Esther Blessitt

Biography

My name is Esther Blessitt and I am a Systemic Family Psychotherapist specialising in the treatment of children and young people from age 10 to 17 with anorexia nervosa and related restrictive eating disorders.

I gained a distinction in my Masters training as a Family Therapist at King’s College London in 2009. 
I am registered with The Association for Family & Systemic Psychotherapy and the UK Council for Psychotherapy.

I have worked as a clinician in child and adolescent mental health since 2000, but for 14 years until July 2026, I worked exclusively in eating disorders with the internationally renowned Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders.

Having seen the enormous benefits of working with a family approach to treatment for young people with eating disorders, I am extremely pleased to be able to continue providing a family therapy approach now that I have retired from my NHS role doing the same work. 

I am passionate about supporting parents to build confidence and to enhance their strengths so they can feel better equipped to support their child through treatment. Parents often feel bewildered and shocked when an eating disorder is diagnosed in their child. It is a frightening time which can also leave parents feeling helpless. Family therapy is about rebuilding confidence, improving communication and developing understanding between family members. With eating disorders, this means ensuring that children and young people feel better understood in their distress and responded to with validation when they express their feelings of anxiety about the need for change. 

I have seen the enormous benefits of the FT-AN approach for the hundreds of patients I have worked with over the past 14 years and am delighted to be able to continue offering families my therapeutic support in this way.

I have completed training in Attachment-Based Family Therapy which is a NICE recognised 2^nd-line treatment for adolescent depression. I will use this approach where an attachment rupture or attachment distress between a parent and their child has negatively impacted the parent child relationship making treatment for an eating disorder even harder.

Alongside my clinical work with the NHS I also managed the Maudsley outpatient team and delivered training both nationally and internationally in evidenced-based family approaches for the treatment of anorexia nervosa. I have also contributed to the academic literature related to FT-AN.

I mainly work on Saturdays at the London clinic from 9:30 until 14:00.

specialised Training