Eating Disorder Therapy
How does eating disorder therapy work?
Are you interested in finding an eating disorder therapist?
Are you struggling with body image?
Do you feel like you may have binge eating disorder?
Do you catch yourself comparing the way that your body looks to that of another person?
Do you find yourself continually breaking your diet and getting upset with yourself?
Are you struggling to have control with food?
Do you feel like you are constantly thinking about food?
Have you found yourself avoiding social situations or feeling insecure about your weight, relationship with food, or food behaviors?
Eating disorder treatment, also known as therapy for eating disorders, can help you navigate the answers to these complicated questions. Maybe there is a part of you that does not want to come to therapy? And another part of you that feels like you need to put an end to the current cycle that keeps repeating itself? If you hear that small voice telling you to seek help, you have come to the right place.
Eating disorder therapy can help you navigate the confusions behind these feelings.
You deserve to have control over your life again. It is possible to live in a world where thoughts are food, dieting, weight, and body image do not dominate your thoughts.
What is Eating disorder treatment like?
During eating disorder therapy we will work to reevaluate the confusing thoughts and feelings within your mind and body. Using self evaluation we will work together and I will provide you with tangible tools to take home. We will navigate what is going on with one foot in the past and one foot in the present; discovering what patterns and experiences have contributed to your eating disorder, as well as what can be done to establish healthier habits and beliefs with food, body image, and the self.
Depending on your individual needs, I work in collaboration with a nutritionist, dietician, and physician’s assistant and can provide a full-continuum of support with my outpatient team. This can be an option for those transitioning out of a higher level of care.
Sessions are 50 minutes long and can be longer upon request. During eating disorder therapy we will not pick, prod, or analyze you. Rather, we will create a supportive, nurturing and nonjudgmental space to navigate what your goals are.
But Eating Disorder Treatment feels scary?
What if a part of me does not want to overcome my eating disorder?
That is normal. An eating disorder can become such an integral part of your life that there may be a part of you that does not want to let it go. It can feel scary, overwhelming, and uncomfortable… but there is also a reason why you came to this page and have read to this point. If this is the case, be easy with yourself, while in eating disorder treatment we will work from where you are at. There will be an equal contribution of self-determination and guidance from the therapy.
Do I need to come to eating disorder therapy? Will Treatment for eating disorders help?
You don’t know until you come. I have found that at the very least eating disorder therapy can help individuals develop a better understanding why they feel negatively towards their body and where this comes from.
I don’t think that I have an eating disorder but I do dislike my body…
Many people have negative relationships with their body. A recent statistic found that 85% of women dislike their body’s. 85%! You are not alone and you do not need to have an eating disorder to deserve therapy and to deserve support. Eating disorder therapy can help you redefine the relationship that you have with your body.
WILL I RECEIVE A DIAGNOSIS WHEN I COME TO treatment for eating disorders?
In my practice I utilize diagnosis only when necessary. For some clients a diagnosis can be liberating and for others a diagnosis can be limiting. Therefore, I take all factors into account and take plenty of time to fully understand a client before making a diagnosis.
DOES ONLINE THERAPY for eating disorders WORK AS EFFECTIVELY AS IN PERSON?
Seeing a therapist online is the next best thing to seeing a therapist in person. For some clients, I find that online therapy actually works better. Either way we will work together to develop a plan of action that is effective for you and your individual needs during eating disorder treatment.
Concerned About Taking the Next Step with eating disorder therapy?
If you are worried about coming to eating disorder treatment because it means that you are admitting there is something wrong, or that you now have to adopt a label (such as having an eating disorder), or that you do not feel like you are sick enough or deserving enough of therapy; these are common thoughts before you begin the process. Remember, liberation is on the other side of such thoughts. I encourage you to contact me and we can speak more about how we can work together with eating disorder therapy.
I think I may have binge eating disorder. Do you work with both restrictive eating and binge eating habits?
The truth is, the two are not always independent of each other. This is one of the most common questions that I get when clients first coming to eating disorder treatment. There is a longer-winded explanation for this but to keep things short, our culture has deemed small bodies as desirable bodies and therefore, certain eating habits are also desirable. Every person is different and every person’s body is different. As a result, the standards that you might have for yourself in terms of what is the right amount of food might be restrictive habits for your body. This leads to a restrict-binge-pattern when a body feels like it needs more sustenance to live. If this question applies to you, I encourage you to read more about binge eating disorder in this blog post about binge eating disorder.
Eating Disorder Therapy In Colorado.
Many times an eating disorder can feel like you have two minds living within the same brain. The mind that wants to control how much you eat, exercise, weigh and look and then the mind that wants to eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full and in general, just think about food less. This conflicting mindset can develop slowly overtime and during that development it can become such a part of daily life that you don’t even realize the effect it is having on your ability to live a fulfilling life.
What We Will Do Together during eating disorder Therapy…
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT)
CBT works to help individuals face their fears without avoiding them. CBT is designed to help calm one’s mind, body and to help have a more clear understanding of who you are.
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (DBT)
Much like CBT, DBT utilizes mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness to teach more healthful ways of living to reach your goals. Using DBT we will introduce skills to create better coping skills and habits.
MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness is all about slowing down and creating space between your thoughts and reactions. Mindfulness is focused on the here and now. Together we will introduce present focused skills to bring the body and mind to a more calm and grounded place.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy is a trauma-focused, clinically studied approach that works to adapt traumatic experiences and events in a more healthful way. It works at getting underneath the anxiety, depression, disordered eating/eating disorders to really understand the root cause of these behaviors and symptoms.
You are not alone and I am here to help you with body image and disordered eating
My approach is largely influenced by my trainings in DBT, CBT, and Mindfulness. My style is calm, supportive, directive, and relatable. You will feel welcomed into a safe space free of judgement and full of safety during eating disorder treatment. I work in collaboration with a dietician and a physician’s assistant and can provide a full-continuum of support with my outpatient team. This can be an option for those transitioning out of a higher level of care or for those who need additional support during eating disorder therapy.
If you are nervous or unsure about reaching out, feel free to provide as little information as is comfortable for you. There is no such thing as over or under sharing. We can schedule a 20 minute free consultation by phone or video to see if it feels like a good fit.
TO SCHEDULE A FREE 20 MINUTE CONSULTATION to learn more about how I work with eating disorder treatment, PLEASE Follow the link below:
