Table 1 Themes and sub-themes of adolescent and parent/caregiver experiences

1. Seeing and being seen

1a. Reduced sense of isolation

“It has showed me that other people go through something that I thought was just me. If some people say ´when something happens to me I do this´, I go ´oh my God! that happens to me also´ and its reassuring” (adolescent)

1b. Learning from and with each other

“It was good listening to other people’s ideas because that helped me think of my own things, of what would help me” (adolescent)

2. Holistic shift

2a. Family connection

“My mum and dad [now] know how to help me, as opposed to just getting angry” (adolescent)

“… I am definitely getting along with them [parents] better” (adolescent)

2b. New insights and coping

“Like making a set plan of the eating, I thought that was helpful ‘cause then like you are not hungry for you to binge or whatever and things like writing down your worries that was helpful” (adolescent)

“I think it’s benefited her as I said she has some insight into the reasons why she is doing it, so it’s definitely had a positive impact on her” (parent/caregiver)

2c. Practical help

“It's a lot of talking obviously, and then there's things like distractions and they do give you a lot of sheets [coping skills leaflets] so you can take stuff home with you so that it doesn't stay at the session cause it's easy to go home and kind of push it to the side but because they give you sheets and then you go through your bag and then you find it and you kind of remember and that's good” (adolescent)

3. The unspoken

[no subtheme]

“[there] weren't exactly rules but … you do start to think ‘well is what I'm about to say, ok’ and stuff like that, so you do kind of have to think twice before you say stuff which really isn't the point I don't think” (adolescent)