Center for Discovery Fairfax

Center for Discovery’s Fairfax location, located just 14 miles from Washington, D.C., provides residential and partial hospitalization treatment to patients ages 10-18 struggling with eating disorders.

Residential Program

Our adolescent gender-inclusive residential treatment program provides structure for clients, which allows them to fully focus on their recovery without external stressors. Clients in residential care will have a weekly schedule of established wake up times, bedtimes, chores, and mealtimes, in order to maintain a sense of responsibility and to provide a regular daily routine.

Psychotherapy is offered in a wide variety of therapy approaches; cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), nutrition education, positive coping mechanisms, relapse prevention skills, and general life skills are all part of the intense program. On average an individual will partake in five to six hours of individual, group, and family therapy each day, in addition to structured and monitored mealtimes and group social events. All therapies are based on the Health at Every Size (HAES) philosophy, and yoga therapy is offered twice weekly.

Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)

PHP falls on the continuum of mental healthcare between residential and outpatient treatment. The treatment team includes dietitians, psychiatrists, and counselors. The program involves individual, family and group counseling, as well as medication management, nutritional counseling and meal supervision. PHP meets 5-6 days a week, but participants go home each day to the comfort of their own beds. This allows clients to receive much of the same structure as residential care during the day, with the opportunity to begin practicing new skills as they transition to life outside the treatment program.

Patients will eat and be provided one or two meals/snacks at the facility for hands-on support and some meals/snacks will be eaten at home. This provides patients with the space to practice and implement the skills learned while in the program. Center for Discovery also provides free online eating disorder support groups for patients in PHP.

Health at Every Size (HAES)

HAES is a non-diet approach that shifts the focus away from weight and encourages behaviors that support individual health, including explicit body acceptance. It is an evidence-based philosophy that asserts everyone can be healthy, regardless of body shape, size, weight or BMI. The main principles of HAES are: weight inclusivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for well-being, and life-enhancing movement.