Family-Based Therapy

Family therapy for eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa (AN), has been conducted for almost half a century. The interventions were embedded in various family therapy schools. Notable are Minuchin’s structural approach (Minuchin et al. 1975), strategic family therapy (Madanes 1981), the systemic approach of the Milan School (Palazzoli 1974), and more recent narrative applications (Epston et al. 1995), family therapy for anorexia nervosa (FT-AN) (Eisler et al. 2016), systemic family therapy (SFT) (Agras et al. 2014), multi-family group therapy (Eisler 2005; Eisler et al. 2016), and parent-focused family therapy (e.g., separate family therapy and parent-focused therapy [PFT]) (Eisler et al. 2000; Le Grange et al. 1992, 2016), as well as the treatment form of home treatment (Herpertz-Dahlmann et al. 2014). The family therapy approach sees parents as a central influencing factor, which is why they should be involved in the treatment (Murray and Le Grange 2014).