There was a recent call for proposals for presentations/workshops from NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association) for the 2011 conference. I responded to this by offering to conduct a workshop for clinicians on “A Systematic Approach to the Treatment of Food Phobia”. It was rejected.

I think the many posts here from desperate parents whose children exhibit symptoms of food phobia and who cannot seem to find anyone else to treat them successfully attest to the need for further training and sharing of clinical experience about this diagnosis. Every week at Kartini Clinic we get pleas from parents across the country, asking for a referral to providers closer to their homes who have experience treating food phobia. Unfortunately, we have nowhere to send them. While we can and do treat kids from all over for this condition, of course, we are also eager to share what we have learned with other providers.

To my knowledge, Kartini Clinic is the only center with a systematic treatment protocol for children with this disorder, and we’ve been very fortunate to have experienced a great deal of success reversing the symptoms.

So if NEDA doesn’t want me to teach others how it can be done, I sure hope they have someone to address this neglected area of childhood eating disorders.

In addition Bart Walsh of Kartini Clinic (individual therapy, hypnotherapy, unconscious work) as well as Leslie Weisner and Janiece De Socio PhD, PMHNP (our psychiatric provider, as well as Associate Dean of Graduate Education at Seattle University), have also offered to do separate NEDA workshops in the past and were also rejected.

What a shame.