Residential Eating Disorders Treatment for Adolescents

Compassionate Care in a Home-Like Environment

Eating disorders are never easy for adolescents and their families, especially when a more intensive level of care is required.

Walden’s residential program for adolescents is designed with several goals in mind. We want to stabilize your child’s symptoms. We want to reduce their anxiety, eliminate negative behaviors and develop the skills for them to navigate any type of setting or situation involving food. We want them to return – and stay – home as soon as possible. Eating disorders are an unforgiving disorder with high recurrence rates. We strive to ensure your child’s stay with us only happens once.

We involve families through our innovative Family-Based Treatment (FBT) model, proven to result in better long-term outcomes. We host three family meals per week, simulating how it’s like in your own home, with your own food. This allows adolescents to best prepare for the return to home life, while equipping parents with the skills they need to support their child as best they can throughout the transition and beyond.

The program is best designed for adolescents following inpatient hospitalization or struggling to manage their eating disorder in lower levels of care.

24-hour medical care and support is provided. Once the program is complete, residents progress towards day (partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient) treatment.

Requirements of the Adolescent Inpatient Eating Disorder Program

• 12 to 17 years of age, all genders
• Require 24-hour care, but not hospital level of care

Treatment for the Adolescent Inpatient Eating Disorder Program

• Individual counseling (3x/day)
• Family therapy
• Medication management
• Nutrition education and coaching
• Onsite physician and nursing care
• Daily group therapy
• Educational support
• Case management
• Discharge planning
• ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
• Substance Abuse counseling
• Yoga therapy

Dedicated Treatment Team for the Adolescent Inpatient Eating Disorder Program

• Psychiatric nurse practitioner
• Dietitian
• Family therapist
• Mental health counselors

Adolescent Inpatient Group Programming

• Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy
• Exposure Meals
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Self-esteem
• Nutrition education
• Expressive therapy
• Body image
• Relapse prevention

Other Benefits

• On-site education (weekdays)
• Family visiting hours
• “Passes” for time off campus

Adolescent Inpatient Eating Disorder Program Hours

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Walden’s residential eating disorders program is located in Waltham, Massachusetts, 10 miles outside Boston and conveniently near several major highways.