ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the nuts and bolts of interventions in Session 1, with an emphasis on taking on the role of family therapist, specifically FBT therapist. As such, we review some of the differences between FBT and more traditional family therapy models, as well as some of the challenges that come with shifting to a family from an individual therapy focus. Central interventions are reviewed and include the art of circular questioning and other methods of engaging the entire family system. Some of the most common dilemmas arising in Session 1 include what to do when clinicians and families have difficulty remaining agnostic to the cause of the eating disorder and how to manage family criticism, engage siblings in a supportive role, appropriately mobilize the family in their renourishment efforts, and pace the session given the many interventions clinicians are tasked with accomplishing. We introduce a fidelity coding framework created for the purpose of guiding clinician competency and adherence to the model.
