The Wandi Nerida Model of Care

A vibrant, dynamic, healing place, shaped by the collective wisdom, courage and hope of the Wandi community.

THE PLACE

Wandi is Australia’s premier residence for the treatment of eating disorders, filling the critical treatment gap between community or intensive outpatient treatment and acute hospital care. Harmoniously blending into the natural landscape of the Sunshine Coast hinterland, on Kabi Kabi Country, Wandi is welcoming and calming. The name, ‘Wandi Nerida’, means ‘we gather together to blossom’.

‘‘Gather’ takes place in nature, away from the stressors of life. Nature stimulates our senses, activates our minds and bodies, enhancing our wellbeing and our innate need for connection or belonging. This is particularly important for people who experience a sense of disconnection, both internally and with the outside world. ‘Together’ refers to the Wandi community including participants, family and staff coming together to heal those suffering from eating disorders. To blossom’ means to reconnect with ourselves and others to find our self-identity beyond an eating disorder. Recovery is about healing, and nature helps facilitate this goal.

The residence is modern and purpose-designed to be a home away from home. It is the warm and inviting environment of Wandi that helps participants to ‘feel safe and visible’ (Wandi Internal Evaluation, 2025) and to ‘be unapologetically me’ (Rankin, et al., 2025). Wandi is diligent and understanding of participants’ medical needs; thus, Wandi provides an integrated, 24-hour accredited and licensed hospital to allow for careful monitoring of participants during their stay.

THE PARTICIPANTS’ MILIEU

Participants state that the strong relationships developed within the milieu, through mutual support and shared experiences, in a non-competitive culture, is a powerful life-changing experience. Wandi facilitates a supportive culture through its core process groups, role modelling, shared experiences, and collective responsibility. As one participant stated, “the Wandi Nerida community was a formative experience – it was about participants standing together and not being competitive” (Rankin, et al.,2025)

THE PHILOSOPHY

The causation of eating disorders is multifactorial, treatment is often complicated by comorbid mental illness and life factors, and recovery is not linear. As the symptoms and causes of an eating disorder involve biological, psychological and social elements, a holistic model of care incorporating multi treatment options is required. Wandi provides a range of evidence-based psychological treatments based on the history and needs of participants. The model also includes adjunctive therapies and modalities shown to have efficacy and a positive impact. These include equine therapy, arts-based therapies, nature-based therapies, yoga, and a variety of social activities.

At Wandi, recovery from an eating disorder is so much more than numbers and food. At Wandi, we do not demonise or pathologise the eating disorder.

We recognise that each participant has a healthy core self but, over time, due to a variety of risk factors, has also developed an eating disorder self. We work to connect with and strengthen each participant’s healthy self, putting the eating disorder self out of a job (*taken from 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder, Carolyn Costin & Gwen Grabb).

Through building confidence and learning new skills, participants are able to begin processing the underlying causes, deal with their emotions, and respond from their healthy self. In one study, participants spoke about pivotal moments during their stay, including realising that “….I can actually feel emotions and things will be ok” (Rankin, 2025).

THE PROCESS

Empathy and collaboration have been shown to be critical in successful treatment. With individualised treatment plans tailored to participants’ unique attributes, experiences, personalities and needs, Wandi empowers participants to navigate their path to recovery. Alongside the restoration of nutrition to the body, we help each participant set specific goals and we provide activities aimed at building self-confidence, social connectedness, positive relationships with food and the body, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, self-compassion and challenging their eating disordered thoughts and behaviour.

The staff at Wandi come with a wealth of experience and knowledge, with almost half having recovered from an eating disorder; providing empathy, hope and authenticity. In line with Wandi’s relational approach to treatment, staff invest time in forming trusting and transparent relationships with participants.

The program at Wandi facilitates increasing independence, responsibility and autonomy as participants move through the phases of the program and take on the challenges in the journey to reclaim their life.

Each phase of the program offers the necessary exposure work around the daily behaviours critical for recovery, including shopping for, portioning and even preparing their own food.

Wandi has undergone a series of comprehensive qualitative and quantitative studies by Western Sydney University to determine its effectiveness. The research confirms that the Wandi Nerida model results in significant improvement in eating disorder symptoms, anxiety and depression, general and eating disorder related quality of life and functional disability from pre-treatment to 6 months post-discharge (Day, et al.,2025).

For more information about Wandi Nerida, including enrolment, you can email or call us through our contacts page here.