Teen Therapy

Learning that your child has an eating problem often triggers profound fear, confusion, and feelings of helplessness in parents. Many find themselves replaying the past trying to put the pieces together, questioning what they missed, and struggling with guilt believing on some level that it is their fault. If this sounds familiar to your experience, please hear me when I say that eating disorders are complex, they develop due to a combination of factors, and early symptoms are often hidden and easy to miss. You are doing your best as a parent, seeking help for your child is a good next step, and the willingness to show up is all that is required to make some progress. I do not take lightly the vulnerability and trust that you are placing in me, as we join together to help your child heal and thrive in his or her life. 

I think of eating disorder therapy as navigating a healing journey with a compass rather than a GPS. What I mean by this is that my expertise in eating disorders, along with your wisdom as a parent, and your child’s unique needs and strengths will guide the way and point us in the direction we need to go. Recovery is not a clear cut, step by step instruction manual that can be completed within a specific timeframe like a GPS offers. When your child and family are in crisis, I realize that the GPS coordinates sound far more alluring, but healing and recovery are far more complex and unique to each individual and family. We will work together to understand your child’s eating problem and find the right path for his or her healing so that he/she can move forward and thrive in their life.

Many parents express worry that an eating disorder is a lifelong illness that their child will have to endure — it does not have to be. Your child can achieve full recovery, and in my experience, many people who recover from an eating disorder actually develop a healthier and more nurturing relationship with food and their body than the general population, in part because of the hard work they do in therapy.

If your child is struggling, the likelihood is that you are hurting, too. It is important for you to have support. Parents who seek their own therapy often report that it is immensely helpful, not only for themselves, but also in learning ways to better support their child. Parents often bear the brunt of difficult behaviors, emotions and attitudes of their kids. If you have been on this receiving end, you know full well that strong emotions and reactions are likely to be triggered in yourself. Therapy provides you the space to process your triggers, associations to your own childhood, and problem solve challenges that inevitably arise with raising kids. We will work to help you feel more confident in your parenting, connected to your child, and empower you to parent from a less reactive, more centered state of mind.