ABSTRACT
The treatment package which follows is a brief psychotherapeutic intervention with subsequent longer term follow-up with support and reducing amounts of active treatment. Psychotherapy is required to facilitate this new learning experience and to foster different ways of communicating and problem solving. The ‘patient’ and the family will have to negotiate the developing separation/individuation processes. The treatment focus will usually be the identified maturational conflict preceding the onset of the anorexia nervosa. Sometimes this will need to extend to earlier aspects of the patient’s development, e.g. if there has been an important loss to the family system or major abuse, including sexual abuse, at an earlier stage. The details of the treatment programme, i.e. number of sessions, expectations and limitations such as treatment being conditional on weight gain, should be agreed with the patient from the outset and only modified within the context of formal.
