Eating Disorders
Food is everywhere. It is not only essential to our survival, but it is also an important part of our social culture. When we have eating disorders, food becomes the enemy, not the source of sustenance and pleasure that it should be. Instead, food becomes the thing that makes us lose control or not have the "perfect" appearance. Eating disorders make thoughts about food and appearance all encompassing; the entire day is spent thinking about what to eat and what not to eat, what to do if we eat what we shouldn’t, and how food will affect our shape and our happiness. It becomes an exhausting and debilitating cycle.
Psychotherapy can help you change your relationship with food and your relationship with yourself so that food can go back to being just that, food. Your weight can be just a number on a scale rather than a measure of your self-worth and happiness.
Through a supportive and safe relationship with a therapist, you can learn to build self-efficacy and gain more control over your life and your well-being. Together, we will address the shame and isolation caused by the eating disorder. Unrealistic and harmful thoughts that tend to fuel unhealthy behaviors will be targeted, allowing you to become more flexible in your thinking and behaving. Therapy will also help you to become more aware of, and comfortable with, the whole spectrum of your emotions. In addition, therapy can treat the anxiety, mood, and/or substance abuse difficulties that often accompany disordered eating. You are so much more than how you look, and therapy can help you discover, and cherish, yourself in ways you may never have allowed yourself to think possible.
