Honest Lies – Diagnosing Eating Disorders for Mental Health Professionals
Course Content
The most dangerous assumption in this area is that you can see an eating disorder. Most serious presentations occur in people at or above normal body weight, which means a clinician screening on appearance misses the majority of them, and the ones being missed are still in real medical danger. Atypical anorexia damages organs at a body weight that raises nobody’s eyebrows. Bulimia can be lethal without ever showing.
Jenny Helms works with eating disorders as the great majority of her caseload, and her argument is that they are found by asking rather than by looking. Which means the whole thing turns on assessment: knowing the specific questions, and knowing what to do with the fact that clients frequently under-report, minimise, dissociate from the behaviour, or simply do not recognise it as one. Hence the title. The lies are not usually dishonesty in any ordinary sense.
Five hours. She starts by dismantling the assumptions that cause clinicians to miss cases, including who this happens to, which now spans a much wider range of ages, genders and populations than the picture most of us carry. Then a structured approach to diagnosis, working through the DSM-5 changes and where the manual still falls short. Then what she says is just as important as the diagnosis: deciding the level of care a client needs, and knowing how to get them there and who else belongs on the treatment team.
You’ll walk away with
- The reason appearance is the wrong screening tool, and what to assess instead, which is behaviour and specific questions rather than presentation
- A structured assessment you can actually run, rather than a diagnostic checklist you read afterwards and hope you covered
- What under-reporting looks like in this population, including dissociation from the behaviour and clients who do not believe they are unwell enough to qualify
- Who this actually happens to, across gender, age of onset, life stage and community, which is a much wider group than the standard picture
- What the DSM-5 changed and what it still does not cover, including diagnoses that have no category yet and the habit of defaulting everything to the unspecified bracket
- ARFID, and why some presentations have nothing to do with body image at all
- The function these behaviours serve and the factors that combine to produce them, so the formulation goes past the eating itself
- Judging the level of care a client needs, including the signs that outpatient work is no longer sufficient, and one of the clearest of those signs in practice
- Why a starved brain cannot absorb therapy, and what that means for the order you do things in
- How the treatment team works, what belongs in your lane and what belongs to dietitians and doctors, and how to explain that division to a client
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
a). Name at least two common myths about eating disorders.
b). Identify ways clients may mislead, disassociate, or under-report their symptoms.
c). Perform a thorough eating disorder assessment for diagnosis and determining the level of care.
d). State the function and role of ED’s and the factors that typically create an ED.
e). Identify higher levels of care in eating disorder treatment, assessing & connecting clients to the appropriate level of treatment.
f). State one way we can educate clients about treatment teams for eating disorders.
g). Name at least two different treatment modalities that have efficacy and are commonly used in the treatment of eating disorders.
Meet Your Instructor
Eating disorders and complex relational trauma that devastate young lives - often requiring specialised care that a lot of practitioners aren't equipped to provide - need clinicians who understand both the psychological and systemic factors that drive these conditions. Jenny Helms has built her career around transforming how communities approach trauma and eating disorder treatment, becoming a leading advocate who founded Kansas's largest group mental health practice and uses innovative platforms to reach hundreds of thousands with healing messages.
As Founder and Owner of Soma Therapy, Kansas's largest group practice with over 50 providers, and recent acquirer of New Perspectives (another prominent 20-provider practice), Helms has revolutionised access to specialised mental health care in the Wichita area. Her remarkable TikTok following of 230,000+ subscribers demonstrates her unique ability to translate complex therapeutic concepts into accessible content that helps people understand trauma, self-worth, and healthy relationships. Her vision of "helping Wichita thrive beyond trauma" reflects her commitment to community-wide mental health transformation.
Helms' expertise spans eating disorders, trauma recovery, relational trauma, attachment issues, couples therapy, self-worth development, and performance mental health. Her practice integrates family systems therapy, trauma therapies, and Gottman/Schnarch couple approaches, recognising how intergenerational trauma patterns shape current relationships and individual struggles. She specialises in cases where eating disorders intersect with complex trauma, helping clients understand how food functions in their emotional regulation and developing comprehensive recovery strategies that address both symptoms and underlying attachment wounds.
What sets her approach apart is authentic advocacy combined with clinical excellence. Helms doesn't just treat individuals - she works to transform entire community understanding of mental health through speaking engagements, social media education, and practice innovation. Her use of creative modalities like music in therapy demonstrates her commitment to meeting clients where they are and making healing accessible through multiple pathways.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for treating eating disorders alongside trauma, tools for working with attachment issues in young adults, and frameworks for building community-responsive mental health services. Her approach particularly benefits clinicians working with eating disorders, those treating young adults with complex trauma, or practitioners interested in innovative service delivery models.
Quick Win: Helms' "relationship with food assessment" helps clients quickly identify how eating patterns connect to emotional regulation - often revealing the therapeutic entry point that makes traditional eating disorder treatment more effective.
Qualifications
- MS, Marriage and Family Therapy, Friends University, Kansas
- BS, Psychology, University of Georgia, 2010–2013 (graduated with honors)
- Licensed Clinical Marriage & Family Therapist (LCMFT), Kansas (received 2017)
- Specialised training in family systems therapy, trauma therapies, and Gottman/Schnarch approaches
Leadership & Business Innovation
- Founder & Owner, Soma Therapy, Wichita, KS, 2018–present (Kansas's largest group practice, 50+ providers)
- Owner, New Perspectives mental health practice, Wichita, KS (recent acquisition, 20+ providers)
- Founder, Yellow Brick Therapy Podcast
- Created integrated mental health center offering individual, couples, family, and psychiatric services
Professional Experience
- Therapist & Marriage and Family Therapist, Real Life Counseling LLC, Wichita, KS, 2017–2019
- Graduate Assistant, Colorado State University, 2013–2014
- MDA Camp Counselor, Muscular Dystrophy Association, GA, 2008
Social Media & Advocacy
- TikTok: 230,000+ subscribers
- Active YouTube and Instagram presence with mental health education content
- Host, Yellow Brick Therapy Podcast
- Creator of educational videos using creative modalities including music
Clinical Specialties
- Eating disorders treatment and recovery
- Complex trauma and PTSD
- Relational trauma and attachment issues
- Self-worth and body image work
- Couples therapy using Gottman Method and other evidence-based approaches
- Family systems therapy
- Performance mental health for high achievers
- Adolescent and young adult mental health
Treatment Approaches
- Family Systems Therapy
- Trauma-focused therapies including EMDR
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy
- Schnarch approaches to intimacy
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Creative and expressive modalities
Ready to transform how you approach eating disorders and complex trauma in young adults? Discover how Jenny Helms' innovative, community-focused methods can help you create lasting change while building the kind of practice that truly serves your community's healing needs.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 1
- Topics 5
- Duration 5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English