EATING DISORDER THERAPY
Do You Wish You Had A Healthier Relationship With Food And Your Body Image?
Are you or your child experiencing troubling symptoms and behaviors as they relate to your eating and exercise habits?
Have you been diagnosed with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, or any other issue on the eating disorder spectrum?
Or are you simply tired of feeling dissatisfied with what you see when you look in the mirror?
If you find yourself obsessively thinking about what you eat and how you look, you likely feel wracked by guilt and anxiety all the time. Whether you’ve entered an unsuccessful, unending dieting cycle or you struggle with a distorted body image on a daily basis, it may be beginning to feel like you’re losing an uphill battle against your self-perception.
Not only have eating and exercise been stripped of their enjoyment—but your (school)work, relationships, and overall quality of life have probably become deeply compromised by your preoccupation with food. You may have noticed your energy levels are regularly inconsistent or low, or that you’ve developed physical symptoms of disordered eating, including digestive issues, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, menstrual/hormonal changes, or feeling cold all the time. You aren’t able to be as present or focused as you’d like, causing you to be increasingly doubtful about yourself and your ability to enjoy life.
Our therapists empathize with your pain and frustration. As fellow women who understand the pressure that you’re under to be successful in all areas of life—including the way you look—we are committed to offering effective, lasting support that can meaningfully transform your relationship with food, exercise, and your body through counseling.
Disordered Eating Habits Can Be A Source Of Control In A World That Expects Women To Be Perfect
It often feels like everywhere we look as women, we are inundated with the pressure to look effortlessly thin, ageless, and beautiful.
Between social media and a culture that has practically made face and body modification a requirement, it seems as though the cosmetic industry is built to perpetuate body dysmorphia and poor mental health among women. Paired with unhealthy behaviors and attitudes that many of us internalized from a young age—often because they were modeled by our mothers and other women in our lives—society’s beauty standards can be crushing.
Disordered eating exists on a spectrum. Some women struggle with severe, dangerous behaviors while others live with a subtle inner critic who influences what they see when they look in the mirror or at a picture of themselves. At the core of most eating disorders is a relentless cycle of “control” wherein women try to maintain a tight grip on how much they eat and exercise, inevitably adding guilt and shame into the mix, until our self-worth is essentially whittled down to the number that appears on the scale.
Though our practice works with the spectrum of eating disorders in therapy, some of the common issues our clients seek treatment for are:
Body dysmorphia – relentless worry about perceived appearance, often resulting in a highly distorted body image
Chronic dieting – strict and/or ongoing adherence to a specific, prescribed food and exercise regimen
Anorexia – extreme restriction of food/caloric intake, sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise, use of laxatives, and/or purging
Binge eating – episodes of compulsive eating wherein large portions of food are consumed in a short period of time, often to the point of sickness or discomfort
Bulimia/purging – forced regurgitation following a meal
Orthorexia – the need to eat healthy, organic, and/or unrefined foods
Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) – the clinical term for disordered eating behaviors that don’t meet the criteria for other conditions; examples may include pica (compulsive craving for non-food items), chewing-and-spitting behaviors, etc.
Looking at these symptoms through the framework of obsessive-compulsive thinking, we work to help clients re-establish a sense of control over their behaviors and reconnect with their bodies, healing from the inside out.
Madeline Rice & Associates Specializes In Therapy For Eating Disorders
Our practice is committed to providing tailored, gentle, and effective online eating disorder treatment to adult women and girls 13 and older throughout Pennsylvania. Whether you have officially been diagnosed with an eating disorder, are in the process of transitioning out of an in-patient program, or struggle with body dissatisfaction in general, our therapists want to help you reconnect to your body in a way that restores the self-compassion and empowerment your eating disorder has taken away.
Though our treatment approach is never one-size-fits-all, we are likely to draw from the following in therapy for eating disorders:
Mindfulness – by learning to reconnect with your senses, you can facilitate a healing relationship with your mind and body.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) – developed under the premise of the Self’s internal “parts,” IFS helps facilitate a healthier, more compassionate understanding of your wounded parts and how they are manifesting in your behaviors.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – one of the foundational behavioral approaches, CBT allows you to better understand and adjust the relationship between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors so that you can respond to distress more rationally.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) – as eating disorders are often grounded in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), ERP works by increasing the window of tolerance when activated so the need for ruminations and compulsive behaviors goes away.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) – as a body-based trauma treatment, EMDR allows you to gently uncover and re-integrate painful past experiences that have perpetuated distorted self-image and thinking patterns.
Psychodynamic therapy – using the client-therapist relationship, healthy communication, emotional exploration, and boundary-setting are modeled.
Family Based Therapy for Adolescents, aka “The Maudsley Approach” – a structured treatment approach for parents whose adolescent/teen child has been hospitalized for an eating disorder.
Exploring unhealthy messaging and unhealed trauma are big components of treatment for disordered eating. As you dig deeper into the underlying issues at the core of the eating disorder—which is almost always a metaphor for other psychological wounds—therapy can be an opportunity to unlock the key behind which of your needs are not getting met. Equipped with new skills and insights, you will learn how to tap into your body’s natural wisdom to facilitate a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food and exercise.
Through this process, it is possible to transform your relationship with food into a source of pleasure rather than pain, to be comfortable in your own skin, and to permit yourself to take up the space to feel fully embodied. By freeing yourself from shame spirals and ruminations, you can experience a lasting sense of peace and comfort with yourself—and your body.
Common Concerns About Therapy For Eating Disorders…
Is eating disorder treatment effective when done online?
The research says it all: therapy works whether it’s conducted online or in person. [1] However, the most important factor is the therapist-client relationship, which is why our clinicians are committed to ensuring that you feel safe and understood in treatment for an eating disorder.
We have worked with a lot of clients who felt that they had tried everything to improve their relationship with food, only to feel disappointed in the results. Through therapy at our practice, they were able to get to a place where they were no longer at the mercy of obsessive, self-critical thinking. Remission has been possible for these clients, and we know it can be for you too.
I worry my schedule won’t accommodate consistent therapy sessions.
Since our practice is conducted entirely online, we are able to offer our clients the convenience of meeting from wherever they are without the hassle of a commute.
We are able to be flexible and will work with you to determine a treatment schedule that feels supportive and manageable.
Will I have to be in therapy for a long time before I am in recovery from an eating disorder?
Our goal is to get you out of therapy—not keep you in it!
As very solution- and skill-oriented therapists, we believe in eating disorder treatment that is centered around actionable behaviors and goals.
In fact, many of our clients report improvements within the first few sessions.
A New Self-Image Is Possible
If you suffer from body dysmorphia, a preoccupation with food, or an eating disorder of any kind, therapy through Madeline Rice & Associates can help you heal your relationship with eating, exercise, and your body. Contact us to find out more. All eating disorder treatment services are done online and available to clients throughout Pennsylvania.
[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/07/cover-telepsychology
Recent Posts
