Call 0800 046 3265

There is a huge problem with how eating disorders are treated in the UK, the situation is dire and getting worse.

For most, the first point of contact when getting help is by visiting a GP for getting treatment on the NHS. Unfortunately the NHS one size fits all solution is dated, slow moving and needs an overhaul. A great start would be by consulting with the patient and asking them what they want and what help they need right now.

I’m not one of those therapists who hate the NHS and everything that they do. Both my grandparents and my sister have received excellent treatment from them. The staff on the ground do a good job, I get excellent co-operation from GPs and nurses, but they work in a sluggish & over complicated system which results in patients being shunted from one specialist to another, often leaving it weeks between seeing the right person. These long waits really do feel like an eternity for the patient, and often the eating disorder gets worse during this time.

In the Worthing & Brighton area, the time from going to see your GP to actually sitting down to talk with a therapist, who even then won’t be a specialist in eating disorders, is 18-19 weeks.

There are many improvements to be made – namely getting the client from their GP and to a eating disorder therapists couch as soon as possible. I realise often there is testing to be done like ECGs, blood testing and bone density testing..but surely this can be done at the after therapy has begun, rather than making people wait. The system is too rigid.

If you are seeking help outside the NHS you will get to see a private therapist much sooner, unfortunately there is a bit of a problem – most people go for the wrong kind of help.

I see between 5 and 10 clients a week for help with eating disorders. About 70% of clients I see with eating disorders are people who have been to see someone before, usually a counsellor. Unfortunately this is very common and something I feel needs to be addressed.

I can see why most people would want to see a counsellor – at first it seems like a logical choice.  The common perception is go see the counsellor, talk about the emotional problems which surround food and eating, resolve those problems and you are free of the eating disorder? I wish it was that simple.

In most cases the process of counselling does a great job of getting people back on track and allows them to overcome their problem. However, the problems they deal with are mostly about emotional help and support, and less about therapeutic & habitual change work. These are two very different areas.

Dealing with a problem which is manifesting here and now is very different to changing an existing problem such as an eating disorder. Eating disorders, although they have significant emotional problems included, are largely habitual.

Eating disorders require specialist knowledge and understanding. Most counsellors have not spent much time around people with eating disorders, getting to know how eating disorders really work, and learning what their clients forget or do not wish to tell them – in fact most will at most only have attended 2 day weekend workshops.

Now I applaud their effort for getting out there, attending the workshop and learning, we need more people doing that to raise the level of knowledge out there. But a workshop certificate of completion should not be seen as a certificate of competence, and I do have a problem with therapists taking hard earned money off clients when they have so little hands on experience. I spent 4 years learning and volunteering – there is a lot to learn, and it will take years of hard work.

The best way I can demonstrate my point is this: In an independent survey set 12 months after finishing treatment with a counsellor, only 14% of those surveyed reported still being clear of the eating disorder. So 86% of them still had problems. Also bear in mind the average length of time in therapy was 16 weeks.

So, my case is that counselling on it’s own isn’t an effective method of treating eating disorders. This opinion isn’t a gripe against counsellors – I am a qualified counsellor myself. But soley using counselling is using the wrong tool for the wrong job.

If you don’t want to be one of the 86% who still had a problem after extensive counselling, I strongly recommend you seek a practitioner of a hands on therapy such as CBT or NLP or many others out there. These hands on therapies are needed to ensure that both the emotional and habitual problems are dealt with, otherwise your therapy will not be complete, and you will most likely join the 86% and burn a lot of cash  whilst doing so.

This is also a reason why some people are therapy for weeks or even months longer than absolutely necessary, and it’s a pattern that is on the increase. A client seeing a change worker for an issue that really needs emotional support, and someone who requires habitual change seeing a counsellor.