Eating disorders and Christian Spirituality: A Qualitative and Co-design Approach to Prevention, Whole Person Care and Recovery

Eating disorders are serious conditions with far-reaching impacts and suboptimal treatment outcomes. Religious and spiritual aspects are rarely addressed as part of a whole person approach to eating disorder care.

We are seeking to better understand how religious and spiritual aspects influence the experience of eating disorders, with a focus on Christian spirituality. We will be hearing from people with lived experience of eating disorders, their loved ones, healthcare providers and pastoral carers about their experiences. Together, we plan to build on these insights to develop a resource to guide the integration of Christian spirituality into eating disorder care, where this is desired. 

This project lead by Dr Hayley Thomas represents a partnership between researchers at The Centre for Theology and Psychology, The University of Queensland, The University of Notre Dame, and Flinders University, and is supported by a grant from The John Templeton Foundation. To find out more and to participate, please click here.