What is MED-DBT?
An Evidence-Based Framework for
Complex Care
MED-DBT (Multidiagnostic Eating Disorder – Dialectical Behavior Therapy) is an evidence-based treatment model developed in the early 2000s to meet the needs of individuals not fully helped by standard eating-disorder approaches like FBT or CBT-E. It’s designed for people living with eating disorders alongside co-occurring challenges such as trauma, suicidality, or difficulties with emotion regulation and relationships. Unlike other DBT adaptations, MED-DBT offers a full, integrated framework for clients requiring intensive, compassionate, and medically-informed care.
About Our Courses
Our on-demand self-paced modules offer comprehensive eating disorder training for clinicians seeking a thorough introduction to MED-DBT— a principle-driven, trauma-responsive adaptation of DBT designed for individuals whose eating disorders coexist with emotion dysregulation, suicidality, self-injury, neurodiversity, and medical instability.
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Care
Trauma-responsive and trauma-informed care in MED-DBT reflects our commitment to recognizing and countering the invalidating environments many of our clients exist within. In developing this treatment, it was important to us to ground all interventions and theoretical frameworks in an understanding of chronic invalidation, systemic oppression, and unsafe or harmful care experiences, and the impact these experiences can have on emotion regulation, eating disorders, relationships, identity, and overall wellbeing.
Our curriculum The Eating Disorder Training Institute (EDTI) reflects an ongoing commitment to fostering safety, transparency, trust, collaboration, empowerment and choice, validation of lived experience, and intersectional awareness throughout all aspects of care.
Creating Safety Through Care
Meeting Clients Where They Are, with Empathy, Structure, and Respect for the Complexity of Recovery
The MED-DBT Protocol:
Foundational Framework & Publication
Co-authored by EDTI founders Dr. Anita Federici and Dr. Lucene Wisniewski, Treating Eating Disorders with DBT: The MED-DBT Protocol presents an evidence-based adaptation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for treating complex, multidiagnostic eating disorders.
Grounded in clinical experience and neurobiological research, the MED-DBT model integrates core DBT principles with specialized approaches to eating disorder behaviors, body image, and medical complexities. This published protocol provides the foundational framework for The Eating Disorder Training Institute's clinician training programs.
