Find An Eating Disorder Therapist in smith-falls, ON.

I can support you when dealing with emotional and disordered eating and help you with behavioural changes towards healthy eating patterns, including shifting from shame to empowerment, calming the nervous system, regulating emotions without turning to food, and assisting you in reestablishing physical cues for fullness and hunger and replacing the inner critic with self-compassion. Trauma-informed clinical tools will help you improve your relationship with food and your body.

Eating disorders benefit from the same or similar approach used for all addictive behaviours. One of the main therapeutic approaches I use is Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. The relationship to food can be quite complex involving societal or cultural pressures, self-image, past traumas, addictive non-nutritious junk food, media images, social media pressures, bullying. Shame and guilt need to be addressed along with peer pressures. The most common eating disorders are: Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating, Pica, Rumination Disorder, Avoidance/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Orthorexia, Purging Disorder etc. The benefits of therapy are enhanced self-image, health and well-being.

Dealing with an eating disorder is difficult, made all the more difficult if the people you love do not know how to support you through this time. Working with someone trained in treating eating disorders, you will feel understood in a way that you might not have thought possible. There is no reason why you should be going through this alone. Reach out to get the support that you need.

A sense of self is easily interrupted by stress, change, and trauma. Maybe you feel like you have never really known yourself and have always been focused on others. Or, maybe, you feel like you have lost a sense of self due to big changes in your life. This could all be tied in with how you feel about your body, especially if it has gone through a change as well. We can offer support for this, including help for: • Body image concerns • Low self-esteem or self-worth • Questioning self-purpose and plan • People pleasing, rescuing and fixing • Chronic guilt, regret and shame

Eating disorder can overshadow your life, stealing the joy and self-respect. I have worked with many who struggled with eating disorders and disordered eating and yes, it is possible to fight it and move beyond it. In the therapy with me you become aware of your strengths, your limitations and areas that need strengthening. You discover you are not alone and let the guilt and shame sweep away and become stronger. You learn how to create healthier boundaries, recognize triggers and become emotionally and mentally stronger.

I work with your negative body image, from the inside out. "The negative image is understood as a dissociated and shame-based “part” of the personality in need of understanding and compassion, achieved via mindful awareness, “parts” dialogue and trauma processing. Our first step will be to create a healthy separation between the "observing" or aware Self and the part(s) absorbed in the eating disorder via mindful awareness. Once this separation between the "whole" self and part of self is established, the Gestalt polarity tradition (empty chairs) is utilized to develop understanding of the shame-based part. This leads to developing more love and compassion for yourself. You are enough!