Primary Therapist

Learn about the Primary Therapist Career for Eating Disorder Treatment...

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, only one-third of people with anorexia receive mental health care.1

Recovering from an eating disorder is a difficult and complicated endeavor.  In fact, many people never receive the help they need to recover, and struggle with the eating disorder their entire lives. To facilitate recovery, some individuals enter eating disorder treatment programs.  Eating disorder treatment programs provide comprehensive, specialized care which addresses the psychological and physical issues related to eating disorder recovery.  Treatment programs employ multi-disciplinary teams of mental and physical health professionals, who work together to implement treatment plans that care for the divergent needs of eating disorder patients.  Because of the array of health services provided by treatment programs, expert planning and management is necessary to guarantee the fluid operation of the programs.   Many professionals must be employed to make this happen, including primary therapists, who oversee the efficiency and quality of patient care.

Primary therapists are usually assigned to a small group of patients (6 to 8), and are responsible for managing each patient’s care for the duration of his or her treatment in the program.  To manage patient care, primary therapists collaborate with both patients and staff members.  They arrange for their patients’ psychological counseling, and if appropriate, may act as their patient’s therapist.  However, if another staff therapist is better suited to treat a patient, the primary therapist must arrange for the patient and therapist to meet.  Whatever the case, most patients require the services of multiple therapists, such as psychiatrists, exercise therapists, or food counselors.  As such, primary therapists are also responsible for coordinating additional therapy.  Most importantly, primary therapists ensure the quality and effectiveness of their patients’ therapy.  For example, if a patient is not making progress through therapy, the primary therapist must help the patient and therapist to make changes to the patient’s treatment plan, so that the patient can gain the care he or she needs to recover.

In addition to coordinating psychological care, primary therapists ensure accurate documentation of patient recovery progress and medical history.  Careful documentation of a patient’s condition is essential to planning for treatment, coordinating treatment, and implementing treatment.  Primary therapists review patient documentation, and make additions or corrections when the documentation is unclear or incomplete. When changes need to be made, primary therapists will contact the original author of the documentation.  For example, if a primary therapist discovers that the documentation of a patient’s medical examination is missing, he or she must contact the doctor or nurse who was supposed to record the results of the examination, and ascertain what information needs to added to the patients medical records. 

Most primary therapists also serve as a resource for treatment center staff.  Their familiarity with patient treatment plans, therapy arrangements, and medical histories make primary therapists useful advisers to staff members.  For instance, if a patient has recently had a psychological episode, such as an anxiety attack (see Anxiety), the primary therapist will be able to communicate the details of this episode to treatment staff, and the treatment staff will then know what kinds of changes need to be made to the patient’s treatment plan. 

To ensure the quality of patient care, primary therapists must be comfortable managing both patients and health professionals.  As such, primary therapists have strong interpersonal and management skills, and a commitment to helping people recover from mental illness and behavior problems.   Primary therapists are required to be one of the following: Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Licensed Master Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Social Workers (licensed Social Worker), or to have a PhD or PsyD in psychology.  If you have the desire to work with eating disorder patients, or patients with other mental and behavioral problems, as well as managing teams of health care professionals, a career as a primary therapist may be for you.

Request information from schools offering Psychology and Counseling degree programs.

Resources:
1National Eating Disorder Association