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 Overview 

This 3hr online workshop explores the power of peer-based approaches as a critical element in eating disorder personal recovery. This provides opportunities for deeper relational support to people experiencing an eating disorder or eating distress. 

Our Peer Support for Eating Disorders Workshop 

In this session we will share findings from a peer support for eating disorder project that With-you undertook. The project included research on peer support for eating disorders, and interviews and focus groups of people with lived experience, peer support workers and wider colleagues working within the eating disorder field. The session will explore and reflect on: 

• The language of disorder and distress  
• Types of disordered eating 
• The values and principles of peer support and benefits it can bring in this field 
• Identifying barriers, tensions and challenges 
• The important place of training, supervision and support structures.  

Why Peer Support for Eating Disorders Matters 

There is a pressing reality of Eating Disorders in the UK which was highlighted in the January 2025, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) eating disorder report.  

• NHS inpatient admissions were 30,000 in 2023/2024, up from 19,000 before the pandemic. The problem is only growing 

• People are denied treatment for being ‘too sick’, ‘not sick enough’, ‘too complex’ or ‘not treatable’ 

• Patients are discharged at a low BMI 

• Some Trusts only have treatment pathways for anorexia and neglect other less well known disorders such as Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) 

• BEAT Charity estimate there are 1.25 million people in the UK with an eating disorder. This figure was based on data from 2015 and is now likely to be far higher

Services and outcomes need to continue to change and the time is now. At With-you, we believe in the power of lived experience and potential of peer-based approaches as a critical element of personal recovery within eating disorders or eating distress, to provide vital and trauma informed support as a critical element of personal recovery within eating disorders or eating distress.  

Who should attend   

This session is for anyone who would like to understand and explore more about how lived experience and peer-based approaches can support personal recovery in anyone experiencing eating distress. We welcome anyone working in health and social care or in the general public who has an interest in exploring how to support ourselves and others with an eating disorder or eating distress, alongside peer supporters and wider colleagues working in specialist services and those working in other areas.   

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Register your interest for this training