Foundations of Eating Disorder Care

Working with clients experiencing eating disorders can bring complex clinical questions, uncertainty, and important decisions about treatment, safety, and level of care. Whether you are newer to eating disorder treatment or looking to strengthen your existing knowledge, a solid clinical foundation can help you navigate these challenges with greater clarity and confidence. Many of the skills and modalities you already have can be applied to people suffering from eating disorders when safety and clinical conceptualization are present.

Foundations of Eating Disorder Care is a six-week online training designed to help mental health professionals develop a stronger understanding of eating disorder assessment, clinical presentation, treatment planning, and intervention. Grounded in a compassionate, weight-inclusive, and trauma-informed approach, this course will explore the essential knowledge and practical skills needed to support clients with eating disorders across a range of clinical presentations.

Through focused instruction and practical clinical applications, participants will build a framework for recognizing eating disorder symptoms, conducting thoughtful assessments, identifying treatment priorities, and making informed decisions about care. We will also explore how to navigate complex presentations, collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary treatment teams, and recognize when a referral to a higher level of care may be indicated.

• Diagnosis and clinical presentation: Develop a stronger understanding of eating disorder diagnoses, symptom patterns, and the varied ways eating disorders may present in clinical practice.
• Intake and assessment: Learn key considerations for conducting eating disorder intakes, gathering clinically meaningful information, and identifying areas that require further assessment.
• Treatment interventions: Explore helpful therapeutic interventions and approaches to supporting clients throughout the treatment process.
• Motivational interviewing: Strengthen your ability to engage clients with ambivalence, support autonomy, and foster readiness for change.
• Health at Every Size® and weight-inclusive care: Examine weight-inclusive principles and their application to ethical, compassionate, and effective eating disorder treatment.
• Treatment team collaboration: Understand the importance of multidisciplinary care and learn how to work collaboratively with other providers involved in a client’s treatment.
• Referrals and higher levels of care: Identify considerations that may indicate the need for additional support, a higher level of care, or more intensive treatment.
• Complex clinical presentations: Explore challenges that can arise when eating disorders intersect with trauma, co-occurring concerns, and other clinical complexities.
• Treatment planning and prioritization: Build a framework for identifying treatment targets, determining clinical priorities, and developing thoughtful, individualized treatment plans.

Sarah Dochow, LMHC, CN completed dual masters degrees in nutrition and clinical health psychology in 2012. Since then she has worked with diverse populations of people struggling with eating disorders and complex trauma. She has provided supervision for other therapists for over a decade and has taught Counseling for Eating Disorders at a local counseling graduate school program. She has a passion for helping therapists avoid burnout and provide compassionate therapy for their clients.