Flinders University Services for Eating Disorders
What we do
The Flinders University Services for Eating Disorders (FUSED) provides evidence-based treatment for non-underweight eating disorders.
Currently, we are providing 10-session cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-T). This treatment has been extensively evaluated in Australia and the United Kingdom, and has been shown to substantially decrease disordered eating, depression, and anxiety, and improve quality of life. In line with best practice, we conduct a comprehensive initial assessment to ensure the treatment we provide is appropriate to address your individual needs and monitor your progress throughout treatment using brief questionnaires and neuropsychological tests.
Treatment is provided free of charge in the context of research studies where we are investigating how to make established eating disorder treatments more effective.
We are currently recruiting for the treatment study below.
Who we are
Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor Tracey Wade
Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor Tracey Wade has worked as a clinician in the area of eating disorders for 30 years and her current research interests are in the aetiology, prevention and treatment of eating disorders, with a focus on implementing this research into real world settings to improve outcomes in body image and eating disorders.
She has cowritten 3 therapy books and has over 200 publications in peer reviewed journals. In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2016 she was made an Inaugural Honorary Fellow of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy.
In 2017-18 she was the president of the Eating Disorder Research Society, and in 2018-2020 she was a member of the Million Minds Expert Advisory Panel. In 2019 she was appointed Fellow of the APS and is currently an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
She is the director of the Flinders University Services for Eating Disorders (FUSED), the Blackbird Research Initiative, and the Órama Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing research. Professor Wade is a member of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration steering committee commissioned by the Federal Government to inform policy development in the area of eating disorder prevention and treatment, and a member of the Eating Disorders Technical Advisory Committee, advising the Federal Department of Health on matters related to eating disorders.
Therapists working at the clinic
Ella Keegan is a provisionally registered psychologist and a PhD candidate at Flinders University. She is investigating executive functioning in eating disorders, and whether providing adjunct cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) can improve treatment retention and outcomes among people with non-underweight eating disorders. Ella has experience facilitating eating disorder recovery support groups, conducting assessments, and as a therapist using CRT and CBT-T to help people with non-underweight eating disorders.
At various times we also have provisionally registered psychologists (postgraduate clinical psychology students from Flinders University) providing CBT-T at FUSED under expert supervision, provided by Professors Tracey Wade and Glenn Waller. Glenn Waller is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield who has worked as a clinician and researcher in the eating disorder field for over 25 years.
Our current treatment study
The effect of waitlist cognitive remediation therapy on treatment retention and outcome following 10-session cognitive behavioural therapy for eating disorders
This study investigates whether we can help people with non-underweight eating disorders get more out of treatment by supporting them with input while they are on the waitlist to start weekly CBT-T.
To be eligible, we require you to:
- be at least 15 years old
- have a body mass index of 18.5 or above
- have an eating disorder
- be willing for the therapist to communicate with your general practitioner.
You will be unable to participate if:
- you have a severe physical and/or psychiatric condition that would interfere with treatment (e.g. high suicidality, psychosis)
- you are already receiving psychotherapy for an eating disorder
- you have difficulty speaking or understanding English
- you have binge eating disorder (people with binge eating disorder will be directed to self-help material but not offered sessions)
- If you are uncertain about whether you are eligible for the study, please contact us for further information.
CBT-T is a brief and focused therapy. You will be offered four sessions in the first instance, and this can be extended to ten sessions if you are benefitting. Sessions are held at Flinders University in Social Sciences North and are one-on-one, weekly, and 50 minutes in length. Appointment times are flexible and can be negotiated with your assigned therapist. There are also 1- and 3-month follow up appointments.
Sessions 1-4: Learning and changing eating
Learning about the impact of food on your mood, sensations of fullness, and reasons for bulimic behaviours and weight change. Working towards eating regularly and enough. Making predictions about whether dietary changes will impact your weight and/or behaviours and testing these predictions.
Sessions 3-7: Challenging beliefs about eating, food, and weight
Identifying beliefs about eating, weight, and shape. Considering evidence for and against these beliefs. Exploring ‘safe’ and ‘feared’ foods. Reintroducing feared foods and testing whether feared outcomes occurs.
Sessions 6-9: Body image work
Exploring behaviours that maintain body image problems (e.g., avoidance, mind-reading, comparison, and checking). Targeting these behaviours using techniques such as surveys, mirror exposure, and rescripting hurtful body memories.
Sessions 9-10: Relapse prevention
Developing a plan to maintain progress and identify and respond to signs that you are slipping back into eating disorder thoughts and/or behaviours.
You will be invited to attend an initial assessment at FUSED to determine whether you are eligible to participate. If eligible, you will be asked to return to FUSED one week later to complete a neuropsychological assessment. Following this assessment, all participants will be placed on a one-month waitlist before receiving weekly CBT-T sessions.
The treatment study uses a randomised design, meaning that participants will be allocated by chance (like flipping a coin) to one of three waitlist groups. One group will receive a CRT session and complete homework tasks. This involves completing thinking exercises, making small behavioural changes, and reflecting on the ways in which you think. Another group will be sent a psychoeducation handout about eating disorders, neurobiology, and the malleability of the brain. The final group will not be required to do anything while they wait to receive weekly CBT-T.
You will also complete a total of four hours of assessment. This involves completing questionnaires on six occasions (up to 30 minutes on each occasion) and neuropsychological tests on two occasions (up to 30 minutes on each occasion). Participating in the study means that you consent to your data from this assessment being used in a confidential, de-identified way for research.
There are no costs associated with participating in this study and you will not be paid.
While we cannot promise that you will benefit from the treatment offered to you, other people who have received CBT-T have reported significant decreases in disordered eating. We also hope that the information gathered in this study will help increase our understanding of how to make treatment for people with non-underweight eating disorders more effective.
The work at FUSED is constantly evaluated, reviewed by peers, and published, meaning you're receiving high quality, evidence-based treatment. Discover some of our publications, which feature a selection of our approaches and results:
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South Australia 5042
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