ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a way of conducting psychotherapy with clients with eating disorders that focuses on their interpersonal relationships. Such a focus seems developmentally appropriate, because eating disorders begin at a time when a girl or young woman is highly concerned about nding a way to relate well to family members, peers, and other people in her life. Clinicians commonly nd that clients with eating disorders have problems relating to other people, and these interpersonal problems can lead to stress, increase the severity of the eating disorder, and make treatment more complicated. Interpersonal therapy can be viewed either as a method-an approach
20.1 Learning Objectives ............................................................................................................ 385 20.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 385 20.3 Research Background and Signicance .............................................................................. 386 20.4 Current Findings ................................................................................................................. 387 20.5 Application of Research and Enhancing Treatment with Eating Disorder Clients ............. 388
20.5.1 Stages of Interpersonal Therapy ............................................................................ 388 20.5.1.1 Phase 1: Collecting Information, Identifying the Interpersonal
Problem, and Establishing Rapport ......................................................388 20.5.1.2 Phase 2: Working through the Identied Interpersonal Problem .......... 389 20.5.1.3 Phase 3: Reecting, Celebrating, Grieving, and Troubleshooting ....... 391
20.5.2 Using the Interpersonal Process in Therapy .......................................................... 392 20.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 394 References ...................................................................................................................................... 395
to doing therapy comparable to cognitive behavioral therapy (Klerman et al. 1984, Fairburn 1997, Apple 1999, Wiley et al. 2000), or it can be viewed as a more general orientation-a way of developing a therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client that will enhance the effectiveness of the techniques and strategies of any other approach used to help a client with an eating disorder (Teyber 2006).
