We offer over 25 years of clinical experience working with children, adolescents and adults in community and hospital settings. Our Eating Disorder Credentialed team provide treatment to individuals presenting with eating disorder, weight and body image concerns.  We collaborate with other health practitioners to offer a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to treatment.

Our experienced team treat the following the conditions:

  • Anorexia Nervosa

  • Bulimia Nervosa

  • Binge Eating Disorder

  • Disordered Eating

  • Body Dysmorphia

  • Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder (OSFED)

  • Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

  • Emotional Eating

  • Yo-yo Dieting

  • Orthorexia

  • Fussy Eating

Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses that commonly develop as a result from a combination of risk factors, including genetic predisposition, environmental experiences, psychological factors and socio-cultural influences. Eating disorders are not a lifestyle choice, they are serious mental illnesses which are often misunderstood. Recovery is possible - and finding a specialised treatment team right for you is a great place to begin your recovery journey.

At River Oak we adopt a non-diet approach in all of our work and practice from a Body Acceptance and Health At Every Size® framework. Using this approach allows for our primary focus to be on health and wellbeing rather than weight, numbers and body size.

Services

Dietetics


Our team of Accredited Practicing Dietitian’s are experienced in treating all Eating Disorder presentations.

Other Service Areas:

  • Paediatric Nutrition including growth, picky and problem feeding

  • Sports Nutrition

  • Gut health and food allergies

  • Fertility and reproductive health

Therapists


We have a team of Psychologists and Counsellors that work specially with individuals struggling with an Eating Disorder.

Our Therapist team also treat:

  • Low self-esteem

  • Body dissatisfaction

  • Stress and anxiety

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

  • Depression

  • Relationship difficulties

  • Self-harming behaviour

  • Suicidality

  • Trauma

  • Adjustment and Life transitions

River Oak Health Psychiatrists offer once-off appointments for clients that require an Eating Disorder Management Plan review (90266 or 92068).

Psychiatrist Reviews

After 20 psychology sessions under an Eating Disorder Management Plan, a GP and Psychiatrist or Paediatrician review is required to access the next 21-30 psychology sessions. However, the specialist review by the Psychiatrist or Paediatrician can occur at any point before the 20th session. We suggest clients book this review when they start to engage in services under their EDMP to avoid treatment disruption when they reach their 20th appointment.

River Oak Health Psychiatrists are not available to provide ongoing care at this time. Further to this, our Psychiatrists are unable to apply any prescriptions for medications.

To view our team of Psychiatrists and their availability, please head to our Team page.

Group Programs

Please join our mailing list if you would like to keep updated on upcoming group program details.

Professional Supervision

Supervision is a structured, contracted, formal process either in groups or 1-on-1 that is outcome focused, leaving the supervisee feeling supported and informed. It is a shared space of reflection and learning that focuses on safety and collaboration to improve skills, knowledge, professional growth and transformation.

You can find out more about supervision, the benefits of supervision and what supervision is for dietitians here.

Supervision is a requirement as part of the Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician pathway.

We are proud to have Shane Jeffrey, a registered supervisor with DSRA available for professional supervision appointments. To start your supervision journey, call us on 1300 240 127 to organise a call to make sure we find the best fit for you.

Presentations & Workshops

We love sharing what we do whether you’re a group of parents and carers, a school class or professional team!

We have workshops and presentations a-plenty, ready to go or personalisable to you and your needs. In the past, this has included topics such as:

  • The RAVES™ Eating Model - download A4 client handout here

  • The MAWDIVE Exercise Management Framework - download A4 client handout here

  • Nutrition counselling skills for behaviour change

  • Nutrition essentials for eating disorder clinicians

  • Introduction to eating disorder care

  • Inpatient management for eating disorders

  • Medical management for eating disorders

  • Movement and exercise management for eating disorders

  • Eating disorders in sports

  • Sports nutrition for teenage / athletes

  • Relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-s)

Shane Jeffrey, River Oak’s Founder and Clinical Director, is a leading Dietitian in the area of eating disorders with over 25 years’ experience in this space. Shane has developed internationally recognised frameworks such as the RAVES™ Eating Model. With over 10 years of real-world application, RAVES™ has been adopted by dietitians, psychologists, general practitioners and psychiatrists to establish regular and adequate eating to reverse consequences of malnutrition, and then supports individuals to improve variety, participate in social eating and establish flexible eating practices that are right for the individual.

If you’re looking to nurture your brain with information, training or practical know-how when it comes to food, body image and eating, give us a call on 1300 240 127.

Treatment Models

  • CBT is a common form of psychological treatment that explores links between thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This therapy has been effective in treating depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and other mental illnesses. CBT focuses on self-awareness of inaccurate and negative thinking so you can effectively alter your views and responses to challenging situations. In therapy, the client will develop strategies such as understanding motivations, problem-solving skills, self-confidence, and exposure to fears to change behaviors and thinking patterns.

  • CBT-ar is a treatment consisting of four stages across up to 30 sessions. Your therapist will provide education surrounding ARIFD, and develop and practice goals to increase the exposure to fear foods with the aim to increase tolerance, variety, and volume of diet.

    What can I expect from each stage?

    Stage one: Assess readiness for treatment, learn about ARFID, develop food monitoring strategies, identify fear foods and make some early changes.

    Stage two: Maintenance of early changes, setting bigger goals, and discussing any barriers to change.

    Stage three: Actively addressing food aversions through consistent exposure with the aim of increasing variety and for some increasing volume.

    Stage four: This final stage is about long-term success and relapse prevention.

  • FBT, commonly known as The Maudsley Model, is utilised in eating disorder treatment for children and adolescents. This treatment focuses on physical restoration and psychological therapy and heavily involves the young person’s family for support and re-feeding. FBT is designed in three stages with a time period ranging from three to twelve months;

    Phase one: Family-led re-feeding of the young person with the aim to restore weight and return to normal eating patterns.

    Phase two: Transition the control of feeding back to the young person and manage possible lapses.

    Phase three: Concludes the young person has restored their weight and is independent with eating. The focus is now on establishing an identity away from the eating disorder.

  • ACT adopts the view that clients should learn to acknowledge their emotions and accept that those are valid feelings toward a challenging experience. With the application of mindful behaviour and acceptance skills, valid alternative responses to challenging situations should be replaced. In developing psychological flexibility ACT focuses on being present in the moment, letting go of unhelpful thoughts, acceptance of emotions, developing self-awareness, discovering own values, and commitment to action is then guided by those values.

  • MANTRA is a therapy that consists of 20-40 sessions addressing both physical and psychological factors of recovering from Anorexia Nervosa. This treatment involves phases that build on each other, progressing from educational to experiential.

    Phase one: The client will discover the significance and purpose of Anorexia Nervosa, build motivation for change, assess nutritional risk, and introduce support.

    Phase two: Formulation, goal setting and treatment planning.

    Phase three: Amend nutrition deficiencies, challenge thinking patterns, AN behavioral aspects, and develop self-compassion.

    Phase four: Relapse prevention strategies and follow-up for maintenance of change achieved.

  • Art therapy is an expressive therapeutic technique originating in from the fields of art, psychology and psychodynamic therapy. It can be described as a form of non-verbal communication that explores thoughts and feelings and facilitates healing and self-awareness. It provides a platform for people to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ how they are feeling as well as connect with themes and stories pertaining to one’s individual experiences.

    Art therapy can tap into both conscious and nonconscious, and is process oriented not outcome focused. The patient and the art therapist work together to understand and derive meaning from symbols and images created.  Art therapy does not focus specifically on the aesthetic merits of art making but on the therapeutic needs and processes of the individual. Additionally, you do not have to be good at art or even enjoy art making to reap the benefits of art therapy.

  • DBT is a type of talking therapy typically used to help people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and other mental illnesses. DBT usually involves both individual and group sessions where the focus is on replacing harmful behaviors with positive ones. Acceptance-based mindfulness and distress tolerance skills aid in learning how to direct awareness of present emotions and behaviors and navigate emotions during a crisis. Change-based skills of emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness teach how to manage an emotional experience and learn assertiveness strategies and management of interpersonal conflict.

    • Evidence-based individual therapy for anorexia nervosa in young people aged 12-24

    • Young person attends weekly sessions initially, then fortnightly for about year

    • Parents have their own occasional sessions, to gather and share information relevant to supporting the young person

    • Emphases adolescent development and functioning

    • Anorexia is viewed as an adaptation to developmental challenges (e.g. conflict and anger, depression and low self-esteem, identity formation, individuation) that have not been managed effectively through other means

    • The therapeutic relationship is used to leverage change, develop skills, enhance coping, and engage in social and emotional exploration of the self

    • Change is directed by the young person, with support from the therapist and parents

    • Aims to build self-efficacy, self-esteem, responsibility, and independence

  • CFT is psychotherapy that aims to encourage people to be compassionate towards themselves to help promote mental and emotional healing. Through CFT clients develop compassionate motivation, sympathy, sensitivity and distress tolerance. CFT builds compassionate ways to engage with trauma, painful experiences and frightening feelings. These attributes may be learned through appreciation exercises, mindfulness or compassion-focused imagery exercises led by a therapist.

  • SFT is a treatment usually consisting of 10-30 sessions, that targets schemas developed in childhood that are now problematic coping thoughts and behaviours. In therapy, the client will identify schemas and current coping styles of avoidance, surrender or overcompensation. The client will also learn how to reach core emotions and how to appropriately cope with them in a healthy way.

  • MI is an approach to encourage positive behaviour change in treatment. This is a communication style that is focused on collaboration between therapist and client to strengthen personal motivation and explore reasons for change. The therapist will guide this communication, listen and respond with appropriate advice to empower the client.

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