ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the initial meeting of the Parent-Based Prevention program. The therapist interviews the parent with the eating disorder history about their eating habits, body image, and additional cognitions and behaviors associated with weight and shape. The therapist seeks to understand how the paternal and/or maternal eating disorder impedes feeding practices, parent–child interactions, mealtime conflicts, and spousal communication. The therapist also assesses the clients’ perceptions and capacity for mentalization of the associations between their own eating disorder symptoms and their children’s eating habits and growth trajectories. To achieve these goals, some of the interventions the therapist engages throughout the first session, include: providing psychoeducation information about the likelihood of feeding and eating problems in children of parents with eating disorders; identifying how the parental eating disorder is currently impacting the parenting practices and child behaviors; externalizing the eating disorder from other aspects of parental functioning; focusing the parents on the individualized goals of the program; and ensuring that both parents understand their importance in this focused parenting intervention. Additionally, although this parenting program is couple-based (for dual-parent families), the therapist holds separate interviews with each parent to collect sensitive information that might not be disclosed otherwise.
