A hallmark of eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa, is the inability of those afflicted to recognize the severity of the disorder, as well as fear and ambivalence about recovery. As these disorders progress, these brain-based, biological changes ensue and result in the eating disorder taking over the adolescents’ thinking and behavior.
Family Based Treatment (FBT) enlists parents/guardians in the process of regulating nutrition. In FBT, there is a primary focus on restoring health of the brain and the body through adequate, consistent nutrition.
Dr. Ricciardi is currently the only provider in the state of Nevada certified to do FBT for eating disorders by the Training Institute for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (http://train2treat4ed.com/certified-therapists-list).
Dr. Ricciardi was trained by Daniel LeGrange, Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and participated in clinical research supporting the efficacy of FBT. She in turn, provides this training and supervision to therapists at the EDI.
As eating behavior normalizes through adequate nutrition, our therapists will often provide additional individual therapy as needed to the adolescent to increase insight and understanding, heal from any preexisting trauma or underlying conditions, increase adaptive coping skills, and prevent relapse, please give us a call or fill out the online contact form here.
