Parent support as an adjunct to family therapy

This chapter provides a framework for understanding emotion regulatory strategies in individuals with eating disorders so that family-based interventions can integrate this information into ongoing family-based treatment. It describes the nature of emotional experience and the relationship of emotional experience. The chapter discusses emotion regulatory capacities in those with eating disorders and how family-based treatment can help augment emotion regulatory skills. The goal of emotion regulation as incorporated into family-based treatment is to help families to regard and utilize emotional experience as the path to guide the emergence of self-knowledge, self-trust and mutual trust. The consistent acknowledgment and responsiveness between parent and child of each other’s emotional experience can promote mutual trust and understanding. From this framework, the emotional outbursts of an adolescent can be understand as hitherto unexpressed or ineffectively expressed and unmet needs. The chapter finally examines how cognitive capacities may influence choice of emotion regulatory strategy.