Therapy for Eating Disorders & Body Image

When so much of your day becomes organized around food, your body, exercise, or trying to "get it right," it can begin to feel like the eating disorder is making every decision for you.

Maybe you're exhausted by constantly thinking about food. Maybe eating feels filled with anxiety, guilt, or rules. Maybe your body feels like something you're always trying to change, control, or avoid, or maybe you’ve become disconnected from hunger, fullness, or even trusting yourself around food.

Eating disorders and disordered eating are rarely just about food. They often influence relationships, work or school, identity, self-worth, and the way you move through daily life. Even when part of you desperately wants freedom, another part may feel terrified to let go of the very behaviors that have helped you feel safe, in control, or protected.

Looking beyond the behaviors

I believe eating disorders often develop for reasons that make sense within the context of a person's life. While the behaviors may no longer be serving you in the ways they once did, they may have developed as an attempt to create safety, manage overwhelming emotions, establish predictability, cope with uncertainty, or navigate experiences that once felt too difficult to hold.

Rather than only asking, "How do we make this stop?" we'll also become curious about questions like:

What has the eating disorder been helping you manage?
How might it have attempted to protect you?
What needs has it been trying to meet?
What makes the idea of letting go feel so difficult?

You may recognize yourself here

You may find yourself:

thinking about food, eating, exercise, or your body for much of the day.
feeling anxious, guilty, or overwhelmed around eating.
following food or exercise rules that feel increasingly difficult to break.
constantly negotiating with yourself about what, when, or how much to eat.
feeling like your mood depends on your weight, shape, appearance, or sense of control.
avoiding social situations because food feels stressful or unpredictable.
feeling disconnected from your body's hunger, fullness, or internal cues.
feeling exhausted by how much mental energy these struggles require.
wanting recovery while another part of you feels afraid to let go.
missing the freedom to be fully present in your relationships, work, school, or daily life.

You don't need to identify with every experience on this list to begin therapy.

My approach

My work is collaborative, relational, warm, and grounded in evidence-based eating disorder treatment while remaining individualized to your unique experiences, values, and goals.

As a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Consultant (CEDS-C) for over 12 years, I have worked across outpatient, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, residential, and inpatient settings, supporting individuals throughout recovery while also training clinicians and developing eating disorder treatment programs.

Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, we'll work together to understand your story, your patterns, your emotions, and your relationship with food, your body, and yourself.

About Eating Disorder Therapy

Inner Wellness works with adolescents and adults experiencing eating disorders and disordered eating, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, orthorexia, ARFID, and other patterns of eating-related distress. This may include restriction, binge eating, purging, compulsive exercise, body image concerns, or a complicated relationship with food.
Eating concerns do not always fit neatly into a diagnosis. You do not need to have a formal eating disorder diagnosis to seek support. We can explore what you are experiencing and determine whether my approach and level of care are a good fit for your needs.
Our work begins with understanding your experiences, concerns, and goals, including how eating, exercise, and body image affect your daily life. Rather than focusing exclusively on changing behaviors, we will explore the thoughts, emotions, relationships, and underlying patterns that may be contributing to your struggles.
Treatment is collaborative and individualized. Depending on your needs, sessions may involve building insight, addressing anxiety and perfectionism, developing greater flexibility around food and movement, strengthening self-trust, or working through relational and emotional challenges that affect recovery.
No. You do not need a formal diagnosis to reach out. You may be struggling with food, exercise, body image, or persistent thoughts about your weight without knowing whether your experiences qualify as an eating disorder.
If these concerns are taking up significant mental space, affecting your relationships, or interfering with your ability to live the life you want, therapy may be helpful. We can discuss what you are experiencing and whether individual therapy is an appropriate starting point.
The appropriate level of care depends on several factors, including medical stability, eating disorder behaviors, nutritional needs, psychiatric concerns, and the amount of support available in your daily life.
Outpatient therapy can be appropriate for some individuals, while others may benefit from additional support through a dietitian, medical provider, intensive outpatient program (IOP), partial hospitalization program (PHP), or residential treatment. If your needs exceed what outpatient therapy can safely provide, I will discuss my clinical recommendations and help identify appropriate next steps.

Family Involvement and Support

Family involvement is individualized based on age, developmental needs, treatment goals, and family circumstances. For adolescents, collaboration with parents or caregivers can be an important part of treatment, particularly when support with meals, safety, or recovery-related behaviors is needed.
Family involvement may include parent consultations, family sessions, guidance on responding to eating disorder behaviors, or support in understanding how to help without increasing conflict or distress. For adult clients, family participation is discussed collaboratively and based on the client's preferences and needs, with appropriate attention to confidentiality.
The goal is to help families become more effective sources of support while allowing the individual receiving treatment to develop greater autonomy and confidence in recovery.
Yes. When working with adolescents, Inner Wellness considers parent or caregiver involvement an important part of the treatment process. Depending on the teen's needs, this may include parent consultations, periodic family sessions, and collaboration around how to support recovery outside of sessions.
Inner Wellness also recognizes the importance of creating a therapeutic relationship where teens can speak openly and develop a sense of ownership over their treatment. We will discuss how to balance parent involvement, the teen's growing independence, and appropriate confidentiality and safety considerations.
It can be difficult to know what to say or do when someone you care about is struggling with food, exercise, or body image. Attempts to help can sometimes unintentionally increase shame, conflict, or secrecy, even when they come from a place of concern.
Parent consultations and family sessions can provide space to better understand the eating disorder, recognize unhelpful interaction patterns, and develop more effective ways to respond. We can work on communicating with compassion, setting appropriate boundaries, and supporting recovery without making food or weight the center of every interaction.