Research shows that eating disorder treatment is most effective when it uses a multidisciplinary approach (i.e., working with several different types of providers). Every Equip patient or family is matched with a dedicated team of eating disorder specialists, which includes a therapist, dietitian, and medical provider. You’ll also be supported by a Recovery Coach with lived experience: patients connect with a coach who has recovered from an eating disorder themselves, and family members connect with a coach who has supported a loved one through recovery. Every Equip provider is licensed and specialized in eating disorders, and receives ongoing training at Equip.

We tailor treatment to each patient’s unique needs by using a variety of evidence-based treatment approaches.

Here’s a simple breakdown of the evidence-based approaches we most frequently use:

• Family-based treatment (FBT): FBT is based on the idea that family members are best suited to help their loved one recover. Research shows that for children and adolescents with eating disorders, FBT has the highest rates of recovery and the lowest rates of relapse.
• Enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E): CBT-E focuses on challenging unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that keep an eating disorder going.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR): CBT-AR uses personalized strategies to address patients' unique ARFID symptoms, including sensory sensitivities, food-related fears, and lack of interest or poor appetite.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT provides tools to help people regulate and cope with difficult emotions.
• Temperament-based therapy with supports (TBT-S): TBT-S helps patients understand how their temperament traits (e.g. perfectionism, impulsivity, and determination) may contribute to their eating disorder symptoms, and how they can channel these traits into building a life outside of the eating disorder.
• Exposure and response prevention (ERP): ERP focuses on helping people face their fears and triggers. These may include specific fear foods or social situations that contribute to eating disorder behaviors.

You can learn more about Equip’s treatment approaches here.

One of Equip’s main differentiators is our clinical model. Equip has an internal training program that certifies our clinicians in order to deliver evidence-based modalities such as family-based treatment (FBT) and enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E) virtually. Unlike other programs, Equip is proven to work for patients needing a high level of care who might otherwise seek in-person IOP or PHP programs, in fact 87% of Equip patients are high acuity.

Another differentiator is our multidisciplinary care teams, which consist of a medical provider, therapist, dietitian, and peer and family mentors with lived experience. These care teams create a unique treatment plan for each patient that’s tailored to them.

Equip has industry-leading outcomes when compared to similar virtual programs. 70% of patients improved to subclinical symptom levels and 84% met their weight restoration goal by the end of treatment. The overwhelming majority of our families are satisfied with their experience: 87% of parents recommend Equip.

Lastly, Equip is also a leader in accessibility, offering in-network coverage for over 130 million lives in the U.S. We stay with patients to ensure long-term support and build relapse prevention plans dedicated to their unique needs and challenges.

There is no waitlist for Equip, so treatment can start on a timeline that works for you. For some patients, medical clearance is needed before treatment can begin. Your admissions specialist will coordinate your start date with you, and review the steps to complete before your first session. Learn more about the admissions process here.

We strongly believe that your recovery will be stronger (and treatment will be easier) if you bring your support network into the process, and we provide dedicated support for these loved ones too. However, you can choose to begin treatment on your own, and then work with your team to identify and involve supports later in the process if and when you feel comfortable.

Equip is in-network with most major insurance plans, and you can check your coverage with our insurance screener. Our team will also verify your insurance information before you start at Equip to make sure we are in-network for your insurance and review how your plan coverage will impact any cost share (copays or coinsurance) you may be responsible for. If Equip is not in-network with your insurance, we offer a private pay option. A financial counselor will work with you directly to review costs and options such as HSA/FSA eligibility.

Our provider team includes trained and licensed therapists, medical providers, and dietitians, all of whom specialize in eating disorders, as well as certified mentors for both the patient and the people supporting them.

Every therapist is licensed (with licenses such as LCSW, LMFT, AMFT, and others) and has training in eating disorder treatment. Therapists undergo approximately 80 hours of training and supervision in their first three months at Equip. Our medical providers are MDs (physicians, pediatricians, or psychiatrists), registered nurses, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners with training in eating disorders. Medical providers complete 30 hours of training when onboarding with Equip, and nurses complete 50 hours of training. Every dietitian has been licensed as an RD and has experience working with patients with eating disorders. They complete 30 hours of training.

Our mentors are Equip employees who either have lived experience with an eating disorder (meaning they have recovered from an eating disorder themselves) or have helped a loved one recover from an eating disorder. Mentors also receive over 30 hours of specialized mentorship training through Equip.

All Equip providers receive ongoing training and supervision, including 24 hours of continuing education. You can learn more about our in-depth, evidence-based training curriculum and advanced certifications on our provider training page.