Flinders University Services for Eating Disorders

To be eligible, we require you to:

• be at least 15 years old
• have a body mass index of 18.5 or above
• have an eating disorder
• be willing for the therapist to communicate with your general practitioner.

You will be unable to participate if:

• you have a severe physical and/or psychiatric condition that would interfere with treatment (e.g. high suicidality, psychosis)
• you are already receiving psychotherapy for an eating disorder
• you have difficulty speaking or understanding English
• you have binge eating disorder (people with binge eating disorder will be directed to self-help material but not offered sessions)
• If you are uncertain about whether you are eligible for the study, please contact us for further information.

CBT-T is a brief and focused therapy. You will be offered four sessions in the first instance, and this can be extended to ten sessions if you are benefitting. Sessions are held at Flinders University in Social Sciences North and are one-on-one, weekly, and 50 minutes in length. Appointment times are flexible and can be negotiated with your assigned therapist. There are also 1- and 3-month follow up appointments.

Sessions 1-4: Learning and changing eating

Learning about the impact of food on your mood, sensations of fullness, and reasons for bulimic behaviours and weight change. Working towards eating regularly and enough. Making predictions about whether dietary changes will impact your weight and/or behaviours and testing these predictions.

Sessions 3-7: Challenging beliefs about eating, food, and weight

Identifying beliefs about eating, weight, and shape. Considering evidence for and against these beliefs. Exploring ‘safe’ and ‘feared’ foods. Reintroducing feared foods and testing whether feared outcomes occurs.

Sessions 6-9: Body image work

Exploring behaviours that maintain body image problems (e.g., avoidance, mind-reading, comparison, and checking). Targeting these behaviours using techniques such as surveys, mirror exposure, and rescripting hurtful body memories.

Sessions 9-10: Relapse prevention

Developing a plan to maintain progress and identify and respond to signs that you are slipping back into eating disorder thoughts and/or behaviours.

You will be invited to attend an initial assessment at FUSED to determine whether you are eligible to participate. If eligible, you will be asked to return to FUSED one week later to complete a neuropsychological assessment. Following this assessment, all participants will be placed on a one-month waitlist before receiving weekly CBT-T sessions.

The treatment study uses a randomised design, meaning that participants will be allocated by chance (like flipping a coin) to one of three waitlist groups. One group will receive a CRT session and complete homework tasks. This involves completing thinking exercises, making small behavioural changes, and reflecting on the ways in which you think. Another group will be sent a psychoeducation handout about eating disorders, neurobiology, and the malleability of the brain. The final group will not be required to do anything while they wait to receive weekly CBT-T.

You will also complete a total of four hours of assessment. This involves completing questionnaires on six occasions (up to 30 minutes on each occasion) and neuropsychological tests on two occasions (up to 30 minutes on each occasion). Participating in the study means that you consent to your data from this assessment being used in a confidential, de-identified way for research.

There are no costs associated with participating in this study and you will not be paid.

While we cannot promise that you will benefit from the treatment offered to you, other people who have received CBT-T have reported significant decreases in disordered eating. We also hope that the information gathered in this study will help increase our understanding of how to make treatment for people with non-underweight eating disorders more effective.