Center for Discovery Edmonds

Center for Discovery Edmonds is a residential eating disorder treatment center in Edmonds, Washington that serves adolescents ages 11 to 17 of all genders. The program provides residential and outpatient treatment.

Care is provided for eating disorders and dual substance use issues with family therapy and dietitian support followed by aftercare through Discovery365. Teens rehearse recovery in the real world before discharge.

Skills Practice in the Community

Most eating disorder treatments happen behind closed doors and the first unsupervised restaurant meal comes only after discharge. Center for Discovery Edmonds reverses that sequence.

Patients are brought into the community during treatment by taking them to local malls and restaurants as well as bakeries to practice the exact skills they will need once they complete the program.

Teens do not face that moment alone for the first time at home.

They have already ordered and eaten in a public restaurant with clinical support nearby using the clinic's community exposure model which has produced results that show 86.5 percent did not need to return to a higher level of care.

Alternative to Weight Focused Approaches

The Edmonds program is built on the CARE Model which is short for consistent attuned relational eating and gives each patient a dietary plan adaptable to their actual life while teaching appetite regulation.

Metabolism and nutrition principles are also taught. Its binge eating track is called Path to Peace and it operates on the belief that clients are healthy at every size and are never weight focused.

Their programs avoid reinforced weight preoccupation. Care is delivered in a home like setting which is capped at eight clients with shared bedrooms and is staffed by a certified eating disorder specialist and a registered dietitian.

One alum stated the staff has created a safe space. A parent called the experience top notch.