Specialist Care for Young People and Families Living With an Eating Disorder
The Wave Eating Disorder Program
Teenagers and Young Adults benefit from treatment that is caring, kind and designed to understand the complexities of eating disorders. The Wave helps young people to regain hope that they are able to enjoy life and new experiences without the distress of living with an eating disorder. The Wave provides a perfect balance of therapy, nutrition, skills building, gap year experiences, education and fun. Our team are always looking forward and building recovery plans that are made for living a full life in the real world.
Hope, Healing, and Balance
Our Eating Disorder Program
Our young people benefit from a 3:3:3 approach to nutrition; using the rule of threes in eating disorders is beneficial from the first days of treatment into sustained recovery. Although our treatment programs vary, here’s an example of what a typical day at The Wave will look like:
Our young people start the day with a wake up call from our Recovery Associates and Medical Team
Our team of five chefs are all trained by The InsideOut Institute in the care of Eating Disorders. Menus are prepared the night before to reduce anxiety at mealtimes.
Journaling is a great tool for recovery. Journaling helps to document thoughts and feelings and is a great way to reflect on progress.
Group therapy provides a safe space for exploring our own process and gaining insights from others.
Dietician-led snack menus to gently regulate eating patterns and reintroduce variety in nutrition.
Trained in both therapy and yoga/dance our session leaders explore the delicate balance of our relationships with our bodies in a safe body neutral space.
Using beautiful products and reviving our senses while connecting with the need to be kind to our minds and bodies.
Chef prepared lunches hosted by our recovery team and delivered with kindness, a spoonful of love and a pinch of hope.
Tools to navigate difficult moments and skills to remain grounded and resist urges to use old ED behaviours. DBT is evidence based in the treatment of teens and young adults.
Taking care to recharge mid afternoon to keep our energy levels stable throughout the day.
Creating a personal recipe book and contributing to The Wave Stars Guides our young people enjoy learning to shop, cook, prepare and eat their creations. Art Therapy with our resident Masters level Art Therapists.
Ending the day with a fun activity to remember that recovery brings us back to life.
Joining together for dinner, enjoying conversation and working through challenges with the help of our caring meal hosts.
Enjoying a favourite documentary or taking part in a vocational or academic course supported by our tutors.
Our friendly medical team will support young adults with final medical checks before bed.
Bedtime routines are very important in recovery and we encourage a gentle sleep routine
Our Doctors are on duty overnight and check on our young adults at regular intervals.
How We Help
Our Specialised Programs for Teens
We provide expert care for young people classified as high-risk, extremely high-risk, and moderate to mildly severe risk. We tailor our approach to each individual to ensure that they’re getting the precise level of care they need.
The Wave Indigo Program specialises in the treatment of young people classified as high-risk or extremely high-risk. Our team of medical specialists is able to provide dedicated care for young people with increased needs. The facility is complete with ECG machines and labs for around-the-clock monitoring. The Wave Indigo Program has four Intensive Care Beds beautifully appointed for young people with the highest level of needs. Teens and young adults may require chair or bed rest with one-to-one care to assist with medical stabilisation.
The Wave Fuchsia Program provides complete care for young people with a BMI of 16-16.99 who do not otherwise meet the criteria for admission to Indigo Program (this includes recent risk of self harm & recent thoughts of suicide).
The Violet Program is for teens with a BMI of 16.99 -17.5, who do not otherwise meet the criteria for admission to a higher level of care.
Looking Beyond The Plate
More Than Food
We understand that eating disorders are very often not about the food on the plate. Anxiety, depression, trauma, perfectionism and control can play a large part in the maintenance of eating disorders. Our eating disorder programs provide opportunities to explore the feelings underpinning eating disorders in individual therapy, group therapy, and in family therapy.
Tailored Support for Every Unique Journey
More Than Body
We understand that it is not possible to weigh the severity of an eating disorder. Scales and BMI are not able to provide the complete picture or sometimes any picture at all. We understand that all Eating Disorders are traumatic and exhausting and we work with them all equally.
At The Wave Team, we understand that eating disorders are unique and complex. Our programs are tailored to the individual needs of each young person, and our team is trained in trauma-focused practices to address the underlying issues. We are dedicated to helping each person beyond just their eating disorder, and you’ll see that in every interaction.
Trauma-Focused, Inclusive Treatment for Young People and Families
At The Wave Clinic, we believe in trauma-focused, inclusive treatment for young people and families. Too often, eating disorder care is only accessible for a minority of the young people experiencing eating disorders who fit a very narrow diagnostic box. This leaves many young people without the support they require to recover.
Our programs are open to any young person experiencing an eating problem, regardless of the body they live in or their presenting symptoms. We understand that eating disorders can look very different from one young person to another and that many eating disorders don’t fit into current diagnostic categories. We seek to understand each individual’s past and present experiences, providing the care they need to achieve long-term recovery.
We take a step away from traditional eating disorder care that is outdated, counter-productive, and a source of long-term distress and stigma. Instead of focusing on numbers and weight restoration, a model that often leads to relapse, we follow a trauma-focused approach that addresses the experiences, thoughts, and feelings underpinning disordered eating behaviours. Our programs promote psychological and physical healing hand-in-hand, laying the foundations for lasting well-being and fulfilment.
What’s Wrong with Traditional Eating Disorder Care?
Many people believe that eating disorders – especially anorexia nervosa – are chronically relapsing conditions. This misconception takes hope away from young people and families who may be told that they’ll never fully recover. But the reality of relapse is not a characteristic of eating disorders themselves, but a result of the systematic provision of ineffective treatment in previous decades.
In general, traditional eating disorder care tends to:
- Require individuals to meet a narrow set of diagnostic criteria to be considered unwell. This can shame and stigmatise individuals with different body types and encourage an escalation of disordered eating behaviours.
- Focus on weight restoration, giving young people a number that represents ‘recovery’. This overlooks the psychosocial nature of eating disorders, where disordered eating behaviours are, in reality, a consequence of ways of thinking, emotions, relationships, and past experiences.
- Assume that physical recovery will lead to – or is equivalent to – psychological recovery, considering treatment ‘finished’ even when young people are still experiencing deep psychological distress.
- Treat co-occurring disorders and trauma separately from eating disorder symptoms, usually at a later stage of the program.
Unfortunately, these treatment paradigms prevent many young people from reaching full recovery. Instead, young people often relapse, causing long-term distress and feelings of failure. As treatment becomes more difficult the longer the illness persists, some young people develop severe and enduring eating disorders.
How Is The Wave Different?
At The Wave, we’re always moving forward. Based on the latest medical research, our programs recognise the fundamental role of trauma, interpersonal relationships, thinking patterns, and emotions in causing and maintaining eating disorders.
Our core principles of eating disorder treatment include:
- Recognising that eating disorders are not about the body a young person lives in, but their feelings, thoughts, and experiences.
- Addressing trauma from the very start of a treatment program, alongside eating disorder symptoms.
- Understanding recovery as a holistic, psychological and physical process of healing that is experienced in different aspects of a young person’s life.
We realise these principles through a diverse selection of treatment modalities. These include:
- Interpersonal therapy
- Trauma therapy, such as cognitive-processing therapy
- Enhanced cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT-e)
- Radically open dialectical behavioural therapy (RO-DBT)
- The Maudsley model of anorexia nervosa treatment for adolescents and young adults (MANTRa)
- Family therapy
- Nutritional support
We also recognise that meaningful recovery often requires more than just clinical care. Resilience is built upon social support, self-love, self-understanding, and stability. Through education, vocational learning, community projects, and collective adventures, our residential programs support young people to develop the skills they need to build resilient and fulfilling futures.
‘I’m so grateful that The Wave team stood by me and stood firm with my treatment plan. I managed to get to where I needed to be in terms of weight and I managed to find a relationship with my dad that I didn’t think was possible. I also found my love of horse riding again. This time I wasn’t worried about the bulky calf muscles or being the best, I was happy to be me. I actually really like the person that I am. I have friends, I have a family at The Wave on speed dial and I have my life back.’
Our young people are successful in treatment and beyond
100% Completion Rate
Our focus on education is just one of reasons that our young people are successful in treatment and beyond. We are really proud of our 100% completion rate.
Our young people choose to stay in the safety and security of The Wave.
Our programs combine traditional evidence based treatment, with individual learning plans and ‘GAP’ year activities. We have the perfect combination of skills for living, experiential pursuits and mental health services. For us, treatment is a bridge to a future filled with hope.
The Wave has provided me with the ability to feel calm with the secure feeling that they are a team of professionals who know exact what my daughter needs. It has not been easy and continues to be a challenging journey.
The consistent communication through WhatsApp, phone calls, in-person and virtual family therapy sessions and weekly report have made being halfway across the world feel as if I am as part of my daughter’s treatment as I possibly can.
I had a great experience when I was on The Wave. It was one of the best experiences in my life. I enjoy all the sessions conducted by the team. I never had a chance to speak in group, specially with friends from other countries before.
It opens my eyes and gives me a new knowledge and experience to be a better person.
It opens my eyes and gives me a new knowledge and experience to be a better person.
Thank you all for helping our gorgeous girl find her wonderful self again, for taking such good care of her and all the support and guidance, we are eternally grateful.
