Our Services
Individual Psychotherapy and Nutrition Therapy
Family Therapy for Eating Disorders
Group Therapy and Support
Featured Workshops
Family Therapy for Eating Disorders
Who It’s For
Family therapy is designed for parents and caregivers of children who are struggling with an eating issue. We work with children of all ages – from pre-school to university-age and beyond.
Our areas of expertise include:
- Eating disorders
- Creating the optimal environment to prevent eating issues
- ARFID or very picky eating
- Body image or intuitive eating
- Mental health
Together, we can help your child recover. In the words of one of our parents: “This eating disorder doesn’t stand a chance in this family!”
How It Works
If you’re a caregiver of a child, teen, or adolescent who is struggling with eating issues, you may feel overwhelmed, isolated and distressed, wondering why this has happened, and whether it can be overcome.
While your situation may feel hopeless, most people do fully recover. An eating disorder is not a life sentence. With early intervention and consistent support is key – and that’s where our team can help. We specialise in supporting children and their parents every step of the way, with personalised care and skills to manage their distress with compassion.
Services
We provide parents the guidance and support they need to feed their children to recovery.
For parents, the responsibility to feed a child or teen with an eating disorder can feel overwhelming as they face constant and stubborn resistance in their role of nurturing, healing and ensuring adequate nutrition.
We equip you with evidence-based strategies to support your child, and provide you with a path to move forward.
Connected Eating’s Teen Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is a small-group 8-week program for adolescents whose recovery is supported by parents or close caregivers. The Teen IOP is designed to provide meal planning guidance and strategies to help families in crisis.
Phase one of the program includes an individual in-person family meal with a clinician and two psychoeducation workshops for the family. In phase two, caregivers, dietitians and therapists work together to plan menus balancing optimal nutrition with challenging foods, and learning emotion-focused therapy to support their teens. With the additional support of other caregivers in similar situations, they learn to feed their loved one and manage mealtime fears, behaviours and emotions.
Teen participants will learn about adequate nutrition, emotion regulation and coping skills before, during and after meals. In a supportive group setting they will also develop strategies to face and overcome their food phobias.
The Connected Eating Teen IOP is the only program of its kind in Ontario, bridging the gap between individual counselling and hospitalization.
