Eating Disorder Therapy

Therapy is provided for emotional eating and stress eating, binge eating, eating disorders, body image dissatisfaction, and other eating or weight-related concerns.

✓ Are you unhappy with your body?
✓ Do you wish you didn’t spend so much time thinking about food, exercise, or your body?
✓ Are you struggling with an eating disorder?
✓ Do you want to improve your relationship with food or your body?
✓ Do you wish you could shut off the mental noise around food or your body?

If ANY of the above apply to you

KNOW THAT YOU CAN:

We make food decisions every day, many times a day. With an eating disorder, disordered eating patterns, or concerns about your body and weight, these decisions can feel difficult. There can be shame, guilt, or anxiety tied to your eating, body image, or exercising. There also might be a lot of time spent thinking about food, exercising, or your body.

It does not have to be this way. If you work with a psychologist at Best Within You, you are working with someone who has training and expertise with treating eating disorders as well as eating and body image related concerns.

Eating disorders, disordered eating, and negative body image are common

According to ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) about 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime. Body image concerns are also very common. In studies, a large percentage of people felt upset or unhappy with their body.

Therapy Works

We know it can feel difficult speaking with a therapist about an eating disorder or eating related concerns. One of our compassionate and non judgmental therapists will meet you where you are at. We do not offer a one size fits all treatment approach. We will personalize and tailor our work to what you are needing. We will provide research supported interventions that have proven to be effective for thousands of people.

Finding a specialist

In looking for treatment for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating, weight concerns, yo-yo dieting, over exercising, or other eating or body image concerns it is important you work with someone who is a specialist. We get referrals throughout the Atlanta area as well as the United States due to our expertise in treating concerns related to eating.

Some of the training and experience our psychologists have include:

✓ head of eating concerns treatment team at a medical center
✓ contributing to eating disorder and body image research
✓ years of experience working with patients with disordered eating
✓ presenting to organizations about emotional eating, disordered eating and body image
✓ being on professional boards of eating disorder organizations
✓ providing consultations and supervision to other therapists and physicians focused on eating related concerns
✓ featured as experts in major media publications about eating concerns

You can have a better relationship with food and your body

You do not have to live with an eating disorder or feeling unhappy about your body.

Body Image Therapy

We live in a culture where we are told to change almost every part of our body. It is incredibly difficult to feel positive about your body all the time and to fully love your body all the time. However, it is very possible to accept and appreciate your body. It is also very possible to spend less time worrying about your body and to feel much better about your appearance than you do right now.

We have worked with many clients who went from hating their bodies to accepting their bodies and not letting their thoughts about their bodies get in the way of living their life. In therapy for body image you will work with a psychologist to help you feel better about your body. You will learn techniques for how to deal with unhelpful body image thoughts. Therapy will help you to figure out how to develop a relationship with both food and your body that works best for your unique needs, goals, and lifestyle. Our psychologists specialize in helping people feel better about their body and spend less time thinking and worrying about their body.

We also offer presentations to groups, therapists and companies about how to improve body image. We have presented about body image and ways to help clients improve their body image to therapists at the Georgia Psychological Association, Georgia Tech’s counseling center, and Northwestern University’s counseling center. We have also presented at medical centers, to parents, and to students about ways to improve their body image. You can visit our appointment page if you would like training or a presentation on how to help improve body image

Emotional Eating Therapy

Some stress eating and emotional eating can be normal. We are human beings with emotions and it’s hard to separate these emotions from food. We grow up with cakes to celebrate birthdays and lollipops at the doctor to make us feel better. At the same time, it is not uncommon for the relationship with food to become complicated and for us to turn to food to deal with an emotions or distract us from something. Therapy for emotional or stress eating can be helpful if you have tried to stop and can’t, feel like you do it often, are upset about the way you are eating, OR do not want to turn to food to cope.

Treatment For Stress Eating & Emotional Eating

It can be very upsetting to keep telling yourself I will start again tomorrow, feel out of control with food, spend a lot of time thinking about food, or feel that you are doing something that you want to stop but it seems like you are just not able to. Please know, therapy can help. Please also know, it is not about willpower or lack of self control. We will talk through in therapy what it is about. You can also learn more about what causes stress eating in this blog post.

At Best Within You Therapy & Wellness we will work with you to really understand why you are stress eating or emotional eating. Your therapist will share their understanding of what they think is going on. We will collaborate with you to figure out what role stress or emotional eating plays for you. We will then help you to change your relationship with food, and not feel so out of control with eating. We will help you to not always turn to food to cope.

Binge Eating Therapy

With therapy for binge eating, you will have an open, nonjudgmental, and compassionate space where you can understand why you are binge eating. Binge eating can feel shameful, but in therapy, there will be absolutely no judgment. You are binging for a reason and you started binge eating for a reason. We will work to figure out what it is you are really needing when you turn to food. We will work to discover how to get that need met in others ways besides with food. We will also talk about specific strategies to best overcome binge eating.

Please see below for symptoms of binge eating disorder. It is ok if you are unsure if you meet the criteria for binge eating disorder. Our eating disorder therapists work with clients who are binge eating and also clients who meet criteria for binge eating disorder. This blog posts also helps with how to know if you have binge eating disorder. During the first therapy session, we will assess for symptoms and talk about the binge eating disorder diagnosis as appropriate.

Binge Eating Disorder Symptoms

Binge Eating is characterized by eating within a discrete period of time an amount of food larger than what most people would eat in a similar amount of time and feeling a sense of lack of control over eating (e.g., feeling that you can not stop eating or can not control how much you are eating).

- Distress regarding the binge eating is present
- Binge eating occurs at least once a week, on average, for three months
The binge eating may be associated with any of the following:
- Eating quicker than normal
-Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
-Eating a large amount of food when not physically hungry
-Eating alone due to embarrassment over how much you are eating
-After binge eating, feelings of disgust, depressed, or guilt
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders Fith Edition)

Bulimia Therapy

Counseling services are available for people who binge eat and then do certain behaviors to help prevent weight gain. These behaviors to prevent weight gain are referred to as compensatory behaviors which can include self-induced vomiting, laxative use, excessive exercise, or fasting. In addition to binging and using compensatory behaviors, there is likely a feeling of dislike of your body or wanting to change your body. You may also feel that your worth and value comes from the number on the scale.

During the first appointment for bulimia therapy, our eating disorder psychologists will do an assessment of symptoms and talk about your goals. Some people have been struggling with bulimia for years, while others symptoms are more recent. Wherever you are in your journey, know that therapy can help. In working with many clients who felt hopeless or stuck in a binge purge cycle, we have seen the impact therapy can have. Things can be different than they are today. We also collaborate with dietitians and physicians as appropriate because some people benefit from a team approach. You can schedule an appointment for bulimia therapy below.

Anorexia Therapy

Anorexia involves restriction of energy intake that causes a low body weight. There is also typically a large fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. Additionally, with this eating disorder people tend to heavily evaluate themselves based on their body shape or weight. Some people who struggle with anorexia may also binge eat or purge.

At Best Within You Therapy & Wellness we provide therapy for all eating disorders, including anorexia. We collaborate with dietitians and physicians as appropriate so that you can get the best level of care. Anorexia is more than just about the food. Your eating disorder therapist will explore what is causing and maintaining this eating disorder. We will help you to make peace with food, feel less rigid around your eating, and improve your body image.