Enhanced CBT (CBT-E) for Young Adults

CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy)

CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy) is the leading individual treatment for adult eating disorders. At PPG, it's a core offering within our Center for Eating Disorder Recovery.

How CBT-E works

The four stages
of CBT-E

  1. 1

    Engagement & stabilization

    Weeks 1–4. Twice-weekly sessions establish the working relationship, map the patterns sustaining the disorder, and introduce regular eating as the foundation for everything that follows.

  2. 2

    Review

    Week 5. A formal step-back to assess progress, identify barriers, and plan the rest of treatment.

  3. 3

    The maintaining mechanisms

    Weeks 6–18. The main work — addressing the over-evaluation of shape and weight, dietary restraint, event-driven changes in eating, and any broader maintaining mechanisms.

  4. 4

    Maintaining gains

    Weeks 19–20. Building the plan for staying well after treatment ends.

Who CBT-E is for

CBT-E is the recommended evidence-based treatment for adults with most eating disorders — including bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, OSFED, and (with adjustments) anorexia nervosa. We work most often with young adults navigating the college years, early careers, and the developmental tasks of leaving home.

How specialties work together at PPG

Because the Center for Eating Disorder Recovery sits inside a multi-specialty practice, your CBT-E therapist coordinates closely with any other care you're already in — a primary therapist working on trauma or mood, a neuropsych evaluator if attention or learning questions are part of the picture, a psychiatrist if medication is in play. You don't have to relay between providers; we do that work for you.