Parent Coaching & Consultation

for Families Facing an Eating Disorder — Orlando, Florida & Online

If I could send you one message:
I see you.

You are doing everything you know how to do.
You have read the articles at 2am.
You have Googled symptoms you were praying meant something else.

You set the plate down and brace yourself.
You say the wrong thing and watch it land.
You say nothing — and watch that land too.

You are exhausted from being the meal support, the safety net,
the one who has to stay calm
while your child looks at you like you are the enemy.

Someone told you not to make it about food.
Someone else told you to hold the line no matter what.
You are trying to do both, and it is pulling you apart.

You did not cause this.
You are not "too involved."
You are not failing —
you are up against an illness that is designed to turn you into a bystander in your own home.

Here is what I want you to know: you are not the problem to be managed. You are the most powerful resource your child has. That is not a burden — it is leverage, and it can be learned.

Yes, I Want Support!

Dr. Kait.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist.
Certified Eating Disorder Specialist.

What is Parent Coaching?

Parent coaching is dedicated time for you — the parent or caregiver — to build the skills, language, and steadiness that recovery at home actually requires.

It is not therapy for your child, and it is not a parenting class. It is focused, practical work on the hardest parts of your day: the meal that fell apart, the accusation that landed, the question of how much control to take and when to give it back.

Most parents come to me somewhere in the gap — waiting for a treatment spot, sitting alongside a treatment team that has very little time for them, or holding a child who refuses care altogether. You do not need your child to be in treatment, or even to be willing, for this work to help.

Signs Parent Coaching Might Help

You dread mealtimes and have started structuring your whole day around them

You and your co-parent handle this completely differently, and it has become its own conflict

You can tell the difference between your child and the eating disorder, but you cannot always respond to only one of them

You have been told to "hold the boundary" without anyone explaining how

Your child is in treatment, but no one has ever coached you

Your child is refusing treatment, and you have been told to wait until they are ready

You are walking on eggshells in your own kitchen

Your other children are absorbing more than you want them to

You are running on adrenaline and have not slept properly in months

None of these mean you are doing it wrong. They mean you are doing something extraordinarily hard without support.

Why Parents Matter So Much

For adolescents especially, the research is not subtle: parents are among the strongest predictors of recovery. Family Based Treatment works precisely because it puts capable, coached parents back at the center of refeeding and recovery — not because families cause eating disorders.

That older idea, that parents are the problem and should step back, caused real harm. Families are not the cause. But families are where recovery happens — three times a day, in a kitchen, usually without anyone watching.

Which means the question is not whether you are involved. You already are. The question is whether you are supported.

How I Work with Parents

My Approach

No two families are stuck in the same place. Some parents need practical structure for meals and supervision. Others have the structure and cannot survive their own reactions to it. Many are carrying their own history with food, bodies, or control into a role that demands they set it aside.

Rather than handing you a protocol, we work on what is actually keeping your household stuck — moving between these areas as things shift.

Steadying You First

You cannot co-regulate a child in distress from a dysregulated place. We start with what happens in your body at the table, what your own story brings into the room, and how to come back down quickly when a meal goes badly. This is not self-care as an afterthought. It is the foundation everything else sits on.

Staying Close While You Hold the Line

Eating disorders survive on isolation and shame. The hardest skill in recovery is staying warm and emotionally close to your child while you hold a limit they are fighting — separating your child from the illness, and responding to their distress without retreating from the plan.

Structure, Meals, and Appropriate Control

The practical layer: meal support and plating, supervision, what to say and what to stop saying, exercise and phone limits, bathroom and post-meal support, and the question every parent asks — how much control do I take, and how will I know when to hand it back?

When You and Your Co-Parent Disagree

One of the most common reasons families come in, and one of the most workable. We build one plan the household can actually hold — including across two homes, and including the relative or partner who keeps undermining it without meaning to.

Siblings, School, and Coaches

Recovery does not happen only at your table. We work on what to tell siblings and how to protect them, how to talk to teachers, school counselors, coaches, and extended family, and how to handle holidays, restaurants, sleepovers, and travel.

Evidence-Based Approach

My work with parents is primarily informed by Family Based Treatment (FBT) and parent-focused FBT, the leading evidence-based approach for adolescent eating disorders. Depending on what you need, I also draw on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for the parent-child bond, Internal Family Systems (IFS) for the parts of you that get activated at the table, and DBT skills for distress tolerance in the moment.

How This Is Different From Therapy for Your Child

Parent coaching is a service for you, not treatment for your child. In this arrangement I am not your child's therapist, I do not assess or treat them, and no clinical record is created for them.

In Florida, coaching can run alongside therapy for your child at Bloom, or alongside another provider's treatment. Outside Florida, this is offered as parent consultation and education rather than psychotherapy.

[CONFIRM: exact wording for the Florida / PSYPACT / consultation-only distinction — this has licensure implications and should read the way you want it to.]

Ways We Can Work Together

A Single Consultation
One extended session to get oriented — what you are seeing, what it likely means, and what your next three steps are. Useful when you are waiting on an assessment or deciding on a level of care.
[CONFIRM: length and fee]

Ongoing Parent Coaching
Regular sessions across the phases of refeeding and recovery, so you have somewhere to bring the meal that fell apart on Tuesday.
[CONFIRM: frequency, length, fee]

Co-Parent Sessions
For two caregivers, together or separately, to build one plan you can both hold.
[CONFIRM: format and fee]

Treatment Team & School Consultation
Attending a team meeting, a 504 or IEP conversation, or a call with a coach, pediatrician, or dietitian.
[CONFIRM: whether you want to offer this, and how it is billed]

Helpful Blog Posts for Parents

Help! My Daughter is Barely Eating — But Says She's Fine
What is Family Based Treatment (FBT)?
Parent-Focused FBT for Eating Disorders
How to Help Someone with an Eating Disorder
Reminders for Struggling Through Meals in Recovery

Frequently Asked Questions About Parent Coaching

Is this therapy?
No. Parent coaching is consultation and skills work for caregivers. If you are in Florida and want your own therapy, that is a separate conversation we can have.

Do you need to see my child?
No. This is built to work whether or not your child is in treatment — and whether or not they know you are getting support.

We are already doing FBT with another team. Is this a conflict?
Usually not. Most parents come to coaching precisely because FBT asks an enormous amount of them and their team has limited time for the parent side. With your permission, I am glad to coordinate.

My child is over 18. Is it too late to be involved?
No. The role changes, but parents remain one of the strongest predictors of recovery at every age. We work on what influence looks like when you no longer have authority.

My partner and I completely disagree about how to handle this.
That is one of the most common reasons families come in, and we start there rather than working around it.

My child does not think anything is wrong.
Then you are exactly who this is for. Ambivalence is a feature of the illness, not a sign that you should wait.

Will you tell me I did something to cause this?
No. Eating disorders are highly heritable, and families do not cause them. What families can do is change the conditions recovery happens in.

You do not have to do this perfectly to do it well. And you do not have to do it alone.

[CONFIRM: which scheduling link goes here — your free 15-minute consultation, or a separate parent-coaching booking page.]