Evidence-based psychological treatment for binge eating, bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and disordered eating — for adolescents and adults, with family involvement where it helps.
Eating disorders are not about willpower or vanity, and they are not a phase that waits politely to be outgrown. They are mental health conditions with real medical consequences, and the behaviours that look like choices — restricting, bingeing, purging, compulsive exercise — are usually serving a function that has very little to do with food.
Treatment works on both at once: interrupting the eating behaviours that keep the cycle running, and addressing what is driving them. We work with adolescents and adults, alongside your GP and a dietitian where that is appropriate, because eating disorders need medical monitoring as well as psychological treatment.
Related approaches and areas: CBT, adolescent psychology, DBT.
Medicare rebates available with a GP Mental Health Care Plan. In person in Bella Vista or by telehealth across NSW.
A first session covers the eating behaviours, their frequency, and the medical picture. Where physical risk is present we work with your GP from the start — psychological treatment does not replace medical monitoring.
Restriction drives bingeing far more reliably than willpower failure does. Establishing a regular eating pattern is the first intervention because it removes the physiological trigger underneath the cycle.
CBT-E informed work targets what keeps the disorder running — over-evaluation of shape and weight, dietary rules, body checking and avoidance — rather than the symptoms alone.
The last phase is about what happens when stress returns: recognising the early signals and having a plan that does not depend on willpower in the moment.
No. Most people with an eating disorder are not underweight, and binge eating disorder is the most common of them. Weight is a poor guide to whether treatment is needed — the behaviours and the distress are the better guide.
Treatment involves changing eating patterns, which is confronting, but it is collaborative. Weighing is discussed rather than imposed, and the rationale for each step is explained before it is asked of you.
Yes. Adolescent work usually involves parents, because at that age the family is part of how change gets supported rather than a complication to work around.
Yes, and for most presentations that is the right structure. Eating disorders need medical monitoring alongside psychological treatment, and we coordinate rather than work in isolation.
Longer than most presentations — often 20 sessions or more for bulimia and binge eating, and longer again for anorexia nervosa. That is the realistic picture rather than a discouraging one.
Medicare rebates available with a GP Mental Health Care Plan. In person in Bella Vista or by telehealth across NSW.