You’re legally an adult, and every decision about your recovery — including whether a check-in is part of it — is yours. I wrote this version specifically for you because the years between 18 and your mid-twenties come with a lot of moving parts: first apartments, college, first real jobs, moving away from what you knew, rebuilding daily rhythms from scratch. These transitions are some of the hardest stretches of time for eating disorder recovery — not because of anything you’re doing wrong, but because your external structure is shifting under your feet, and ED’s best move is to slip into those gaps.

That’s not me treating you like a kid. It’s me being honest about what this chapter of life is. If a check-in ends up being part of our work together, its job is to steady one piece of your week while everything else is in motion — either with your own rhythm or with a support person of your choosing. That small steadiness often turns out to matter more than it sounds like it should.

When I read your check-in, I’m not grading anything. I’m trying to understand how your week actually went — the real version, not the tidy one. Things like:

• How meals actually landed — what felt doable, what didn’t, where the plan and real life matched up or pulled apart
• How your body’s been answering — energy, hunger and fullness, digestion, sleep, mood, cycles if that applies to you
• What the ED tried to do — restriction, bingeing, purging, exercise pressure, skipped meals, rules, avoidance
• What your actual life looks like right now — dining hall vs. cooking for one, roommate stuff, travel, money, what’s even available where you are
• Where things are quietly working — meals that felt okay, strategies that held, small wins worth noticing

Here’s the quiet truth: the parts you’re tempted to leave out are usually the parts I most need to see. Not so I can react. So I can understand. A check-in that only holds the “good weeks” tells me less than a check-in where the hard weeks show up honestly.

If a check-in becomes part of your care, there’s an option to have someone you trust loop in with you on it — a support person. This is completely optional, and it looks very different from the pediatric version. You stay in charge.

Honestly? I often gently suggest this during the early months of treatment and during the tougher stretches — a semester transition, starting a new job, a move, a breakup, family events, travel, anything where life is asking a lot of you. Not because you can’t handle it alone, but because the research on this age band is really clear: having one person gently in your corner during the big transitions makes a real difference. You always have the right to say no to a support person, and we’ll make the check-in work either way. If I notice something in the data that makes me think we should revisit the question, I’ll tell you — straight, no surprises.

A support person can be a parent, partner, sibling, close friend, roommate, recovery coach — anyone you actually want in your corner. They don’t replace you — they’re not your supervisor. What they do is small and steady: a daily check-in, a shared meal, someone who’ll notice if the check-in goes quiet and gently ask you about it.

You choose all of it:

• Whether to have a support person at all
• Who that person is
• How much they’re involved — anywhere from “just aware this exists” to “we check in every day”
• Whether they sign this as a witness

You can change any of this at any point — tell me in session, text me, email me, whatever works. If you do choose to bring someone in, their role is witness and support — not boss. You stay the person running your own recovery.

• Find a quiet few minutes in your day that tend to repeat — after a meal, before bed, between classes. Filling it in close to real-time is kinder on your memory than rebuilding later.
• Write what actually happened, not what you meant to happen. The gaps between the plan and the day are useful, not shameful.
• If a day gets away from you, write “skipped” and keep going. Please don’t go back and rebuild yesterday from memory — a gap tells me something true.
• The reflection space is yours. Anything — patterns, questions, wins, rough moments, things to bring up next session. No performance required.
• Send it to me at kristine@sinnergywellness.com before we meet, or bring it with you.

There will be times — often right when life gets loud — when part of you wants to soften what’s on the page. Round a number down, leave something out, write the version I’d rather see. Move-in week. Finals. First day at a new job. A breakup. A family weekend. I want you to know two things.

First, it’s never about me. That pull to edit isn’t about disappointing me. It’s the ED showing up right when you’re most under pressure — which is exactly when I most need to see what’s real.

Second, you’re allowed to just say it. “I don’t want to write this down.” “I’m not sure I can be honest about today yet.” Those sentences tell me something important, and that’s enough for us to work with together.

Your check-in lives in your chart, inside Healthie, protected by HIPAA. I don’t share it with anyone — not a parent, not a partner, not even a support person you’ve named on this agreement — without a Release of Information you’ve signed. Naming someone as a witness to this document does not give them access to your check-in. That’s a separate, specific conversation we’d have together.

If you’re choosing to go ahead with the check-in, let me know: