Assisting women, men, adults, teen and children heal from eating, exercise, and body image issues is not only my area of expertise but what I am most passionate about. Following are vital pieces of information about the way I work and conceptualize healing that I think will help you decide if I am the right therapist for you.
First, I struggle with the term Eating Disorder and truly only use it as a bridge to having a conversation about the underlying issues that create the need for the behavior. Outside of these, I strongly dislike the term as I believe it implies an illness, a disease, a sickness. or that there is something wrong with the person dealing with body image and struggle with food.
Second, I do not refer to the internal struggle as ED or focus the struggle with food, body, and weight as an entity. My experience in the field has shown me that healing comes from integrating our dark and light parts.
Third, since 2001 I have worked with thousands of people who were told they were chronic or never going to get better, which I do not believe is true. Healing happens when you are ready to be honest, look at your pain with openness, work on tolerating your feelings, forgive yourself for your actions, and identify meaning and purpose in your life.
Lastly, I believe in full, complete recovery. I define recovery by living a life that has value to you, not based on what others think of who and what you are. Walking through what can feel like an unrelenting drive to focus on body, weight, and food, measuring your value by a clothing size or a number on a scale, how long you exercised, and what you eat as a measure of self worth is exhausting and painful. Healing comes from focusing less on the battle with food, exercise, body size & shape, and exploring the feelings under the behaviors and learning how to write a new narrative. Please know that there is hope, healing and a life out there waiting for you to live.
