CASE REPORT article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Psychological Therapy and Psychosomatics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1595758
Case Report: An integrative Approach to Psychotherapy for the Mother of a Daughter with Bulimia Nervosa
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing, China
- 2Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
- 3Taizhou Second People's Hospital, Taizhou, China
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Caregivers is a crucial factor in recovery and psychological intervention of individuals with eating disorders which are often-overlooked. This study explores the role of integrative therapy in promoting the psychological development of the mother of a daughter with bulimia nervosa, improving family structure, and facilitating the patient's recovery. A 43month, 54-session intervention was conducted with the mother of a woman with eating disorder using an integrative therapy approach primarily based on Bowen family systems therapy, drawing, and narrative therapy. The mother demonstrated improvements in emotional expressiveness, psychological distress, caregiving burden, and family structure, while her daughter experienced a reduction in eating disorder symptoms, improvement in the mother-daughter relationship, and restoration of social functioning, enabling the establishment of personal intimate relationships. In this context, the therapeutic value of integrative therapy deserves further attention. Meanwhile, the issue of mental health management is also reflected in this paper.
Keywords: Eating Disorders, Caregivers, Integrative therapy, Psychological Care, Mental health management
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Liu and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qiuyuan Zhang, Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing, China
Hui Yan, Taizhou Second People's Hospital, Taizhou, China
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