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?
✓ Does food or eating get in the way of being fully present in your life?
✓ Do you wish you didn’t spend so much time thinking about food or your body?
✓ Are you struggling with an eating disorder?
✓ Do you want to improve your relationship with food or your body?
If ANY of the above apply to you
KNOW THAT YOU CAN:
✓ Feel better about your body
✓ Free yourself of so much time spent thinking about food or your body
✓ Overcome emotional eating, binge eating, or an eating disorder
✓ Make peace with food
✓ Meet with a psychologist or dietitian who has expertise in helping clients with their relationship with food
We live in a culture surrounded by food and food marketing. We also live in a society where hanging out with friends or family tends to involve food and drinks. The words, “let’s catch up over dinner” or “why don’t we grab lunch” May feel daunting. What will you eat? What if they don’t have anything you feel that you can eat? What if your friend or family member makes comments about the way you are eating or your body?
We also have to make food decisions every day throughout the day. With an eating disorder or disordered eating patterns, these decisions can feel so exhausting. The way disordered eating shows up can look different for person. For some, it feels like there is a need to always do mental math of calories. Some people feel a need to be aware of what foods feel safe to eat or be able to plan when they might be able to binge or purge. Many people beat themselves up over their food choices. Also, many people feel shame, guilt, or sadness tied to their eating or body. When you are struggling with an eating disorder, your body tends to never feel good enough. There is so much energy spent on trying to attain the ideal body.
Eating disorders and disordered eating are more common than you may think
According to the Binge Eating Disorder Association About 3.5% of women, 2% of men, and around 35% of people seeking weight loss treatment are able to be diagnosed with binge eating disorder. According to the Eating Recovery Center, Anorexia is the 3rd most common chronic illness among adolescents. According to the Eating Recovery Center, 13 percent of women over the age of 50 have eating disorder symptoms. ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) states that 9% of the United States population (28.8 million Americans) will have an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime.
While eating disorders are common, the good news is that with the help of a therapist that specializes in eating disorders recovery is fully possible. Rest assured you have found a practice with psychologists that specialize in eating disorder therapy and are available to help.
Eating disorder therapy is effective
We know it can feel difficult speaking with a therapist about an eating disorder or eating related concern. One of our compassionate therapists will meet you where you are at. We do not offer a one size fits all treatment approach to eating concerns. We will personalize and tailor therapy to what you are needing. We will provide you with an empathetic environment to work through your eating disorder or eating related concern. You will work with a psychologist to help heal your relationship with food and your body. Each psychologist at Best Within You Therapy & Wellness has a unique specialty in eating disorder treatment. So, you will be matched with a psychologist that is the best fit for you.
In therapy, know that it won’t just be about food. We also will talk about things like sleep, stress, friends, and family because we know you are more than your eating disorder. Additionally, we understand that the eating disorder or eating related concern is not just about the food. We will help figure out what is causing and what is maintaining the disordered eating. We will help you with tools and strategies to overcome your eating disorder. You do not have to continue suffering with your eating disorder, we have years of experience helping people overcome disordered eating.
Finding an eating disorder or disordered eating specialist
In looking for treatment for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating, or other eating or body image concerns it is important you work with someone who specializes in eating concerns. Eating disorders and eating concerns are unique, and need to be treated in a specific way. The psychologists at Best Within You Therapy & Wellness specialize in therapy for eating disorders. If you work with a psychologist at Best Within You, you are working with someone who has training and experience with treating eating disorders. Many times, we see clients who have previously been to other therapists without eating disorder experience and were never able to heal and recover. We also get referrals throughout the Atlanta area as well as the United States due to our expertise in eating concerns and eating disorder therapy.
Some of the training and experience the psychologists at this practice have that makes us unique include:
✓ being a part of eating concerns treatment teams
✓ contributing to eating disorder and body image research
✓ members of disordered eating consultation groups
✓ working with eating disorder specialists as supervisors during training
✓ years of experience working with patients with disordered eating
✓ presenting to organizations about emotional eating and body image
✓ being on boards of eating disorder organizations
✓ providing consultations and supervision to other therapists focused on eating related concerns
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, body image, or eating concern we know you may have a lot of questions. Here are some of our answers to questions that we have been asked about eating disorder treatment.
I have been struggling with my eating for so long how do I know this will help?
We have helped many people who had been struggling with their eating for years who also felt there was not much hope to make a change. There are many research studies that also show that therapy can be incredibly helpful for an eating disorder. According to the National Institute Of Mental Health, psychotherapy can treat many eating disorders effectively. In addition to having psychologists that are experts in eating concerns, we have a dietitian nutritionist on our team that we are able to collaborate with.
What if I know I need help, but I have heard therapy is expensive?
Therapy is an investment in yourself. We recognize it does have a cost in terms of both time and money. However, we know how beneficial therapy can be in improving your quality of life. You are welcome to look at our FAQ page for rates and insurance reimbursement information. Many of our clients get reimbursement through out of network benefits with their insurance companies.
I do not have an eating disorder but have a bad relationship with food, is therapy at your practice a fit?
Absolutely! We work with many clients who are chronic dieters, yo-yo dieters, or just want to have a better relationship with food or their body. If you want to feel better about your body, change the way you are eating, or make behavior changes related to food or exercise then this is a great fit for our practice.
I see your practice is in Atlanta, GA but I don’t live in Atlanta, can I work with you?
Our psychologists are licensed through Psycpact. This is an interstate compact that allows us to see clients in any state that has Psycpact legislation. Currently there are about 30 states we can see clients in and that list is growing week by week. Here is a Psycpact link to find if you are in a state we can practice in. Through Psycpact licensure and video sessions we feel grateful to be able to provide access to eating disorder specialists in areas where there may not be eating disorder therapy available. If you live in a Psycpact state you can meet with an Atlanta eating disorder therapist.
You can have a better relationship with food
You do not have to live with an eating disorder or feeling unhappy about the way you are eating. Complete the therapy appointment form to schedule an appointment or complimentary 15-minute phone consultation. You can see below for some types of eating disorders and eating and body image related concerns we treat at Best Within You Therapy & Wellness. We also have a registered dietitian nutritionist on our team who is available for additional support as needed.
Body Image Therapy
Not loving your body is normal. We live in a culture where we are told to change almost every part of our body. There is almost no part of our body that companies don’t profit off of us wanting to change. Our hair is grey, so we should die it. You can see wrinkles, so we should use a cream. We don’t have a flat stomach, so we should go on a diet. Our teeth are getting yellow, so we should whiten them. It is incredibly difficult to feel positive about your body all the time and to fully love your body. However, it is very possible to accept 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.
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. 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.
Treatment For Stress Eating & Emotional Eating
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. It can be very upsetting to feel out of control with food or that you are doing something that you want to stop but it feels 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 turn to food to cope.
✓Do you sometimes feel out of control with food or like it is hard to stop eating?
✓Do you have times where you will eat a large amount of food during a short amount of time?
✓Does it feel like there is pressure building up and then a release when you decide to binge eat?
If so, you are at the right place. We provide therapy for binge eating and binge eating disorder. If you are reading this and recently began binge eating or have been binging for years, know that counseling can help. We understand that this type of eating is very distressing and are experts in helping people overcome binge eating.
Treatment For Binge Eating
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. Therapy for binge eating is available for clients in Brookhaven, Sandy Springs, Decatur, Atlanta, and throughout Georgia. Therapy is also available to people in 20+ additional states throughout the US.
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.