Of course, counseling for those recovering from an eating disorder has to be sensitive. What are the other things that are necessary for effective eating disorder counseling? A psychologist with experience in eating disorders is the best bet for someone seeking counseling for an eating disorder. However, these are the no-brainer answers - they apply to the therapist and to the therapy. For example, what about the person coming in for eating disorder counseling?
The Importance of Affirmation
The person who is coming in to seek eating disorder counseling is the most important element in this type of counseling. A teenage girl for instance who will not admit that she has a problem with food is not going to do well in counseling, no matter how many hours she has with a professionally trained for eating disorder counseling.
Like many other domains, the stage of denial must be passed before anything truly groundbreaking can be expected to occur. Teenagers suffering from an eating disorder are not likely to want to talk to their parents about problems that they are having; they especially don't want to talk about food. Food is already the bane of their existence and it's a highly sensitive topic for discussion.
Since that is the case with most teenagers, you might be wondering how you're supposed to breach the topic with your teenagers. Maybe you are thinking that taking them for eating disorder counseling is the solution since the professional counselor should be able to get a decent amount of participation out of the teenager.
While this is true to an extent, the quality of the conversation that the counselor will have with the young person in question will be at a lower level of effectiveness and it will take a lot longer to get to the topic of focus this way. Starting eating disorder counseling without preamble is one way to get the healing process started.
If you want to meet the subject a little bit more head on and increase the chances of success with eating disorder counseling, you can try discussing the issue with your son or daughter yourself. As always, never approach the subject with an accusation or even anything that puts the spotlight on your son or daughter; anything spotlighting him or her will be interpreted as an accusation by a teenager.
Instead, try opening a dialogue about a newspaper article or book that you read, or a movie or show that you saw in which something surprised you about someone's reaction to food. If you can get your son or daughter to explain why the wrestler wasn't drinking water (to lose weight) or why the dancer smokes (to curb appetite) you are getting them to solidify their knowledge.
This kind of topic opens the pathway to further discussion, as you bring the topics closer and closer to your own town, your own street, and your own house. Once these pathways are open, your son or daughter is more ready for eating disorder counseling.
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