Emotion Focused and Schema Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa: The SPEAKS Approach

Anorexia Nervosa is considered difficult to treat and the authors propose greater simplification and targeting of treatment mechanisms is necessary. The SPEAKS (Specialist Psychotherapy with Emotion for Anorexia in Kent and Sussex) was developed in a five-year intervention development and feasibility trial research program. The approach primarily combines aspects of Emotion Focused Therapy and Schema Therapy to target a primary putative mechanism of change in Anorexia – A Lost Emotional Self – in order to maximize engagement and clinical change. The SPEAKS treatment model presents a phased and process-orientated model of clinical change that has been informed by lived experience and process-oriented research methodologies. Here the authors describe the theoretical underpinnings and research from which the SPEAKS model evolved and outline SPEAKS therapy. The authors present a case study to illustrate the treatment approach through which they describe core “therapy tasks.”