Conceptualizing Fidelity in FBT as the Field Moves Forward: How Do We Know When We’re Doing It Right?

This chapter presents a coding manual and rating scale for therapists’ fidelity to the treatment model and techniques, specifically in the early sessions of family-based therapy (FBT), which are presumed to carry the majority of the active mechanisms of treatment. The measure’s psychometric properties (reliability and validity) are being studied and established. We share the scale at this stage of development because it provides a face-valid elaboration of what is expected in FBT therapists’ words and behaviors when implementing the major strategies of FBT. In this sense, this chapter functions as a companion piece to the FBT treatment manual for anorexia nervosa (AN) (Lock & Le Grange, 2012), making concepts and directions “come alive.”