About Main Line Centers For Eating Disorders

About Us

Ellie, Kerri and Amy, Co-Founders of Main Line Center for Eating Disorders, met while working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program. They were extensively involved in all levels of care including inpatient medical stabilization, intensive outpatient programing (IOP) and outpatient treatment. They also contributed significantly to program development, clinical research and publication. They have led multiple trainings for clinicians, caregivers and educators, been interviewed as clinical experts and have presented at the local, national and international level.

The Co-Founders bring their unified passion to Main Line Center for Eating Disorders - one of the only practices in the Greater Philadelphia area to have Certified Eating Disorder Specialists and Certified Family Based Treatment Providers with expertise in pediatric eating disorders.

Vision & Values

Main Line Center for Eating Disorders was founded to fill an insurmountable need for families seeking treatment for their loved one and to train future generations of clinicians in the service of further increasing access to care.

We are a group of experts dedicated to assisting those struggling with eating-related concerns achieve holistic recovery and build a life worth living that is free of diet culture.

Every client we treat at Main Line Center for Eating Disorders will receive care that reflects our core values.

Evidence-Based

Evidence-based treatments are proven by research to be effective. The leading evidence-based treatment for pediatric and adolescent eating disorders is Family-Based Treatment (FBT). Amy and Dr. Benner are two of less than 10 Certified Family-Based Treatment providers in the region and Kerri Heckert is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist - Approved Supervisor, the only internationally-recognized advanced credential signifying competence in treating eating disorders.

Multidisciplinary

Main Line Center for Eating Disorders believes in utilizing the strengths of all members of the care team, including caregivers. As a multidisciplinary team, we coordinate care to optimize both the treatment plan and your experience as a client. We collaborate closely within our team, but also with physicians, psychiatrists, coaches, counselors and anyone else supporting the recovery effort.

Weight-Inclusive

A weight-inclusive approach to health care recognizes that everyone has the potential to achieve optimal health and well-being, regardless of their weight or BMI, when they have access to non-stigmatizing health care. This approach challenges the assumption that a specific BMI corresponds to a specific set of health practices, health status, or moral character, and instead prioritizes recommendations, treatments and interventions that focus on wellness over weight. Rather than viewing weight as a behavior, the focus shifts to self-care behaviors such as eating food that is nutritious and satisfying, listening to internal hunger and fullness cues and engaging in joyful movement. This approach seeks to reduce weight stigma and create a comfortable health care setting, where patients can discuss their health concerns openly and without fear of judgment from health care providers.
There principles of weight inclusive care are:

Do no harm.
Honor body diversity - the natural differences in human body shape, size and composition
Ensure optimal health and well-being is provided to everyone, regardless of their weight
Maintain a holistic focus on health rather than a predominant focus on weight/weight loss
Encourage progress-focused improvements to quality of life.
Critically evaluate evidence for weight loss treatments
Create healthful, sustainable behaviors
Increase access to health care and social justice for all individuals along the entire weight spectrum.

Health at Every Size is a trademarked model defined by the Association for Size Diversity and Health ASDAH). HAES is weight neutral approach to health that respects body diversity, avoids idealizing or pathologizing specific weights, promotes health improving behaviors without the use of weight loss as a desired outcome, prioritizes access to respectful care without the influence of weight bias and encourages flexible, intuitive eating and life-enhancing movement.

Main Line Center for Eating Disorders values body diversity and believes that weight or BMI in no way are sole determinants for diagnosing disease. We believe that recovery should be accessible to bodies of all shapes, sizes and genders and provide respectful care that aims to improve overall physical and mental health.

Resource: Tylka, 2014. 983495.pdf (hindawi.com)

Anti-Diet

The anti-diet movement challenges diet culture, a system of beliefs that is toxic, dangerous and oppressive but normalized. It believes bodies can be healthy at any size, food rules and restriction interfere with the joy, fun and flexibility of eating and that one does not need to pursue thinness to achieve wellness.

Main Line Center for Eating disorders recognizes the influence diet culture has played in many of our lives and seeks to offer a path to a more intuitive eating style for the entire family. We teach clients and their families to honor hunger and fullness cues and aim to bring more joy and peace to the eating experience. We prioritize food neutrality – the idea that, with exception to certain diseases and allergies, no food is inherently good or bad, no food will cure or kill you and your self-worth is not dependent upon what you do or do not eat.

Diet Culture	Anti-Diet Culture
Idealizes thinness and equates it to health and moral value. It falsely recommends weight loss to achieve health and prevent or cure health issues.	Celebrates body diversity and Health at Every Size ©. Promotes health enhancing behaviors like joyful movement, stress reduction, adequate sleep and a positive social support system without any expectation of weight change.
Promotes weight loss at any cost to mental and/or physical well-being despite a wealth of research showing that: Almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years Dieting increases the risk of developing an eating disorder Weight cycling has negative health outcomes	Trusts intuitive eating cues, honoring hunger and fullness and eating a wide variety of foods that are both nutritious and delicious. All foods are allowed into your eating world and restriction, both internal and external, are not limiting factors determining what and how much you eat.
Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others. Foods are categorized as “good” and “bad” so people are forced to be hyper-vigilant about what they eat or feed their families, feel guilty about making certain food choices and find themselves unable to honor their intuitive hunger or enjoy their eating experience.	Focuses on food neutrality – the idea that, with exception to certain diseases and allergies, no food is inherently good or bad, no food will cure or kill you and your self-worth is not dependent upon what you do or do not eat. There are some foods that do more in your body and some that do less, but that doesn’t make one food morally better or worse.
Perpetuates fat phobia, the oppression of people whose bodies don’t conform to the thin ideal. Both subtly and overtly, it celebrates some bodies as “good” and criticizes others for being “bad.”	Celebrates body diversity – bodies come in all shapes and sizes and all bodies are good bodies. Embraces body positivity, and if that feels too challenging, focuses on body neutrality. It celebrates what your body can do over what your body looks like. It avoids disparaging comments about your own body of the bodies of others.
Prioritizes weight loss, calorie burn and body change as the primary positive outcomes of movement and exercise.	Enjoys the feel of moving your body for fun, health, stress relief, performance improvement, strength and socialization without any body change expectation.
Leads clinicians to recommend that children’s BMI’s stay in a narrow range of “healthy” in order to prevent disease.	Values all body sizes as being healthy, capable and worthy. Believes that BMI does not determine health or fitness and one’s body size can in no way be the single factor for diagnosing illness.