Topical Eating Disorder Seminars

Our dads and male carers session offers a welcoming space for fathers, partners, brothers, grandfathers and professionals supporting someone with an eating disorder. Co-facilitated by Chris, a single parent who supported his daughter through recovery, these sessions bring male carers together to share experiences, build confidence in using New Maudsley skills, and learn from others who understand the challenges they face. The group meet every few months and members also staying in touch between sessions through a dedicated WhatsApp community.

• Tuesday 1 September, 6pm - 8.30pm

To book your place on an upcoming session, please email training@charliewaller.org.

In this session, we will: 

• Explore what effective meal planning looks like and how to support a loved one through mealtimes.
• Look at the role carers often play during refeeding, why mealtimes can feel so challenging, and how structure and clear guidance can help.
• Discuss individual nutritional needs, how to recognise when intake may need to increase, and the importance of gradual adjustment. 
• Cover meal planning and support for bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder

Carers will receive practical resources including example meal plans from Great Ormond Street Hospital, the New Maudsley Approach, and plans created by families that have worked in practice.

The next available session is:

• Wednesday 2 September, 9.30am-12pm

To book your place on this session, please email training@charliewaller.org.

It is terrifying to discover that as well as having an eating disorder, your loved one is self harming. Self harm is much more common than it used to be as young people have discovered it is an effective and immediate way of coping with overwhelming emotions. It can be a young person who has no diagnosable mental health condition, it might be due to a short term teen emotional crisis, or it might exist alongside diagnosable mental health conditions such as eating disorders. Self harm can appear at any stage of treatment or recovery. Very often it is at transition stages due to the distress of the eating disorder voice fighting back. This might be at diagnosis, shortly after admission to in patient care, or in the later stages of recovery. Whenever it appears there is no doubt that it is very distressing for all family members to witness.

In this session we consider three very common questions;

• Why has my loved one with an eating disorder suddenly started self harming?
• How should we best respond to self harming behaviours?
• How can I manage my own distress when my loved one is self harming?

The next upcoming session is: 

• Wednesday 7 October, 9.30am – 12pm

To book a place on one of our topical seminars, please email training@charliewaller.org.

Support for adults is often harder to access than for young people, and many treatments rely on the individual engaging - something that isn’t always possible when sufferers are too underweight and/or malnourished, their eating disorder behaviours have become habitual, or they are simply not motivated to be able to engage in therapy or other support. This can mean parents, partners and loved ones feel pushed back both by the system and their loved one’s eating disorder voice - especially as parents are no longer have the same legal right to get their adult child treatment.

In this workshop, you will: 

• Learn New Maudsley techniques that can be helpful for supporting an adult with an eating disorder
• Connect with others who are facing similar challenges to help you know you're not alone

The next upcoming session is: 

• Wednesday 7 October, 6pm - 8.30pm

To book a place on one of our topical seminars, please email training@charliewaller.org.

In this workshop, we will:

• Explore how best to support your loved one during the maintenance stage of recovery from an eating disorder.
• Recognise the challenges and contingency planning for potentially difficult events
• Consider how do I know if it is my healthy loved one moving forward and taking risks, or the ED voice is trying to trip them up What is a reasonable level of risk and how can we have conversations with our loved one about this? What is the difference between a lapse and a relapse? Will I ever be able to truly relax and take a step back from my caring role?

The next upcoming sessions are: 

• Friday 7 August, 9.30am – 12pm
• Friday 13 November, 9.30am – 12pm

To book a place on one of these sessions, please email training@charliewaller.org.

Programme 1:

• Session 1: Autism and ED skills illustration of New Maudsley skills session - Wednesday 3 June, 10am - 12.30pm
• Session 2: Skills practice session on autism affirming communication styles - Wednesday 1 July, 10am - 12.30pm
• Session 3: Skills practice session on autism friendly techniques for planning for change - Wednesday 5 August, 10am - 12.30pm

Programme 2:

• Session 1: Autism and ED skills illustration of New Maudsley skills session - Thursday 8 October, 6pm - 8.30pm
• Session 2: Skills practice session on autism affirming communication styles - Thursday 12 November, 6pm - 8.30pm
• Session 3: Skills practice session on autism friendly techniques for planning for change - Thursday 10 December, 6pm - 8.30pm

To book a place on one of our autism and eating disorder rolling programmes, please email training@charliewaller.org.

The Teen Brain Matters workshop combines the latest understanding of neuroscience and developmental psychology, with practical strategies to help parents and carers to understand the changes teenagers are going through, and what they can do to help support them.

The original workshop was developed for The Charlie Waller Trust by Dr John Coleman OBE, a psychologist with an international reputation for his work on the teenage years and with John’s kind permission we have adapted it to weave in what we know about the impact of eating disorders on the brain.

In this session, we consider four common questions; How do I know if it is normal teenage behaviour or eating disorder behaviour? Why does my loved one still struggle with eating disorder thoughts around food, weight and shape even after normal weight has been reached? How will the eating disorder affect my child’s development? What can I do to help my teenager catch up as they recover?

The next available session is: 

• Wednesday 14 October 6pm – 8.30pm

To book a place on one of our autism and eating disorder rolling programmes, please email training@charliewaller.org.

Carers with loved ones who suffer from emotional overeating, binge eating, bulimia, or binge/purge type anorexia often feel there are less resources for them to turn to. You might also feel a great deal of shame and guilt and one of the roadblocks is the difficulty talking about this topic. At the same time some of the challenges are really very similar with a major objective being to help the sufferer to restore regular eating which might be 3 main meals and 3 snacks, or 5 to 6 small meals spread throughout the day. This is a huge challenge for anyone that has developed any type of eating disorder and much of this process involves an element of trial and error to work out an appropriate nutrition programme for each individual, and at the same time to help them to develop their own more healthy coping strategies.

This session considers common questions including; What is extreme hunger and how does it differ from binge behaviours? What drives my loved one to binge and/or purge? How can I help my loved one cope with the low self-esteem and shame that often comes with binge and/or purge behaviours? How can I support my loved one to challenge these binge/ purge behaviours and restore regular eating patterns?

There is a great deal of research and commentary into the overlap between OCD and eating disorders. In this session we look at the dynamic between the two and an important distinction between those who presented with OCD prior to the eating disorder (ED) and those whose OCD appeared after the onset of the ED.

The starved brain can lead to OCD symptoms for some people, who had never had OCD before. If the OCD behaviours are not putting the person at risk, then it is possible that therapy for the disorder may not be needed, as the OCD behaviours may recede as the person recovers from their ED. 

For those with pre-occurring OCD, the disorder can become enormous at the onset of Anorexia. It is usual for ED services to concentrate on the ED as a priority, however, there are some people for which the OCD and Anorexia interact, e.g. intrusive OCD thoughts and rules can be around eating. In these cases, it is possible that OCD therapy should be started earlier, and there should be good dialogue, if possible, between ED and OCD therapists. Ideally, for pre-existing OCD, therapy will start when the patient is outside of medical risk, but prior to full ED recovery. Untreated severe OCD can make ED recovery difficult if it is taking up most of the person’s time, and there is no room for any comfortable space / life outside of the OCD and ED.

In this session we will explore a range of scenarios and equip participants with knowledge and skills, as well as to be much better positioned to gauge when you can use New Maudsley skills to support your loved one with any OCD related behaviours and when to seek OCD specific specialist support.

• Tuesday 8 September, 6pm – 8.30pm

To book a place on this session, please email training@charliewaller.org.

Whilst perfectionism is not a diagnosable condition in its own right, perfectionism can be a vulnerability for all sorts of diagnosable mental health conditions and in particular can exacerbate eating disorder symptoms in a variety of ways.

Perfectionism and eating disorders often coexist and perfectionism is thought to be a significant risk factor for restrictive eating disorders. Starvation of the brain can amplify any pre existing perfectionist tendencies.

In this session, we seek to understand the distinction between healthy striving for excellence and dysfunctional perfectionism. This session will support participants to understand what resilience is and its place in perfectionism. We will look at how to support our young people to tolerate failure. The session offers a toolbox of simple and practical, evidence-based skills which includes advice on how to role-model our learning from our mistakes and making a “good enough” effort a healthy approach to have.

• Saturday 8 August, 9.30am – 12pm
• Tuesday 1 December, 6pm – 8.30pm

To book a place on this session, please email training@charliewaller.org.

Whilst compulsive exercise is not a diagnosable mental health condition in itself, it is thought to be a feature in up to 80% of people diagnosed with restrictive eating disorders and up to 60% of those with binge/purge type eating disorders. It is characterised as an excessive and uncontrollable need to exercise despite injury, illness, or fatigue. Compulsive exercise can result in overuse injuries, energy deficiency, fatigue, or increased risk of infections. It may also have a negative impact on mood and people’s social relationships. Where medical risk is high, it may be necessary for families and clinicians to step in and stop all movement until medical stability is restored.

In this session we will explore techniques to support a loved one struggling with compulsive exercise in the home setting, as well as the transition from compulsive exercise back to healthy sport and movement.

• Saturday 22 August, 9.30am – 12pm.
• Tuesday 8 December, 6pm – 8.30pm

To book a place on this session, please email training@charliewaller.org.