ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the role and process of individual psychotherapy for children and young people with eating disorders, in the context of a multi-disciplinary, out-patient, specialist child and adolescent mental health team. The evidence base is briefly examined. Key psychoanalytic writing and conceptualisations about eating disorders are reviewed. Psychotherapy research is discussed with a particular focus on change-promoting factors, such as therapeutic alliance. There then follows a section charting the therapeutic process, emphasising the importance of early engagement and ways in which this may be achieved with children and young people with eating disorders. Case vignettes are used for illustration, and one longer case study, which highlights what can be learned from, firstly, psychodynamic attention to the therapeutic relationship, and secondly, collaborative goal setting.
