What are we aiming for? Exploring tensions in healthcare provider perspectives on and communications about eating disorder recovery

Eating disorder recovery is differently understood in multi-disciplinary healthcare contexts. In this study, we sought to better understand how healthcare providers (HCPs) describe recovery and communicating about recovery. We conducted an anonymous, online, qualitative survey with 41 eating disorder HCPs. In their responses, HCPs noted that communicating about recovery was core to their practice of establishing collaboration and communication with clients, as well as enabling “realistic hope” in clinical encounters. Recovery was described as related to the concept of attaining “normalcy” in life. We identified several tensions across HCP accounts, including what “normalcy” might look like, differences in the role of diagnostic and other contextual factors in determining recovery and different perspectives on how symptom remission figures in recovery. Our findings suggest that attending to differences in communication about recovery is an important direction for eating disorders research and treatment.