Therapy for eating disorders and body image
Struggles with food, eating and body image can take over your thoughts and your days, and they are often hard to talk about. Therapy offers a private, nonjudgmental place to understand what is going on and to begin changing your relationship with food and with yourself.
You might be noticing
- Constant thoughts about food, weight, shape or calories
- Rigid food rules, or eating in secret
- Cycles of restricting, bingeing or purging
- Intense guilt or shame after eating
- Avoiding meals with others or social events with food
- Exercising to make up for eating
- Feeling that your worth depends on your body
How we help
You deserve support
Eating disorders are serious, and they are not about willpower or vanity. They often grow alongside anxiety, depression, trauma or a need for control. You do not need to be in crisis, or to meet any particular description, to ask for help.
What outpatient therapy can offer
Our clinicians see people for outpatient therapy, which means regular sessions while you continue living at home, working or going to school. Therapy can help you look at the thoughts, feelings and habits tied to eating, ease the shame that keeps the pattern going, and work on the anxiety, mood or past experiences that often sit underneath. Approaches may include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, DBT-informed skills and mindfulness-based approaches.
Some people need more support
Outpatient therapy is not enough for everyone. Some people need medical monitoring, or a more intensive program such as day treatment or residential care. If that is true for you, we will say so plainly and help connect you with the right level of care. Therapy can often continue alongside it or after it.
For family and friends
If you are worried about someone you love, you can reach out to us as well. We can talk about how to approach the conversation with care and where to find support.
A plan built around you
Every person is different and responds to different things. Your care can combine several evidence-based approaches, with or without medication. If questions come up about ADHD, autism or learning, psychological testing is available within the practice. And your plan can change as your needs do, including moving to another clinician on our team whose expertise fits better.
