For people struggling with eating disorders in Pennsylvania, it is not too late to ask.
Empowered Treatment in Austin, Texas, provides partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient care, and transitional housing for adults recovering from eating disorders. If your thoughts about eating and weight have been louder than everything else lately, a call with our team is a reasonable place to begin.
Busy lives can hide a lot of pain.
Pennsylvania runs on long days. Residents at hospitals in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, warehouse crews in the Lehigh Valley, state workers in Harrisburg, Penn State students in State College, parents juggling school pickups in the suburbs outside Erie or Scranton. In that kind of rhythm, skipping meals, compensating after eating, or obsessing over the scale can pass as discipline for a long time.
An eating disorder is not discipline, though. It is a serious health condition that tends to narrow your life until there is little room left for anything else. You might feel embarrassed that you have not been able to stop on your own, or unsure whether what you are dealing with counts. Those feelings are very common, and they are not a reason to keep waiting.
You can call without a plan.
Plenty of people pick up the phone not knowing what they want, only that the way things are is not working. That is enough. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or a decision about treatment to have a first conversation.
Our admissions team will listen, ask about your health and routines, and walk you through how our partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs are set up. If you work in healthcare yourself, healthcare workers with eating disorders speaks to some of what you may be feeling.
Worry is a form of love.
If you have been lying awake wondering whether your son, sister, or spouse is okay, you are not overstepping by paying attention. Knowing what to say is the hard part. Our article on how to help someone with an eating disorder covers ways to raise concern that keep the conversation open.
Once someone you love enters treatment, our family education helps you learn about the illness, practice supportive responses, and plan for the transition home, even if you are following along from Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
A place to settle in for the length of your stay.
Coming from Pennsylvania means leaving home, work, and familiar routines behind for a stretch. Our transitional housing gives that time a stable base: a house in Austin's Hyde Park neighborhood for clients in PHP or IOP, where people in recovery share meals and evenings with support close at hand, instead of navigating a new city on their own.
Shared living spaces
A room of your ownA coordinated team with one goal.
At Empowered, eating disorder therapists, registered dietitians, a family therapist, psychiatric providers, and experiential staff plan your care together. They share observations, adjust the plan as you progress, and make sure the work on food, feelings, and health fits as one approach. When it is time to go back to Pennsylvania, they help you build a follow-up team there.
Partial hospitalization (PHP)
Full treatment days at our Austin center: supported meals, daily groups, individual therapy, dietitian care, and medical and psychiatric monitoring.
About PHP →Intensive outpatient (IOP)
Group programming plus weekly individual and dietitian sessions, built to fit around work, school, and family once more structure is not needed.
About IOP →
“Experiential work gives people a chance to practice recovery with their whole selves, not only by talking about it in a chair. Whether it is a group outing, a creative project, or trying something new together, those moments help skills from therapy feel real and usable in everyday life.”Chris Ellis, LCDCi, RSPSDirector of Experiential Recovery Services, Empowered Treatment
From Pennsylvania to Austin, step by step.
Planning the trip
Flying is the practical choice from Pennsylvania. We can help you time your travel with your admission and arrange housing ahead of your arrival.
- Distance: about 1,440 miles from Philadelphia as the crow flies
- Flights: fly from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) or Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
- Getting to the center: AUS is around a 30-minute drive from our Northwest Austin location, depending on traffic
- Housing: learn about transitional housing for clients in PHP or IOP
Insurance and costs
Before you commit to anything, our team can review how your plan treats partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient care, and care from providers outside its network.
- Go to our verify insurance page, or call and we will check your benefits
- If your plan is based in Pennsylvania, ask how it handles out-of-network specialty care in Texas; we can help you put together the right questions
- The Pennsylvania Insurance Department Consumer Help Center takes complaints and answers health insurance questions
- See does insurance cover eating disorder treatment? for an overview
Support to lean on back home.
Ongoing support helps recovery stick. These resources in Pennsylvania can help you and your loved ones keep care in place after treatment, in cities and small towns alike.
- Pennsylvania DHS: Mental Health and Substance Use DisorderThe Department of Human Services hub for public behavioral health services, crisis lines including 988, and county program information.
- NAMI Keystone PennsylvaniaListed by NAMI as its Pennsylvania state organization, offering mental health education, support groups, and family programs.
- Pennsylvania Insurance Department Consumer Help CenterHelp with insurance complaints, questions, and requests to review a health plan denial.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis LifelineCall or text 988, any time, from anywhere in the United States. In an emergency, call 911.
Questions from Pennsylvanians considering care.
Why travel from Pennsylvania for treatment?
Some people want a fresh setting away from daily triggers, a specific program structure, or transitional housing that keeps them close to care. Whether Austin makes sense is a personal decision, and our team can help you weigh it honestly.
How long would I be in Austin?
Length of stay varies with your needs and progress. Many people start in PHP and step down to IOP over time. Read how long does eating disorder treatment take? for a realistic picture.
What is the difference between PHP and IOP?
PHP is about 30 hours a week of structured treatment with supported meals. IOP is about 9 hours a week, plus weekly individual and dietitian sessions. Our page on levels of care explains how to tell which might fit.
How will I stay on track once I am back in Pennsylvania?
We plan aftercare with you well before discharge, including connections to a therapist, dietitian, and psychiatric provider closer to home. Our article on recovery while traveling also helps with the trip back.
More for Pennsylvania
Articles and guides for readers in Pennsylvania.
A conversation could be the turning point.
Call and speak with a member of our clinical team about what you are noticing and what might help. Asking is free, and you are under no obligation.