Eating Disorder Therapy
Journey of healing
When assessing for an eating disorder, I pay attention to the amount of “power” that food, exercise, and your body image has on your life, which may or may not be reflected in your actual body size or outward behaviors. I listen for the amount of time spent thinking about what you are eating or not eating. I listen for feelings of being out of control, unable to stop, or fear of losing control. I listen for how your self-worth is impacted by your eating patterns or body image. I pay attention to the toll it has taken on your relationships and ability to engage in your life. I listen for how it has helped you to cope and manage in the world. But most of all, I am listening for your suffering and pain. I say this because there are so many misguided beliefs about eating disorders and people often dismiss their struggle as “not being serious enough,” or feel they don’t fit into a specific diagnosis, or “don’t look like they have an eating disorder,” and therefore, they shy away from getting help. If you are struggling with eating problems or body image issues, no matter how it might look to the “outside eye,” or how long or how short you have struggled, you are deserving of getting support.
We will start where you are.
We will begin by coming to understand how you experience your eating disorder. We will explore it’s role in your life — both how it has hurt you and how it has helped you. I have found that more often than not, disordered eating is initially rooted in hope. ”If only I was thinner/ate healthier/exercised more, I would be happier…confident…or have the relationships that I want…etc.” It is important for us to acknowledge and honor the hope that your eating disorder has given you, as well as any comfort or safety that you might find in it’s rituals, rules, or its role in your life. We will strengthen the part of you that wants to recover and I will help you to define what recovery means for you. We will be curious about the parts of your eating disorder you are afraid to let go, and challenge any fears that you might have about what it means to recover. We will think together about the different strategies you have tried to heal yourself, the places where you feel stuck or out of control, and will explore new perspectives and possibilities. This is a space for you to process and better understand your relationship with food and your body, in all of it’s complexity, and create a path towards healing that is as unique as you are.
Emotional and Binge Eating
If you struggle with emotional eating, bingeing, or have been on a countless number of diets, please hear that this is a safe place for you to explore your relationship with food and your body, in all of it’s complexity, without being judged or prescribed another diet. I imagine that if you are here, you know full well that diets don’t work. They can certainly be enticing with their gimmicks, but more often than not leave a person feeling even more defeated and more entrenched in their eating struggles.
In our work together, we will explore your experiences and the messages that you have received about food, eating and your body. I will help you to process and heal the impact it has had on your self-worth, gain insight into the function of your eating problems, discern emotional overeating from deprivation-driven eating from habitual eating and from physical hunger cues. We will identify needs being met through food and I will help you to work through barriers to meeting those needs in other ways. You can get to a place where you enjoy eating AND develop a relationship with food and your body that is grounded in self-care and self-respect.
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.
Anna Quindlen
