Supporting Parents of Children and Teens with Eating Disorders
By Dr. Colleen Reichmann, founder and clinical director of Wildflower Therapy
When a child or teenager is struggling with an eating disorder, the entire family is affected. There are actually few other psychiatric issues that have the same familial ripple impact. Parents are often carrying enormous fear, confusion, guilt, and perceived responsibility-all while also being asked to make critical decisions in the midst of crisis. At Wildflower Therapy in Philadelphia, we believe parents deserve support as they support their children through eating disorder recovery. They can actually be one of the most powerful resources for healing, so a supported parent means a supported recovery for each child!
Whether your child has been newly diagnosed or you have been navigating disordered eating for years, support for you matters. Parent therapy, parent coaching, and family-based approaches like FBT can make a meaningful difference-not only in your child’s recovery, but in your own well-being.
Why Supporting Parents Is Essential in Eating Disorder Treatment
Eating disorders thrive in secrecy, fear, and isolation. Parents are often expected to “just know” how to respond-how to set limits, how to talk about food, how to manage their own intense emotions, and how to be the receptacle for a lot of anger-without ever being taught. Many parents worry about saying the wrong thing, pushing too hard, or not pushing enough.
Parent-focused support helps caregivers:
Understand eating disorders as serious, biologically influenced mental illnesses
Reduce self-blame and shame
Learn how to respond effectively to eating disorder behaviors
Understand how anger responses work against recovery
Regulate their own anxiety so they can support their child more steadily
Feel less alone in an incredibly overwhelming process
Research consistently shows that when parents are supported and empowered, outcomes for children and adolescents improve.
Parent Therapy: A Space for You
Parent therapy is a dedicated space for caregivers to process their own emotional experience of having a child with an eating disorder. This work is not about analyzing your parenting or assigning fault. Instead, it focuses on helping you cope, strengthen resilience, and regain a sense of steadiness during a destabilizing time.
In parent therapy, we often address:
Anxiety, panic, or trauma responses related to your child’s illness
Grief over the loss of the “expected” parenting journey
Fear around weight, food, medical risk, or relapse
Conflict between caregivers about how to respond
Burnout, sleep disruption, and emotional exhaustion
When parents feel supported, they are better able to show up with clarity, consistency, and compassion, both for their child and for themselves.
Parent Coaching: Practical Guidance for Day-to-Day Challenges
Parent coaching is more directive and skills-based than therapy. It focuses on helping parents respond to eating disorder behaviors in real time, with clarity and confidence.
Parent coaching may include:
How to manage meals and snacks at home
Setting boundaries around eating disorder behaviors
Responding to resistance, anger, or shutdowns
Supporting medical and nutritional recommendations
Navigating school accommodations or treatment transitions
Coaching sessions can be especially helpful when parents feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure how to implement what they are being told in treatment. Many families use parent coaching alongside individual therapy for their child or teen. ( Coaching is also a service that can be offered to people in any state or country, because it is not therapeutic so not bound by the same license restrictions.)
Consultation About How to Confront a Child or Loved One About an Eating Disorder
Many parents and loved ones know something is wrong long before a diagnosis, but feel paralyzed about how to bring it up. Fear of damaging the relationship or “making it worse” often delays crucial intervention.
We offer family consultation sessions specifically designed to help parents, partners, and loved ones:
Prepare for a compassionate AND direct conversation
Learn what to say (and what to avoid)
Understand common eating disorder defenses and reactions
Stay regulated during emotionally charged conversations
Access information about resources to connect their child/loved one to after bringing up their concerns
Understand next steps to take after the conversation happens
These sessions are available even if your child or loved one is not currently in therapy. The information can often be provided in 1-2 sessions, and can be a powerful first step toward care.
The Role of Parents in Family-Based Treatment (FBT)
Family-Based Treatment (FBT), sometimes called the Maudsley Method, is a well-researched, evidence-based treatment for children and younger adolescents with eating disorders. In FBT, parents play an active and central role in helping their child recover.
Rather than focusing on insight or motivation early on, FBT emphasizes:
Parents temporarily taking charge of nourishment
Externalizing the eating disorder as separate from the child
Supporting weight restoration and medical stability
Structured ways of then returning autonomy to the child as recovery progresses
In FBT sessions, parents are not blamed or sidelined. They are coached, supported, and empowered. Therapy focuses on helping parents work as a team, manage fear and conflict, and stay aligned in the face of eating disorder resistance. At Wildflower, we take an approach that we call Respectful FBT, which is similar to traditional FBT, but we suggest and offer individual therapy for the child struggling, so that they have additional support and a more private place to talk about personal challenges like body image struggles (outside of the family therapy).
Virtual Parent Coaching and Consultation: Available Worldwide
While Wildflower Therapy is based in Philadelphia and serves families throughout Pennsylvania, as stated above, we are able to offer virtual parent coaching and consultation to families across the U.S. and internationally. Because parent coaching and consultation is not therapy, it can be provided across state lines and globally.
This means you can receive expert guidance and support even if:
Your child is already in treatment elsewhere
You live outside of Pennsylvania or the other states that we are licensed in
You are seeking short-term (or a one-time) consultation-based support
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Supporting a child or teen with an eating disorder can feel gutting, lonely, and all-consuming. You are allowed to need help. You deserve support that recognizes how much you are carrying.
At Wildflower Therapy, we specialize in working with parents and caregivers navigating eating disorders, body image concerns, and the emotional toll of caring for a struggling child. Whether you are looking for parent therapy, parent coaching, Respectful FBT, or guidance on how to start the conversation, we are here.
Our therapists also support children, teens, adults, and families who are navigating things like eating disorders, disordered eating, ADHD, body image concerns, anxiety, depression, infertility, and maternal mental health/infertility.
We provide therapy in Philadelphia (and virtually for anyone in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Ohio, and Massechusetts.) We work with children, adolescents, and adults. We are neurodivergent-affirming, queer-celebratory, and feminist-relational in our work.
If you’re a parent looking for therapy for your child or yourself in one of the states mentioned above, or are seeking virtual parent coaching or consultation anywhere in the world, we invite you to reach out for your free consultation call.