There are five tenets of the family-based therapy (FBT) model that clinicians must master in order to successfully implement FBT into their patient's treatment plan. These tenets are as follows:

1. The therapist must approach the illness with an agnostic view of the its origin or cause.

2. The therapist should maintain a non-authoritarian stance during treatment and reinforce the parents' roles as the primary decision-making authorities.

3. Parents should feel empowered to guide their child throughout the process of recovery.

4. The eating disorder should be externalized so as to separate the illness from the patient.

5. The treatment plan and philosophy should be pragmatic, with an emphasis on immediate symptom reduction in order to prevent the eating disorder from exacerbating and becoming a chronic condition (if it has not already).

Five Tenets of Family-Based Therapy (FBT) for Eating Disorders 

Phase 1 involves the parent(s) intervening on behalf of their child's pathological eating behaviors through overseeing their meal plan, preparing nutritious meals, and modeling health-promoting eating habits.

Phase 2 of FBT is characterized by a gradual increase in the patient's autonomy to choose the types and amounts of food that they will consume as a part of their diet. 

During Phase 3, the clinician as well as the patient and their family review the progress that has been made in treatment and discuss the patient's development in order to collaboratively devise a plan for allowing the patient to safely resume fully autonomous eating.

Barnard College

The family-based treatment (FBT) method for eating disorders entails a clinician working with the adolescent patient and their family to establish a comprehensive care plan that extensively engages the patient's home/family life.

Comprised of three phases, FBT is characterized by granting the patient's family responsibility to monitor and oversee their child's eating behaviors in order to support the patient's sustainable adoption of healthy eating habits. As the patient progresses in their recovery, they are incrementally granted more autonomy over their dietary decisions and eating preferences.

Family-based Treatment of Eating Disorders in Adolescents

Rienecke, R.D., Le Grange, D. (2022, May 2). The five tenets of family-based treatment for adolescent eating disorders, Journal of Eating Disorders. 10. https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-022-00585-y#citeas 

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