Who is this course for?

The initial appointment: we move from the foundations into the clinical space, focusing on how to approach the initial appointment in a neuro-affirming and trauma-informed way. This session explores how to build rapport, establish relational safety, and adapt our assessment frameworks to be flexible and inclusive. We’ll reflect on our own strengths, challenges, and biases as clinicians, and practice core counselling skills like active listening, validation, and holding space. The aim is not to change how you conduct assessments, but to consider how we can adapt our approach to centre curiosity, autonomy, and collaboration—laying the groundwork for a strong therapeutic relationship and meaningful ongoing support.

Towards the end of week 2 we will have a live group call, a time to reflect and ask questions. It will be recorded for those who may not be able to make the live.

Assessing for ARFID: focuses on what to look for and how to screen for ARFID. We will explore how you build a comprehensive assessment picture plus how to identify nutritional deficiencies, when further testing may be needed, and the role of allied health professionals in assessment, support and diagnosis. This week also looks at differential considerations such as what else might be going on if it’s not ARFID—including sensory processing differences, Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (PDA), and Paediatric Feeding Disorder, with guidance on when and where to refer on.

Bonus: From our Parent Course
ARFID and Its Intersections

In Week 3, we explore how ARFID intersects with neurodivergence, medical conditions, and trauma highlighting how these factors influence eating, feeding, hydration and mealtimes.

We’ll discuss:

• ARFID and Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (PDA): How internal and external demands, like hunger, sensory experiences, or social expectations, can feel threatening to a PDAer, activating fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses and making eating feel unsafe. We will discuss practical strategies to reduce pressure, honour autonomy, and create predictable, flexible, and sensory-safe environments that allow the nervous system to settle and support natural eating.

• ARFID and OCD: How obsessive fears about food, contamination, or “just right” experiences can impact eating, and how a neuro-affirming, safety-first approach supports regulation and trust rather than enforcing rigid rules.

• ARFID and PTSD/Trauma: Understanding how past negative experiences around food, medical interventions, and more can create fear-based avoidance, and why trauma-informed strategies are essential.

• ARFID and RSD: We will briefly explore what RSD is and how it can intersect with ARFID. Plus go through a couple of strategies that may help reduce feelings of rejection.

• ARFID and Medical/GI Conditions: How reflux, eosinophilic oesophagitis, gastroparesis, or connective tissue and autonomic conditions (like EDS, hypermobility, POTS) affect digestion, appetite, and blood sugar regulation.

• ARFID & Hypermobility/hEDS: Both HSD and hEDS can frequently co-occur with the Neurodivergent population. We will explore how this might show up for someone with ARFID.

• ARFID and Burnout: Recognising how sensory, cognitive, and social demands, along with nutritional deficits, can contribute to autistic burnout and prolonged feeding challenges, and how supporting safe food intake can help nervous system recovery.

• Also 4 bonus mini interviews: 1. Our Dietitian Ebeney talks about ARFID and Emetophobia

  2. Our Naturopath Sam talks about gender dysphoria and eating disorders.

  3.ARFID and cultural experiences with Yas De Silva.

  4.ARFID, Anorexia Nervosa, body and masking with Annie Crowe

By the end of this week, parents will gain a deeper understanding of the complex, overlapping factors that influence ARFID and practical, compassionate strategies to support eating without pressure, prioritising safety, autonomy, and regulation.

ARFID & Feeding differences Support Strategies: introduces a framework for supporting individuals with ARFID in a safe, individualised way. It emphasises emotional and sensory safety, centering client autonomy, and using strengths-based, trauma-informed, neuro-affirming approaches. This week also considers when it may be appropriate to explore new foods and when the focus should remain on nourishment through safe foods, supplements and supporting the relationship to food and body. 

Towards the end of week 4 we will have a live group call, a time to reflect and ask questions. It will be recorded for those who may not be able to make the live.

Follow up consultations: explores how to hold space for clients while supporting progress over time. It covers strategies for checking in and monitoring change—looking at mealtime experiences, nutritional adequacy, and client reflections on what’s working and what’s not. You’ll learn approaches for collaborative goal setting, motivational interviewing, and how to respond when progress feels slow or stagnant, while considering factors like sensory processing differences and fluctuating daily capacity. This week also emphasises celebrating successes, big and small, and brings everything together through a practical case study.

A pre-recorded panel interview with guest practitioners, all with their own lived and professional experience of ARFID.

We have these wonderful people joining us below:

We have these wonderful people joining us below:

• Cody Robinson (She/Her) from New Leaf social work

  Lumen Gorrie (They/Them) from Brains beyond Binaries

  Brianna Thomas (She/Her) from The Psych Hive

  Gabriel Lubieniecki-Maynard (She/Her) from Swan Centre
  
  More to come on this!

Bonus from our parent course: ARFID Parent Panel

• A pre- recorded panel with parents who have children with ARFID.

We will be joined by the wonderful

Hollie-Ann Newman (She/Her) from Neuroinclusive Education & Jenni Moore (She/Her) .

A group space for practitioners to bring their case studies, reflect and ask any final questions.