ARFID, Picky Eating, Anorexia, and Other Eating Disorders

This combines advances in cognitive-behavioral treatment with mindfulness-based approaches. It helps you learn to be more aware and accepting of ongoing joyous and aversive experiences so that life becomes more vital from moment to moment. We also help you develop problem-solving and meal-planning skills and explain the importance of food diaries.

Emphasizes how you experience and respond to your emotions. You’ll learn to keep your emotions in check, become more mindful, and improve your interpersonal skills. The goal of this therapy is to reduce the symptoms that trigger your eating disorder.

We encourage you to notice and accept unwelcome thoughts and feelings that contribute to disordered eating rather than trying to control or block them. We also work with you to help you identify your values so you can find greater meaning in life.

Builds on what is known about physiological changes that occur with the experience of traumatic life events. By helping you to activate the restorative branch of your nervous system in the presence of aversive remembrances, you will learn to fully experience the full range of emotions rather than being closed off due to past traumatic events.

We help you build and maintain quality relationships with family members, friends and co-workers, all of who help to reduce the symptoms of your eating disorders.

We believe it’s important to involve your social support network in your treatment. Your family members will be part of the support team that helps you restore your health.

Group support can be invaluable in regaining your footing, whether you or your loved one is struggling with an eating disorder. We offer several ongoing skill-focused group treatments. Some are geared for adults and adolescents with eating disorders, and others for parents and spouses of patients.

Essential to restoring healthy eating habits, nutrition therapy starts with a one-on-one evaluation with a registered dietitian who assesses your current eating habits and designs a program tailored to your specific needs. We design meal plans to establish a healthy and balanced diet, taking into account your preferences, schedule, and metabolic needs.

We are at the forefront of care for this newly recognized eating problem, where children and adults severely restrict the types of food they eat or reject foods on the basis of taste, texture, or sensory quality. This eating pattern can lead to inadequate nutrition, family conflict, and social isolation. If you are affected by selective eating, you will learn skills that help you manage fears of necessary foods.

We provide Feeling and Body Investigators – ARFID Division, a treatment developed at Duke and tested in a trial by the National Institutes of Health. Children learn to treat their sensitivities as a superpower that helps them enjoy vibrant life experiences – including experiences that involve food.

Picky eating in kids can cross a line into an unhealthy fear of food. A new study by Duke researchers reveals more children experience those fears than their parents realize.