supported families Dr.Kari Anderson International Association of Eating Disorder Professional’s

CALMLY CONNECTING FOR CHANGE:

Supporting your loved one (and yourself) with Confidence and Compassion

supported families
supported families

Empowering you with the tools and strategies you need, through bespoke, tailored 1:1 sessions with Deirdre

Click here to join

ARE YOU?

Walking on eggshells all day, every day? Feeling like every conversation ends in anger or tears? Or silence?

Saying the wrong thing – all the time?

Feeling alone and isolated – no one really understands what you’re going through?

Feeling like a failure as a parent? Not sure what role (if any) you have to play in your loved one’s recovery?

Overwhelmed, fearful, frustrated, angry?

Hopeless – this journey feels like it has no end…

Arguing with your spouse/partner – it doesn’t feel like you’re on the same page

It doesn’t have to be this way!

Can you imagine:

Clearly understanding your role in recovery and knowing deep down that this is NOT your fault

Feeling hopeful

Feeling confident, calm, compassionate and courageous in supporting your loved one in recovery

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it still feels far away

Working with someone who truly understands and can help you to learn the tools to support recovery

Having the time to do things that bring you joy (yes, it’s hard but it’s not impossible!)

Your child happy that you’re getting support – and they can see the positive impact of that every day

Having a safe space to talk about what is really going on…

YES, IT IS POSSIBLE!

to feel calmer, confident and compassionate – towards both your loved one and yourself. Armed with tools and strategies, as well as an understanding of what is going on for your loved one, you can see and feel the difference that you are making to your loved one’s recovery.

What’s not to like about that?

As I said yes, it is possible and here’s how!

Connect and Calm: How to support your loved one with Confidence and Compassion:

Here’s what we’ll cover in our time together (each session will be tailored to what you need):

Knowledge & Understanding

What is an eating disorder?
How is it affecting your loved one?
Am I (inadvertently) enabling it?
How treatment & recovery works

Managing Pain Points

Mealtimes
Fear Foods
Weight gain
Returning to school/college/work

Tapping into your strengths

Rediscovering your strengths
The strengths of those around you
Who’s in your support network?
Advocating for your loved one

Gliding over the Bumps

Plan, plan, plan
Recognising when we’ve hit a speed bump
And what to do
How can we learn from it?

Reconnecting with your loved one & yourself

Understanding your parenting styles
Compassionate communication
Learning to cope with difficult emotions
Managing your own emotions

And breathe…

Getting your own life back
Importance of self-compassion
Post traumatic growth


supported families

What other parents have said:

‘I’ve just finished working with Deirdre and I can’t thank her enough. I felt overwhelmed with guilt, fear and frustration (sometimes). I felt that I was walking on eggshells all the time. Every time I spoke to my loved one, it ended up in an argument – or tears. Deirdre helped me to understand what was going on for her, how the eating disorder was affecting her. She helped me to better understand the illness and the recovery process. (I thought I knew it all, I didn’t!).
She taught me how to communicate better with my daughter and gave me the tools I needed to support her. While our journey is not finished, I feel more capable and confident and I’ve learned how to take care of my daughter – and myself.
Deirdre was so professional, knowledgeable, empathetic and gently challenging. I really felt that she understood.
Even my daughter was impressed with what she was teaching me!’

This is for you if:

You’re starting out on the journey and want to access support NOW

You’ve tried everything else and feel that it’s time to try something different

You KNOW that you can play more of a role than you are at the moment

You want to invest in YOU while supporting your loved one

You’re willing to try things differently

This is not for you if:

You believe that you don’t need to make any changes

You can’t commit to the sessions at the moment

How parents feel after working with me:

‘We can’t thank you enough. Our family is forever indebted to you Deirdre’

How it works:

Calmly Connecting for Change includes:
  • 6 x 1:1 sessions (typically biweekly)
  • Weekly check in between sessions via voice note/email
  • Resources and worksheets for you to try out at home
  • Personalised accountability and coaching support
  • Access to Supported Families online Carer support group (for the 12 week duration)
  • Ongoing contact with your loved one’s treatment team – where appropriate and with full consent of all parties
  • Additional sessions available when required (e.g., post return from treatment centre, maintaining recovery progress etc)
  • Fully tailored to your needs

  • Investment: €900 upfront

    or three monthly payments of €300pm
Click Here to join
how families can make a positive difference in eating disorder recovery

Hi, I’m Deirdre. I have been on the journey that you are on now. I passionately believe in the role that parents, partners and family members can play in supporting their loved one on the recovery journey. Partners, parents and family members deserve their own support too – it is a crisis. I can help you to tap into your strengths, find your role in recovery, restore your sense of confidence – and find ‘you’ again.

I teach tools and techniques so that you can provide help and support. It does take work to support someone to recover – and these tools to work! (To find out more about me, click here: Meet Us – Supported Families)

If you think this could be the difference that you and your loved one need, book a discovery call with me now: 

I want to learn more

FAQ’s:

Learning the tools and skills that you need to support your loved one will save you – and them – lots of time in the long run. Investing time in you and creating space (even a little bit) to do things that you enjoy will help you to remain effective as a carer – and protect your own health and wellbeing too. Remember, an exhausted carer is an ineffective carer – and it’s totally understandable that you might feel exhausted and overwhelmed.

It has been proven that educating, equipping and empowering family members can make a significant difference to recovery – and can even accelerate it! Isn’t that what we would want for our loved one? The shortest course of illness possible?

All the parents I have worked with will do anything for their child (adolescent or adult). They want with every fibre of their being for the loved one to recover. That sometimes means we need to do a parallel process, working on how we can best support our loved one as they work on their recovery. Think about it – if the parents are not educated, empowered and equipped, it makes the job of the therapist and dietitian/nutritional therapist very difficult indeed!

No problem! You can continue to work with me and we can be flexible with sessions around hospital visiting times etc OR you can decide (understandably) that you have limited capacity at this time to continue the work. We can press pause and resume when your loved one is back at home. Remember, leaving residential treatment is often the trigger for a relapse so it is very important that we as supporters are focused on possible slips at this time. You can complete the work with me at a pace and a time that suits you.

It’s very important to me that the people I work with get results. Over the past number of years, I’ve learned that, to get the best results, parents need to work with me for longer than an hour. Remember, the eating disorder didn’t appear overnight and it won’t disappear overnight either! We need to tap into all our resources (and a few new ones) to help our loved one to recover.

Yes I also offer a monthly rate of €375 per month.

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