Sara Burchfiel, LMFT

Eating Disorder Therapy

Understanding your experience

When I’m getting to know your experience with food and your body, I look beyond appearance, weight, or visible behaviors. I want to understand how food, exercise, and body image are affecting your daily life—how much space these thoughts take up, the emotional weight they carry, and whether you feel out of control or afraid of losing control.

I also pay attention to how these struggles may have helped you cope, and how they affect your sense of self, your relationships, and your ability to be present in your life.

Above all, I listen for your pain—including the suffering that may not be visible on the surface.

I share this because there are so many misconceptions about eating disorders. People often minimize what they’re going through because they don’t feel “sick enough,” don’t fit neatly into a diagnosis, or don’t look like the stereotypes we associate with eating disorders.

If you’re struggling with food or body image in any way, your experience matters—and you deserve support.

We will start where you are

Our work begins by understanding how the eating disorder has lived in your life—the pain it has caused, and the ways it may have offered comfort, protection, or a sense of control.

For many people, disordered eating begins as an attempt to solve something: If I were thinner… healthier… more disciplined… I would finally feel confident, happy, worthy. We’ll make space for the role the eating disorder has played while also beginning to imagine what life could look like without it taking up so much space.

From there, we’ll begin to clarify what healing means to you. We’ll explore what feels difficult to let go of, what you may be afraid of losing, and any uncertainty about who you might be without the eating disorder.

We’ll also look at what you’ve already tried, where you feel stuck or overwhelmed, and find new ways of relating to food, your body, and yourself.

Healing can feel slow at times. It can feel vulnerable. And it is still so worth it.

Over time, eating out with friends can feel enjoyable instead of overwhelming. Food can take up less space in your mind, and you can feel more present in your body and your life.

You don’t have to feel fully ready for change for therapy to begin. We can start wherever you are.

To Anyone Navigating Life in A Larger Body...

If you live in a larger body, you may have spent years navigating messages about what you “should” eat, how you “should” look, or who you’re supposed to be in order to be worthy. You may have tried diets, sworn them off, gone back again, or simply felt exhausted by the constant noise around food and weight.

Wherever you are in your relationship with food and your body, there is space for you here. We can explore that relationship in all its complexity—without judgment, shame, or another plan to fix yourself.

If years of dieting have left you feeling defeated, confused, or disconnected from your own cues, we can begin to make sense of that too. Together, we’ll explore your lived experiences and the messages you’ve absorbed about food, weight, and worth.

With curiosity and compassion, we’ll look at what food has meant in your life and the ways it may have helped you cope, soothe, celebrate, or survive. From there, we can begin building greater trust in yourself and a relationship with food and your body that isn’t defined by diets, shame, or constant self-monitoring.

Eating Disorders & Related Concerns I Support

Eating struggles can take many forms. I offer specialized, individualized care that honors your unique experience and story.

Anorexia Nervosa
Bulimia Nervosa
Binge Eating Disorder
ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)
OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders)
Chronic dieting and disordered eating
Orthorexia and rigid food rules
Body image distress and body dysmorphia
Eating disorders in athletes and high-performing individuals
Disordered eating and body image concerns in midlife, including during perimenopause and menopause
Eating disorder therapy for LGBTQ+ clients (affirming care for queer and transgender clients)
Eating disorders in neurodivergent individuals, including ADHD, autism, and sensory-related feeding differences

Common questions about eating disorder therapy:

How do I know if I need therapy for an eating disorder?

Eating disorders don’t always look the way people expect them to. Some people experience symptoms like restricting, bingeing, purging, or compulsive exercise. Others find themselves caught in constant thoughts about food, weight, or body image, even if their experience doesn’t fit neatly into a specific diagnosis.

Many of the people I work with simply know that something about their relationship with food or their body isn’t working anymore. You might spend more time than you want thinking about what you ate, worrying about your body, planning or compensating for food, or feeling anxious, guilty, or out of control around eating.

And from the outside, everything may appear fine. You may be managing work, school, relationships, and responsibilities while quietly carrying distress around food or your body that other people don’t see.

You don’t need a diagnosis or a certain level of severity to deserve support. If food, eating, or body image is causing you distress or getting in the way of your life, that’s enough reason to reach out. You don’t have to wait until things get worse.

What does eating disorder therapy involve?

Eating disorder therapy will look a little different for everyone. We might talk about what’s happening with food and body image, explore situations that trigger anxiety or eating disorder thoughts, or slow down and make sense of patterns that feel difficult to change.

We’ll also pay attention to what else may be connected to the eating disorder, such as anxiety, perfectionism, trauma, relationships, identity, or the ways you’ve learned to cope. At times, our work may be practical and focused on what’s happening right now. At other times, we may spend more time understanding your experiences and how they continue to shape you.

You won’t have to spend every session talking about food. We’ll make room for the whole of your life and focus on what feels most important to your healing.

I’ve tried to recover before. What if it hasn’t worked?

Many people come to therapy after trying for a long time to change their relationship with food or their body. You may have been through treatment before, had periods where things felt better, or worked hard at recovery only to find yourself caught in old patterns again. That can be incredibly discouraging and may leave you wondering whether lasting change is actually possible.

Recovery is rarely a straight line. There are often important reasons certain patterns have been difficult to let go of, and those reasons deserve understanding rather than judgment.

Together, we’ll get curious about what has helped, what hasn’t, and what may have made change difficult to sustain. Rather than starting over, we’ll build on what you’ve already learned while making room for a deeper understanding of yourself and what you need.

What if part of me isn’t ready to let go of the eating disorder?

This experience is actually very common. Eating disorders often develop for important reasons. They may create a sense of control or structure, numb difficult emotions, or help you cope when life feels overwhelming.

So it makes sense that one part of you may want things to change while another part feels unsure or even afraid of letting go.

We won’t push that part of you aside or expect you to be fully ready. Instead, we’ll get curious about what the eating disorder has been doing for you and what makes letting go feel difficult. You don’t have to resolve that conflict before coming to therapy. We can start there.

What if I feel ashamed or embarrassed about my eating habits?

It can be incredibly hard to talk about the things you feel most ashamed of, especially if you’ve been keeping them private for a long time. You may worry about being judged, misunderstood, or told that what you’re doing is “bad.”

You don’t have to hide or clean up your experience here. Whether you’re struggling with bingeing, restricting, eating in secret, purging, compulsive exercise, or something that feels difficult to explain, we can talk about it with curiosity rather than judgment.

My goal isn’t to shame you into changing. It’s to understand what’s happening, what these patterns may be doing for you, and what you need. You can share at your own pace.