Eating Disorder Therapy
Serving adults in Pennsylvania, New York and Montana
When Your Relationship With Food Feels Like It's Controlling Your Life
An eating disorder is about far more than food. While eating behaviors may be the most visible part of the struggle, they often reflect deeper emotional pain, overwhelming stress, perfectionism, self-criticism, or a need for safety and control.
You may feel trapped in cycles of restricting food, binge eating, purging, obsessive thoughts about eating or body image, or constantly negotiating rules about what you can and cannot eat. Perhaps meals feel emotionally charged, or your mind is consumed by thoughts about calories, weight, exercise, or whether you've been "good" or "bad."
For some people, these struggles are obvious. For others, they remain hidden behind achievement, responsibility, and the ability to appear like everything is fine. You may be exhausted from constantly managing food, your body, and the expectations you place on yourself while feeling unable to explain what you're experiencing.
Eating disorders often thrive in secrecy. Shame, guilt, and fear can make it difficult to reach out, especially if you believe you should be able to handle things on your own.
Understanding Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions. They are not caused by a lack of willpower, a desire for attention, or simply wanting to change your appearance. They often develop through a combination of biological, emotional, relational, and environmental factors.
Body image struggles are also a significant part of many eating disorder experiences. You may feel uncomfortable in your body, overly focused on appearance, afraid of weight changes, or caught in a cycle of body checking and self-criticism. These thoughts and beliefs can deeply affect how you see yourself and how much freedom you feel you have in your daily life.
Eating disorders can affect every area of life, including relationships, work, health, and emotional well-being. You may notice:
Constant thoughts about food, eating, weight, or body image
Restricting food or avoiding certain foods
Binge eating followed by guilt or shame
Purging behaviors or compulsive exercise
Fear of losing control around food
Difficulty eating socially or feeling disconnected from your body
Anxiety, depression, or chronic stress alongside eating concerns
While eating disorders often involve food, the deeper struggle is rarely about food alone. Therapy helps explore the emotions, beliefs, relationships, and experiences that have shaped your relationship with eating and your body.
How Therapy for Disordered Eating and Body Concerns Helps
My approach is collaborative, compassionate, and trauma-informed. Together, we will explore the patterns beneath your eating disorder while building practical tools, emotional awareness, and self-compassion. Recovery happens gradually, at a pace that respects your experiences and needs.
Therapy can help you:
Understand the emotional roots of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or disordered eating
Reduce shame and self-criticism around food and your body
Develop healthier ways to cope with difficult emotions and stress
Challenge rigid beliefs about self-worth and control
Rebuild trust in your body's needs
Strengthen emotional regulation and self-awareness
Create a more peaceful relationship with food and yourself
Recovery is not about becoming someone different. It is about reconnecting with yourself beyond the eating disorder. Therapy can help you rebuild trust, develop compassion for yourself, and create a life where food no longer controls your days.
Eating disorder recovery is also not about achieving perfection. It is about creating freedom—the ability to nourish yourself without fear, trust your body, experience emotions without relying on harmful behaviors, and build a life no longer centered around food or weight.
Coordination of Care: Supporting Recovery Through Collaboration
Eating disorder recovery often involves more than individual therapy alone. Because eating disorders can affect both physical and emotional health, coordinated care with other professionals can provide important support throughout the recovery process.
When appropriate, I collaborate with other members of your treatment team, such as registered dietitians, physicians, psychiatrists, or other healthcare providers. This teamwork helps ensure that your emotional, nutritional, and medical needs are addressed together rather than separately.
Coordination of care may help you:
Receive consistent support across different areas of recovery
Address medical concerns related to eating disorder behaviors
Develop a balanced and sustainable approach to nutrition with a qualified professional
Ensure that treatment goals are aligned and supportive
Feel less alone while navigating the challenges of recovery