Time-Limited Schema Therapy for Complex Eating Disorders

22 - 23 October 2026 (online)
(9.30am - 4.30pm, UK time)

Dr Helen Startup, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Eating disorders continue to present significant therapeutic challenges, despite substantial growth in empirical research over the past decade. High rates of psychiatric comorbidity further complicate treatment, with many individuals meeting criteria for one or more personality disorders alongside additional Axis I conditions. These complex clinical profiles underscore the need for integrative, theoretically coherent models that can account for both the eating disorder and the broader psychological processes that maintain it.

Schema Therapy offers a compassionate and integrative way of understanding eating disorder symptoms while also making space for the broader personality patterns that often accompany them. At the same time, clinicians working within the Health System need approaches that are both effective and realistic within service constraints. Emerging case-series evidence suggests that a Schema-Informed CBT approach may offer meaningful support, in a timely manner, for individuals with complex eating disorders and longstanding unmet needs.

This two-day, highly interactive workshop introduces the core concepts and techniques of Schema Therapy as they apply to eating disorders.  Togerher, we will explore how to assess  unmet need, schemas and modes commonly seen in ED presentations, and how to adapt experiential change techniques in ways that feel safe, creative, and accessible for this client group.  Participants will learn how to thoughtfully integrate Schema Therapy and CBT when working with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, particularly when presentations are complicated by personality-related difficulties.  We will also get underneath some of the nuanced interpersonal dynamics that arise during this work.

The workshop will cover:

• Understanding complex ED presentations through the lens of unmet need, schemas and modes
• Formulating complex ED presentations and ‘naming’ challenging barriers to change
• Using the therapy relationship for change in the context of interpersonal mistrust,high levels of shame and relational trauma
• Working with shame and unexpressed anger amongst this patient group
• Bespoke imagery and chair work building non-ED parts of self
• Using schema/mode chemistry to support systems to better align with the needs of patients

How you'll learn:

• Bespoke videos and live demonstrations of core schema therapy techniques

• Guided practice in imagery, chair work and empathic confrontation

• Interactive exercises and case-based discussion

• Delegates will receive the workshop slides and handouts

The trainer:

Dr Helen Startup is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years’ experience working in the NHS and Private Practice in the field of eating disorders. She was a co-developer of the NICE recommended MANTRA model of Anorexia Nervosa (AN), including its translation and evaluation as a group-based intervention. She was also involved in the development of SPEAKS, a treatment model blending Emotion Focused Therapy and Schema Therapy for those with AN. She has also been involved in the development and pilot case series trial of a schema informed CBT intervention for those with Anorexia Nervosa.