Statistics:

An estimated 1.25 million people in the UK are living with an eating disorder, such as bulimia, anorexia, or binge eating. According to a study by the Children’s Commissioner for England, 11,800 children and young people under 18 started treatment in 2022-23, compared to 5,240 in 2016-17. Despite this increase, 45% of urgent cases faced a wait of over 12 weeks to begin treatment, nearly triple the 16% seen in 2016-17. The NHS aims for 95% of children and young people with eating disorders to start treatment within one week for urgent cases and within four weeks for non-urgent ones. Hospital admissions for eating disorders have also surged, with 24,300 admissions in 2020-21, an 84% rise since 2016-17. Nearly half of these patients were under 25, with the majority being women and girls. Additionally, admissions of young men have nearly doubled, increasing from 467 in 2016-17 to 909 in 2020-21.**

Shila Desai has extensive experience of Eating Disorder Services, both inpatient and adolescent CAMHS services for over 20 years, in which she worked alongside the multidisciplinary team to support interventions for the treatment of Anorexia and other Complex Disordered Eating presentations. As a Systemic Psychotherapist and Supervisor, she has contributed to family-based treatments within the field both in teaching and practice. Her NVR practice and teaching have explored the interactional processes between parents and their children faced with the serious risks an eating disorder presents and how parents can resist, reclaim their authority and presence and create caring connections.

“One of the things I am interested in is how we hold onto what is dear in our hearts, that helps us thrive and love such as family, arts, nature, our relationships, and also how we overcome hurt, pain, suffering and that these are dual aspects of life itself. It is in this interface that we can draw on the principles of NVR that act as a guiding light. That is how I see NVR and all its wonderful methods, that we are not alone, that we do not impose, that we sit-with and resist and in the silent presence things emerge and grow, like the offerings from the great oak tree, or the touch of the sun rays”

Luke has been working with children, young people and their families in a variety of supportive and therapeutic roles for the last 20 years. He has provided NVR group work for adolescent substance misuse and serious behaviour problems, with foster carers and adopters and for the last 4 years in a community CAMHS team where he has developed NVR as an effective intervention to support parents of young people experiencing eating disorders.