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It’s Complicated: Ethical Issues, Maintaining Factors and Barriers
to Treating Eating Disorders

Enroll in the Online Self-Study course and complete it at your own pace.
6 CE hours available for behavioral health clinicians upon completion.

Clinicians working with clients struggling with eating disorders face not only complex symptoms but also a labyrinth of ethical dilemmas, systemic barriers, and deeply ingrained cultural forces. This course goes beyond surface-level discussions to uncover the hidden factors that complicate effective care—and offers a roadmap for navigating them ethically and compassionately.

For professionals dedicated to client recovery, this training provides critical insights and practical tools for making ethically sound decisions while honoring client diversity, autonomy, and lived experience. It's an essential opportunity to sharpen your ethical lens and elevate your ability to support recovery in the face of immense clinical challenges.

Register for the 6 CE Online Self-Study for 

$180

 

Navigate ethical challenges in eating disorder care

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Get the Eating Disorder Training Certificate Program (EDTC) for $595 (Save $125)

Earn 24 CEs and access all 4 training modules

 

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It’s Complicated: Ethical Issues, Maintaining Factors and Barriers to Treating Eating Disorders is Module Three of the 4-course Eating Disorder Training Certificate Program (EDTC). 

Melanie Smith, PhD, LMHC, CEDS-C, brings deep clinical and academic expertise to this course. A Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and co-author of The Renfrew Unified Treatment Model for Eating Disorders and Comorbidity, Dr. Smith is a recognized leader in both the treatment and training of clinicians who work with eating disorders. Her experience spans complex comorbidities, neurodivergence, chronic health issues, and systems-level barriers—all of which inform the course content.

Dr. Smith approaches this training through a culturally responsive, trauma-informed lens, integrating evidence-based frameworks with real-world applications. The course blends research, ethical analysis, and case-based scenarios to equip clinicians with both conceptual clarity and concrete strategies.

Topics include the biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors that maintain eating disorders; barriers to access across different populations; systemic oppression and marginalization; the ethics of involuntary care and harm reduction models; telehealth best practices; and the clinical implications of weight stigma, intersectionality, and provider self-disclosure. You’ll also explore boundary management, burnout prevention, and ethical decision-making in the context of limited resources and high clinical complexity.

Melanie Smith Headshot

Instructor

Melanie Smith, PhD, LMHC, CEDS-C (she/her) is a therapist in private practice at CBT of Central & South Florida (https://cbtcentralflorida.com) and a Consulting Clinical Training Specialist for the Renfrew Center. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Qualified Supervisor in the State of Florida. Additionally, she is a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and Approved Consultant (CEDS-C) and is a Certified Therapist & Trainer of the Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP). Special treatment interests include Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction such as Rumination Syndrome, OCD, phobias including emetophobia, health-related anxiety, and coping with chronic pain & chronic illness.

Dr. Smith is passionate about the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments, clinical supervision, and clinical training and has presented numerous lectures, workshops, and Keynote presentations at academic and professional conferences nationally and internationally. She has co-authored publications in peer-reviewed journals and is co-author of the peer-reviewed treatment manual and patient workbook, The Renfrew Unified Treatment Model for Eating Disorders and Comorbidity, published by Oxford University Press.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand what keeps clients stuck: Learn how temperament, neurobiology, social environments, and systemic oppression can sustain disordered eating behaviors despite negative consequences.

  • Explore cultural and ethical complexity: Unpack how marginalization, stigma, and identity impact both access to treatment and ethical decision-making.

  • Apply ethical clarity to real-world cases: Use a structured ethical decision-making model to resolve the challenging clinical dilemmas that arise in eating disorder treatment.

Why this course?

  • Deep clinical relevance: This course dives into the most urgent issues facing eating disorder clinicians today, offering both nuance and practicality.

  • Taught by a nationally recognized expert: Dr. Melanie Smith’s scholarship and lived clinical experience bring uncommon insight to a field too often dominated by outdated paradigms.

  • Aligned with your values: Delivered by Telehealth Certification Institute, a leader in behavioral health education that values excellence, compassion, and real-world growth for clinicians.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify the maintaining factors that inhibit treatment and recovery from eating disorders.

  • Discuss at least two sociocultural influences that impact the development and maintenance of eating disorders.

  • Apply an ethical decision-making model to the treatment of complex eating disorders.

 

Whether you are new to eating disorder treatment or seeking advanced tools for ethically navigating challenging cases, this course meets you where you are and equips you to go further.

Add to cart to begin learning instantly.

This is a non-interactive, self-study course that offers over 6 hours of recorded video instruction. Instruction consists of 6 hours of video instruction and a post-test.

Enroll in the 6 CE Online Self-Study for $180

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Availability: From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to attend: Directions for completing a course can be found by clicking here.

This program was recorded on January 27, 2023.

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