A structured nine-week program for adolescents with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and the parents and caregivers supporting them through recovery.
Who the intensive is for
- Adolescents (typically ages 12–18) with an ARFID diagnosis or strongly suspected ARFID-pattern eating.
- Families where parents and caregivers can participate in the work alongside the adolescent — caregiver engagement is built into the program.
- Cases where outpatient individual therapy alone hasn't been enough, but where a higher level of care (hospitalization or full-day program) isn't required.
The nine-week structure
The intensive runs for nine consecutive weeks with regular sessions woven through the schedule. Each family's plan is individualized, but the core components include:
- Family sessions — the adolescent and caregivers together, working on the home routines, mealtime structure, and family responses that surround eating.
- Skills-based work — exposure to expanded foods, anxiety-management strategies for mealtimes, and sensory-tolerance skills tailored to the adolescent's specific drivers.
- Caregiver coaching — parallel sessions where parents get tools, language, and a place to think clearly about how to support their child without escalating the dynamic.
- Care coordination — communication with the family's pediatrician, school, and any other providers (with consent) so the work at PPG is supported by everything around it.
Who leads the work
The ARFID Intensive is part of PPG's Center for Eating Disorder Recovery, directed by Dr. Heather Rosen. Dr. Rosen and the Center's clinicians work alongside the rest of the practice — so families enrolled in the intensive have access to PPG's coordinated multi-specialty team for any co-occurring concerns, including anxiety, ADHD, family dynamics, or sibling support.
How specialties work together at PPG
Eating disorder treatment is rarely just about food. Adolescents with ARFID often arrive with co-occurring anxiety, sensory or neurodivergent profiles, and family dynamics that have shifted around the eating. Because the ARFID Intensive sits inside our broader practice, the work can extend to parallel individual therapy, parent coaching, neuropsychological evaluation if a learning or attention question surfaces, and sibling support — all coordinated under one roof.
