The ARFID Empowerment Model™- Self-Paced Professional Training

Neurodiversity-affirming | Trauma-informed | Grounded in Responsive Feeding Therapy

Pre-enrolment now open

Course launches 9 November 2026 and includes:

• Eight recorded teaching modules

• Approximately 16 hours of training

• Comprehensive printable manual

• Clinical tools and online resource hub

• Six months’ access from launch

ARFID and selective or restrictive eating are complex. Supporting them requires more than one lens.

Sensory differences, anxiety, neurodivergence, nutritional risk, medical factors, feeding experiences, family dynamics and the wider environment can all shape a person’s relationship with food. These areas are often assessed and treated separately.

The ARFID Empowerment Model™ brings them together.

The programme provides an integrated, manualised framework for assessment, formulation and treatment.

It helps clinicians understand what may be contributing to and maintaining a person’s eating difficulties, identify what needs attention first, and consider where support, accommodation or capacity building may be most helpful.

The model supports individualised care, with a focus on understanding what is happening for that person and what meaningful progress looks like for them.

Neurodiversity-affirming practice, trauma-informed care, lived experience and Responsive Feeding Therapy are woven throughout assessment and treatment.

This Programme Will Help You:

• Develop a comprehensive and individualised understanding of ARFID and selective or restrictive eating.

• Bring nutritional, medical, psychological, sensory, neurodevelopmental, relational and environmental information together into a meaningful formulation.

• Recognise nutritional, medical and psychosocial risk and identify appropriate referral pathways.

• Understand how neurodivergence, sensory processing, interoception, executive functioning, masking and burnout can affect eating.

• Apply Responsive Feeding Therapy and trauma-informed principles within ARFID and restrictive eating care.

• Recognise the impact of pressure, coercion, shame and previous feeding experiences.

• Support nourishment while balancing nutritional, psychological, sensory and relational needs.

• Identify when accommodations may reduce barriers, support nourishment and improve quality of life.

• Support caregivers and wider systems without blame.

• Develop collaborative goals based on what matters to the individual.

• Use food exploration and exposure in ways that remain responsive, collaborative and consent-based.

• Recognise when exposure may be useful, and when accommodation or another form of support may be more appropriate.

• Measure meaningful progress beyond food variety alone.

• Apply a structured clinical framework while continuing to individualise care.

  
  

The ARFID Empowerment Model™ supports work with people who have an ARFID diagnosis, as well as those experiencing selective or restrictive eating where a diagnosis has not been made.

The ARFID Empowerment Model™

The model is organised around five interconnected phases:

Phase 1: Assessment, Formulation and Risk

Developing a whole-person understanding of the presentation and identifying immediate priorities for treatment.

Phase 2: Felt Safety, Regulation and Relationships

Reducing pressure, understanding experiences around food and creating the conditions in which change may become possible.

Phase 3: Nutrition and Nourishment

Supporting nutritional adequacy, growth and physical safety through approaches matched to the person’s needs.

Phase 4: Acceptance, Mindset and Capacity Building

Supporting autonomy, confidence and meaningful change through collaborative, individually matched approaches.

Phase 5: Accommodations, Integration and Life

Supporting long-term accommodations, self-advocacy and meaningful participation in everyday life.

The phases provide structure without prescribing a fixed sequence. Priorities are guided by formulation, risk and the person’s circumstances, and several phases may run alongside one another.

The overarching aim is to support individuals and families to move towards:

Safety. Nourishment. Growth. Acceptance. Autonomy. Meaningful participation in life.

What You’ll Learn

The programme includes eight recorded modules, following the teaching sequence of the live AEM professional training.

Module 1: Foundations of ARFID and the AEM

Explore ARFID presentations, diagnostic considerations, differential diagnosis and developmental pathways. Look beneath the surface of eating difficulties, consider existing treatment approaches and understand how the AEM brings different perspectives together.

Module 2: Assessment, Formulation and Risk

Develop a comprehensive assessment across nutrition, growth, medical history, feeding development, sensory experiences and psychosocial needs. Explore assessment tools, nutritional deficiencies, refeeding risk, referral pathways and how to bring findings together into an individualised formulation.

Module 3: Neurodiversity and Accommodations

Understand how autism, ADHD, demand sensitivity, interoception, executive functioning, masking and burnout can affect eating. Explore accommodations that reduce barriers, protect capacity and create access to nourishment and participation.

Module 4: Felt Safety, Regulation and Family Dynamics

Explore trauma-informed care, felt safety, the pressure cycle and the impact of previous feeding experiences. Consider co-regulation, connection, family interactions and rupture and repair, with practical ways to support individuals and caregivers.

Module 5: Nutrition and Nourishment

Support nutritional adequacy through reliable intake, accepted foods, fortification and supplements. Explore growth trajectories, micronutrient concerns, blood tests, refeeding considerations and tube feeding, alongside practical nourishment planning for everyday and lower-capacity days.

Module 6: Parent Support, Feeding Dynamics and Wider Social Systems

Explore caregiver strain, language that reduces pressure and collaborative coaching. Consider expectations, responsibilities, shared meals and practical support across households, education, work and social settings, keeping the person’s autonomy and capacity central.

Module 7: Practical Supports and Food Exploration

Bring support into everyday life through routines, school and lunchbox accommodations, social eating and individually matched mealtime arrangements. Explore responsive, consent-based food exploration with attention to sensory needs, predictability and readiness.

Module 8: Integration, Outcomes and Fidelity

Bring the model together through case formulation, clinical prioritisation and multidisciplinary collaboration. Explore meaningful outcomes, review progress and identify the core features that keep practice aligned with the AEM while allowing care to remain individualised.

Practical Tools You Can Use in Clinical Practice

The ARFID Empowerment Model™ is designed to be applied in practice.

Alongside the recorded teaching, participants receive a comprehensive printable manual and access to an online resource hub containing assessment forms, clinical tools, worksheets and templates.

These resources help clinicians gather and organise information, develop formulations, identify priorities, plan collaborative support and review progress.

The tools provide structure while allowing care to remain individualised.

Who Is This Programme For?

This programme is primarily designed for health professionals supporting children, adolescents and young adults with ARFID and selective or restrictive eating. Adult examples are included, and many of the principles and tools can also be adapted for adult practice.

This may include:

• Dietitians

• Psychologists

• Occupational Therapists

• Speech-Language Therapists

• Medical Professionals

• Nurses

• Psychotherapists

• Social Workers

• Counsellors

• Eating Disorder and Feeding Clinicians

The programme is dietitian-led and designed for multidisciplinary practice.

Your Trainer

Rachael Wilson is a registered dietitian and the developer of the ARFID Empowerment Model™.

Her work brings together clinical experience, neurodiversity-affirming practice, trauma-informed care and Responsive Feeding Therapy. Throughout the programme, Rachael connects the framework with the practical decisions clinicians face when supporting individuals and families with complex eating difficulties.

Course Delivery

• Self-Paced Online Learning: Work through the programme at times that suit you, with no scheduled sessions to attend.

• Eight Recorded Teaching Modules: Approximately 16 hours of training drawn from the live eight-week AEM professional programme.

• Course Launch: Access begins on 9 November 2026.

• Six Months’ Access: Revisit the recordings and online resource hub as you work through the teaching and apply it in practice.

• Comprehensive Printable Manual: Explanations, practical examples and clinical considerations across the programme.

• Clinical Tools and Resources: Downloadable assessment forms, worksheets, templates and additional teaching materials.

• Practical Clinical Application: Case examples connect the framework with everyday clinical reasoning and care.

  
  

This programme uses recordings from the live AEM training.

What Participants Have Said

“The AEM is hands down the most comprehensive course currently available to professionals in the feeding space… Rachael’s immense expertise and holistic philosophy is beautifully woven into her presentation of this course. I cannot recommend it highly enough!”- Kate Speech and Language Therapist.

“This course takes you on a journey to look at the big picture, and explore the deeper questions behind why a child does not eat. It considers questions around identity, belonging, feeling safe and capacity for change.” Anonymous Speech and Language Therapist.

Feedback from participants of the AEM professional training.

A limited number of reduced-fee places will be considered individually. Please get in touch if cost would otherwise prevent you from participating.

Reduced rates are also available for organisations registering multiple clinicians.

[Pre-enrol now]

Course registration closes on the 12th December.