is that eating disorders are treatable and it’s possible for you to make a lasting recovery – you just need to reach out for support.
We can treat a range of eating disorders, including:
- Anorexia nervosa
- Bulimia nervosa
- Binge eating disorder (BED)
- Other specified feeding or eating disorders (OSFED), also known as ‘atypical eating disorders’ or ‘eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS)’
Eating disorder treatment at Priory
At Priory, we can deliver a whole range of eating disorder treatment programmes, as well as a variety of therapy types and formats, helping you to get back on track.
Our expert eating disorder treatment programmes
The type of treatment you receive while you’re with us will depend on your personal needs, and factors such as:
- How severe your eating disorder is
- What symptoms you’re experiencing
- Your body mass index (BMI)
- Your overall physical health
We offer a number of treatment programmes to help with your eating disorder. For more information on these, you can visit our treatment programmes page.
- Outpatient treatment programme
- Day care programme
- Inpatient (residential) treatment programme
We can also deliver eating disorder therapy in a number of different formats. Our therapy formats include:
- 1:1 therapy
- Group therapy
- Family and couples therapy
Our specialist eating disorder centres
Our nationwide network of hospitals and wellbeing centres mean you can access eating disorder help in a location that’s convenient for you. We offer inpatient and outpatient treatment options to suit your needs.
We also have a dedicated eating disorder treatment centre, Life Works, which offers world class inpatient support for eating disorders. With our expert team and extensive network of centres, you really are in safe hands with Priory.
Additional information and FAQs
Eating disorder therapy types
We also offer a variety of tried and tested therapy techniques at Priory, which have been found to be effective when treating eating disorders. You can access these on an outpatient, day care or inpatient basis, as well as in different formats.
The therapeutic methods that we use are selected based on your individual needs and what will be best for you. Some of our therapies specifically address eating disorder related thoughts and feelings, whereas others may be helpful for any other conditions and symptoms you’re going through, for example, anxiety, depression, self-harm and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The types of therapy that we offer include:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
- Mindfulness
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Interpersonal therapy (IPT)
- Compassion focused therapy (CFT)
- Emotion focused therapy (EFT)
- Person centred therapy (PCT)
- Psychodynamic counselling
- Integrative counselling
- Schema therapy
- Solution focused therapy
- Art therapy
- Wellbeing activities
For more detailed information on each of these types of therapy, you can visit our therapy types page.
Specific eating disorder techniques
Our highly qualified eating disorder treatment teams can also provide a range of therapies and techniques that have been specifically designed to treat eating disorders. These are normally used during inpatient treatment, and include:
- Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA)
- CBT for eating disorders
- DBT for eating disorders
- Dietetic support and advice
- Meal and post-meal support
- Occupational therapy, including food exposure interventions
- Body image workshops
- Psychoeducation focused on eating disorders
- Eating disorder focused family therapy and carer support groups
Support for families and loved ones
At Priory, we understand that it can be incredibly difficult for families and loved ones to watch someone they care about struggle with an eating disorder. That's why we offer specialist family support to our patients' families, carers and loved ones.
Our family support sessions usually happen on a weekly basis and can be delivered in either an online or face-to-face capacity. The sessions focus on educating family members about eating disorders and cover topics such as:
- Understanding eating disorders
- Specialist skills when living with someone with an eating disorder
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for eating disorders, known as CBT-enhanced (CBT-E) - an understanding of this therapy model and how to apply it from a carer's perspective
- Managing difficult conversations
- The impact of the eating disorder on the person/family, helping you to process your own experiences of your loved one's eating disorder
- When to stand back
Collaborative care is so important when working with this incredibly difficult diagnosis. These sessions offer a private, protected space for the families, loved ones and carers of our eating disorder patients, allowing you to learn all about eating disorders and how you can best support the patient moving forwards.
Young people and eating disorders
At Priory, we don’t just treat adults with eating disorders; our expert child and adolescent psychiatrists can also treat children and young people who are struggling with these conditions. More information on the eating disorder support that we deliver to young people can be found on our private CAMHS page.
Crisis care at Priory
Priory’s customer service team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure that people in crisis are signposted to the best possible support, as quickly as possible. The specialist teams at our residential facilities can help to stabilise people in need of immediate assistance for their eating disorder or other mental health concerns.