The Charis Center
Grace. Inner Beauty. Courage.
Comprehensive Eating Disorders Treatment: A Guide for Patients and Families

Comprehensive Treatment Plan

The Charis Center Mission

What does "Charis" mean?

The Charis Center for Eating Disorders offers comprehensive medical, psychological and nutritional services for patients. Associated with Riley Hospital for Children, Indiana's only comprehensive children's hospital, our experts are all specially trained to care for the unique needs of children and adolescents with eating disorders.

We treat:

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder
• Other related disorders

Our goal is to help individuals achieve a sense of inner contentment and a healthy balance - psychologically, medically and nutritionally - to counter our culture's focus on external beauty and perfectionism, which are strong contributing factors to eating disorders.

We provide:

• Individual therapy
• Family therapy
• Group therapy
• A.N.A.D. support group
• Psychological testing
• Eating disorders education
• Consultation to schools, educators, community organizations, health care providers

Our care is offered in outpatient, intensive outpatient and inpatient treatment settings, depending upon the needs of each individual. In the rare instance when a patient requires inpatient care, treatment is provided by staff at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

The path to recovery

We believe that recovery depends on developing inner wisdom, building optimism about the possibilities of life, and accepting the need to establish a weight range and level of nutrition that produces physical and mental health. We focus on changing thinking and behavior patterns to achieve these goals. However, since eating disorders are complex, they may function somewhat differently for each individual. For this reason, treatment is structured to fit the particular needs of each patient.

Careful assessment

We begin by assessing patients' readiness for change, since ambivalence about giving up the eating disorder is not uncommon. We promote change by encouraging patients to move forward incrementally and by acknowledging that the path to recovery is not straight. Instead, it has loops and plunges that can gradually contribute to the wisdom necessary for recovery. The pace at which a person moves toward recovery can be influenced by motivation, severity of the eating disorder, amount of social support, and physical condition.