Our purpose at Shelly Beach Practice is to support our clients in their recovery from an eating disorder. We’ve found the best way to do this is to work collaboratively, pooling our knowledge and expertise to achieve the best possible outcomes for them. Prior to establishing Shelly Beach Practice over 10 years ago, we had all worked with eating disorders elsewhere and have experience in other areas which has proved invaluable in approaching our clients’ treatment.

THE SHELLY BEACH PRACTICE TREATMENT APPROACH

We believe that our commitment to working closely as a team is one of the keys to the high standard of care we offer. So too is our extensive experience and length of time working in the field. We constantly update our knowledge, innovate and evaluate to ensure our treatment plans get results, and just as importantly, our clients enjoy their time with us, even though they may experience the work as challenging.

Over years of clinical practice, we have developed our own Shelly Beach Practice model, which involves collaborative treatment by a psychologist, dietitian and possibly a physical therapist. It integrates the core principles of nutrition management and intuitive eating with the evidence-based principles of psychological interventions described below.

If you’re a client coming to us for treatment, you can typically expect to

undergo a nutrition and psychological assessment
receive a personalised, evidence-informed treatment programme that takes into
account your specific eating problem or difficulty, and your needs and characteristics
to participate in regular progress review sessions with your treatment team
Our integrative model is achieving positive outcomes for many of our clients and we are excited by its potential to boost the efficacy of standalone psychological therapies for particular presentations. Following assessment your clinician will discuss whether the model is an appropriate fit for you.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT

Depending on the client, we may work primarily within a particular treatment modality described below, or draw from a range of approaches which can also include motivational enhancement therapy, mindfulness interventions, dialectical behavioural therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Our main approaches are:

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

CBT focusses on the interaction between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and learn more effective ways of managing challenging situations. This approach can be applied to a wide range of client difficulties.
Enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders is a specialised form of CBT that systematically addresses key aspects of eating disorder thoughts and behaviours. It is the leading evidence-based treatment approach for those with normal weight eating disorders (such as bulimia nervosa).

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)

CAT involves working collaboratively with individuals to identify and understand patterns of thinking and behaving that have been learnt in childhood and how they contribute to current difficulties. Therapy focusses on recognising and changing these patterns as they occur in everyday life. This approach can also be applied to a wide range of client difficulties. Dr Geary has particular expertise in this approach.

Maudsley Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA)

MANTRA is an empirically-based treatment package designed to directly target the key maintaining factors of anorexia nervosa that have been identified through research. It is based in CBT principles but also draws on other therapeutic models such as motivational enhancement therapy.

Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM)

SSCM for eating disorders emphasises the importance of a supportive therapeutic relationship that facilitates the gradual return to normal eating and weight. The provision of good information, advice and encouragement is key. This approach also provides a forum for addressing other life issues that impact on the eating disorder and quality of life.

DIETETIC THERAPY

A dietetic consultation can assist anyone who wants to improve their health and nutrition through food and lifestyle, supporting them to build a peaceful relationship with food and with their bodies. Dietetic therapy not only focuses on food and eating but can also address wider concerns that may be preventing people from living a healthful balanced life.

How do we work?

The first visit is all about getting to know you as an individual before treatment begins.

Assessment

During the first in-depth consultation (allow 90 minutes), we find out as much as we can about you and hear your story and all the factors that impact on the current situation. We will also find out your goals of therapy. At the end of the session we provide feedback regarding recommended treatment approaches. For eating disorder referrals we liaise with the psychologist, and make our dietetic recommendations to inform the treatment plan.

Treatment Phase

Each ‘phase’ of therapy will have clear treatment goals and a timeframe after which the effectiveness of our work is assessed.

Eating Disorder Treatment

Our work with you at first involves supporting you with regularity, nutritional adequacy and expanding your food variety. As you begin to recover, we start to build in some of the skills we teach in our Intuitive Eating Programme. It helps you gain confidence in eating socially and learn to become more peaceful and spontaneous with food.

Intuitive Eating Programme (IEP)

The Intuitive Eating Programme has been developed through our 50 years’ joint experience working as specialist dietitians in the eating behaviour field. The IEP supports clients to achieve a more peaceful relationship with their food, body and way of being and liberating you from a diet mentality. It is a skills-based programme and consists of six to eight sessions addressing what, when and how much you eat, and explains the core intuitive eating principles and mindful eating. At Shelly Beach Practice we fully support the Health at Every Size (HAES) philosophy which means we take a non-diet approach to our dietetic therapy looking at how we can incorporate more health-enhancing behaviours into our lives as opposed to deprivation or restriction.

Body Confidence Training

Confident Body, Confident Child (CBCC) is a new evidence-based resource providing parenting strategies to promote positive body image, healthy eating and physical activity in children aged 2-6 years. We currently deliver parent workshops to introduce the important concepts of child body image development, healthful eating patterns and weight attitudes. These workshops are designed to guide parents through the information contained within the CBCC resources, allow group learning and activate behavioural change.