Single Session Intervention
"Eating disorders don’t always present in stereotypical ways. Many people appear outwardly “well” while battling serious symptoms internally. "
A Calm First Step When Things Feel Unclear Or Overwhelming
Initial Response Sessions (for eating disorders) are designed for moments when you’re not quite sure where to start. You might be feeling overwhelmed, stretched, or uncertain about what kind of support you need, only that something doesn’t feel quite right.
This session gives you space to slow things down and make sense of what’s been happening. Together, we explore your current experiences, patterns, and challenges, and begin to build a clearer understanding of what might be contributing to how you’re feeling.
From there, we look at what support could be most helpful moving forward. This might include counselling, assessment pathways, or simply taking a bit more time before deciding. There is absolutely no obligation, the focus is clarity and direction at your pace.
Common Experiences We Help Explore
Many people reaching out for support around eating and body image don’t always have a clear label for what they’re experiencing. This session is a starting point to gently explore patterns, thoughts, and behaviours around food, eating, body image, and control, and to understand what kind of support may be most appropriate.
Distress Around Food & Eating
Feeling anxious, guilty, or overwhelmed in relation to eating or mealtimes.
Body Image
Distress
Persistent dissatisfaction with body image or feeling preoccupied with shape, weight, or appearance.
Restrictive or Rigid Eating Patterns
Finding yourself limiting food intake or following strict rules around eating or “safe” foods.
Compensatory Behaviours or Urges
Feeling compelled to “undo” eating through behaviours that may feel hard to resist or manage.
Loss of Control Around Food
Experiencing episodes of feeling out of control with eating that can feel distressing or confusing.
Preoccupation
With Rules
A lot of mental space taken up by planning, tracking, or thinking about food and body-related rules.
Anxiety & Guilt After Eating
Strong emotional responses after eating that may include worry, shame, or self-criticism.
Not Sure if You to Seek Help?
Feeling unsure but knowing your relationship with food or your body feels distressing.
What Is An Initial Response Session?
An Initial Response Session is a 90-minute session with one of our clinicians.
It is not about immediately jumping into deep therapy work or making rapid changes. Instead, it is a space to gently explore what has brought you here, particularly around your relationship with food, eating, body image, and control.
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Understanding what has been happening and what feels most present right now
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Getting a clearer picture of your experiences with eating, body thoughts, and behaviours
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Exploring what support may feel safe and appropriate at this stage
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Identifying possible next steps together, at your pace
Think of it as a starting point, where we begin to map things out with you, not for you.
Eating Disorders Can Look Different For Everyone
Eating disorders don't always look the way they're portrayed in the media. They affect people of all ages, genders, body sizes, and backgrounds, and no two experiences are exactly the same.
Whether you're noticing changes in your relationship with food, feeling overwhelmed by thoughts about eating or your body, or supporting someone you're concerned about, seeking support early can make a meaningful difference.
An Initial Response Session is designed to meet you where you are, helping you understand what's happening without the need for a diagnosis or certainty before reaching out.
Eating Disorders Across The Lifespan: Our E-Book
Practical Tips & Getting The Right Help
This free eBook explores how eating disorders can emerge and evolve across different stages of life, offering practical tips alongside compassionate, evidence-informed insights. Whether you are supporting someone else or navigating your own recovery, this guide is designed to help you feel informed, supported, and less alone.
Single Session Intervention
(for eating disorders)
Did you know that the eating disorders are home to the single deadliest psychiatric condition under the sun:
Anorexia Nervosa (2, 5, 8-9).
What about the fact that, despite having the highest mortality rate of them all, eating disorders are less funded and researched than every other condition? A recent study looked into how much funding was given to different mental health conditions between 2009 and 2021(6). They found that Anorexia, the most dangerous of them all, was given a grand total of two dollars and five cents per affected person.
What’s that, a Chupachup? Maybe two?
For context, Schizophrenia was given $176.19 per affected person.
It’s no wonder recovery rates sit at less than 50% for Anorexia.
This, among other things, may be why it takes, on average, four years for someone with an eating disorder to go from having their first symptom to finally receiving their first round of treatment. That’s just the average; sometimes it takes over ten years. By the time a person finally does get their foot in the door for eating disorder treatment, they are often extremely unwell, far beyond ‘early intervention’ levels of symptomatology, and the treatment provider they’ve found is ill equipped or unprepared to support them sufficiently (11). Meanwhile, more intensive care settings are running out of beds and turning people away, assuring them that their very real suffering is ‘not bad enough’ to warrant an admission – “come back when you pass out.”
The people who have personally been through this experience have spoken up through the National Strategy public survey and focus groups, where they have called for better, more seamless, and more accessible initial responses to eating disorders, particularly during the early stages of illness (11).
Some of the key highlighted needs were:
Clearer pathways to care
Strict assessment tools, diagnostic criteria and processes
Shorter waitlists for appointments
Better eating disorders training and awareness among health professionals
More trust in the healthcare system via more positive experiences
Better communication among health professionals.
Better consideration of a person’s experiences and needs (including co-occurring conditions, like Autism and ADHD).
Considering the fact that at least one in twenty adults have an eating disorder in Australia (7, 10), and this is likely a gross underestimation, taking down the existing barriers to timely identification and early intervention is crucial to enhancing positive health and quality of life outcomes (1, 3, 4). So that is exactly what we are doing with our Initial Response Session.
Single Session Intervention
When you book with us, you are:
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Waiting to access treatment for an eating disorder, or
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Not quite ready to engage with eating disorder treatment
When you book a single session with us, you receive:
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One 90-minute session with a psychologist
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Immediate assessment and provisional diagnosis
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Immediate guidance, practical solutions and a pathway forward
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Education on harm reduction strategies
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Parent support and/or individual support
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Facilitation of connections to additional services and providers
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The option of ongoing support
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Ambwani, S., Cardi, V., Albano, G., Cao, L., Crosby, R. D., Macdonald, P., et al. (2020). A multicenter audit of outpatient care for adult anorexia nervosa: Symptom trajectory, service use, and evidence in support of “early stage” versus “severe and enduring” classification. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(8), 1337–1348. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.2334
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Arcelus, J., Mitchell, A. J., Wales, J., & Nielsen, S. (2011). Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders: A meta-analysis of 36 studies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(7), 724–731. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74
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Austin, A., Flynn, M., Richards, K., Hodsoll, J., Duarte, T. A., Robinson, P., et al. (2021). Duration of untreated eating disorder and relationship to outcomes: A systematic review of the literature. European Eating Disorders Review, 29(3), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2775
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Austin, A., Flynn, M., Shearer, J., Long, M., Allen, K., Mountford, V. A., et al. (2022). The first episode rapid early intervention for eating disorders—Upscaled study: Clinical outcomes. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 16(1), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.13129
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Birmingham, C. L., Su, J., Hlynsky, J. A., Goldner, E. M., & Gao, M. (2005). The mortality rate from anorexia nervosa. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 38(2), 143–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.20106
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Bryant, E., et al. (2023). Mortality and mental health funding—Do the dollars add up? Eating disorder research funding in Australia from 2009 to 2021: A portfolio analysis. The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, 37, 100786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2023.100786
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Butterfly Foundation. (2012). Paying the price: The economic and social impact of eating disorders in Australia [Internet]. Sydney. Available from https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/butterfly-report-paying-price-eating-disorders.html
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Chang, C. K., Hayes, R. D., Broadbent, M., Fernandes, A. C., Lee, W., Hotopf, M., et al. (2010). All-cause mortality among people with serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorders, and depressive disorders in southeast London: A cohort study. BMC Psychiatry, 10, 77. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-10-77
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Fichter, M. M., & Quadflieg, N. (2016). Mortality in eating disorders—Results of a large prospective clinical longitudinal study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 49(4), 391–401. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22501
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Hay, P., Girosi, F., & Mond, J. (2015). Prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of DSM-5 eating disorders in the Australian population. Journal of Eating Disorders, 3(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-015-0054-0
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National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC). National Eating Disorders Strategy 2023-2033. NEDC; 2023.