Find An Eating Disorder Therapist in West Point Grey, BC.

As an experienced therapist in the area of eating disorders, I have found that often the greatest healing occurs through re-connectiong with the body, developing a trusting and loving relationship with it, and discovering its wisdom. When one begins to trust that that far from being one's enemy, the body is one's constant friend and guide, one's whole experience of self can be transformed. One lives from one's own core rather than focusing on food, body image, and others' evaluations, and therefore one becomes more confident and life becomes richer and freer.

Eating disorders are complicated and complex. Having lived with an experience of a distorted body image, I have an understanding of some of the challenges of an eating disorder. To get the outcome clients want, I utilize the approaches of EMDR, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Neurofeedback (NFB). EMDR takes the charge out of rooted disturbances, allowing an individual to overcome challenging behaviours without needing to reason. With CBT, I am able to offer support while challenging distorted thoughts and dysfunctional behaviours. NFB trains the brain to self regulate, allowing optimal performance, effecting the thoughts, emotions and actions that keep an eating disorder alive.

I use the Internal Family Systems approach to eating disorders, which views disordered eating as the result of inner conflict among different "parts" of the self. Often, a "Critic" part drives restrictive behaviors, while "Exiled" parts carry painful emotions or past trauma that the eating disorder tries to suppress. I'll help you identify and understand these parts, fostering compassion and healing. The goal is to unburden the parts, heal the underlying trauma, and restore balance so that you can develop healthier coping strategies and a more loving relationship with food and body.

In helping the clients who struggle with Eating disorder, I benefit from concepts and tasks from internal Family Systems approach . I assist clients explore the different parts of themselves, including those parts that may be driving disordered eating behaviors (e.g., a part that uses food to soothe emotional pain). Through IFS, clients learn to identify and understand these parts, rather than being controlled by them. In addition , Clients with eating disorders often experience internal conflicts, such as feeling simultaneously driven to restrict food and to binge. Clients encouraged to access these conflicting parts, engage with them compassionately.

When it comes to working with clients who are experiencing disordered eating, the first thing to understand is that rarely is it about food itself, and it can affect anyone from all genders, ages, classes, and abilities. I personally understand the amount of stress and anxiety that can arise around eating and body image and want to work with you to pinpoint what is triggering for you about eating. My goal is to help you create and maintain a healthy relationship with food, not a fearful one. By using open, supportive, and non-judgemental dialogue, we can break down the shame and stigma of eating disorders together.

Eating Disorders can impact someone as negatively as any type of serious addiction. However, unlike addiction treatment plans, food must continue to play a role in your life. My basic goal is to stop further development of any eating problem you may have, and assist you in returning to a healthy lifestyle. The most successful focus is on harm reduction as an overall principle in addressing eating disorders, with the end goal of moving towards complete recovery. I also typically want to establish effective coping skills to reduce the possibility of relapse and sustain the progress you make in therapy.

Struggling with an eating disorder can feel exhausting. You don't need to do it alone Support can make a real difference. I offer a warm, confidential space where we can gently explore your relationship with food and what might be driving it. Together, we'll look at the emotional patterns, past experiences and coping straggles that may be keeping you stuck. As eating disorders are often rooted in emotional challenges, my approach is grounded in attachment and emotion-focused therapies. This helps us get to the root of urges to eat, builds a more supportive, connected relationship with yourself and moves you towards a more balance and peace with food.

I am able to help clients dealing with anexoria, bulimia or binge eating. By helping clients look at how and why they use food for control, reward, stress management or to deal with other emotions they can begin to change their maladative relationship with food. With some in office techniques and some out of office homework clients can have radical change in their lives. Enjoying food is one of life pleasures.

Our approach to helping clients who are dealing with an eating disorder and require treatment and counselling is to work both with the family and with the individual dealing with this stressor. We work collaboratively with the client and use Dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) and Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help manage the eating disorder. We come from a strength-based and collaborative approach.

Eating Disorders develop as a way of navigating deep unresolved emotional pain and trauma. All our emotions and trauma are stored in our bodies. Working with eating disorders involves not only navigating the behavioural symptoms of disordered eating but more importantly developing a compassionate relationship to the body by connecting in, to where the emotional pain is stored. Together, with compassion and understanding we work on lifting the shame connected to body image and the external ways that has been created, then facing the deeper internal emotional issues at the root. It is possible to fully heal from disordered eating.