Find An Eating Disorder Therapist in Oak Ridges, ON.

While I do not offer support for eating disorders, at Psychotherapy Collective, we have other therapists who are well positioned to support you. Eating disorders are not really about food. They involve complex emotional issues that have significant impact on ones physical, emotional and social health. If you are preoccupied with your weight, focused on body image, size, or shape, compelled to perform specific rituals around food, obsessive about food, or deem foods as “safe” or “unsafe” to eat you may be engaging in disordered eating. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with a member of our team today https://www.psychotherapycollective.ca/our-team

Our team's approach to working with eating disorders is to address the underlying issues that often perpetuate disordered eating: anxiety, perfectionism and a need for control. In helping clients build confidence and explore alternative ways of managing the underlying issues, clients are able to move towards a life that is no longer controlled by food and body image.

While counselling clients with eating disorders, it is often discovered that the cause is from childhood and relationship challenges. While I suggest you have a doctor and nutritionist on your team, sessions with me can include a safe place for you to share thoughts and feelings and explore coping strategies. Topics such as body image, self-esteem, anxiety and anger, and depression can be explored in sessions to help you understand yourself and your eating disorder in your unique circumstances.

Clients who seek eating disorder counseling and treatment can benefit in a variety of ways. Firstly, counseling can help clients to understand the underlying causes of their eating disorder, such as past trauma or negative self-talk. By addressing these underlying issues, clients can begin to develop healthier coping mechanisms and strategies for managing their symptoms. In addition, counseling can help clients to develop a healthier relationship with food and their body image. Clients can learn to identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs that may be contributing to their eating disorder, and they can develop more positive and self-affirming self-talk.

Eating disorders are a complex mental health problem with many contributing factors. My approach focuses on understanding the context of the eating disorder development with each individual client, learning about triggers for related behaviours, and exploring and healing underlying issues. Clients will learn to cope without the eating disorder and will be able to minimize or eliminate unhealthy behaviours. In addition, clients will rediscover who they are away from the eating problem. Many clients have described feeling free or like they have "been lifted out of the fog" as they recover and are able to enjoy their life without the eating disorder thoughts and behaviours interfering.

My work with eating disorders is based on non-dieting, non-restricting, client-centered and Feminist philosophy. I believe eating disorders are influenced by many factors, including our ability to establish meaningful relationships with ourselves and others. Food restriction, dieting and/or over exercising is not a way to solve any problems, including problems with food and/or weight. Re-establishing relationship with ourselves and establishing meaningful connections with others is.

Eating disorders can deeply affect emotional, physical, and social well-being, and recovery often requires both compassion and specialized care. In our work together, I provide a safe, non-judgmental space to explore the underlying emotional, relational, and cognitive patterns that contribute to disordered eating. My approach integrates evidence-based therapies such as CBT, EFT, and trauma-informed care, focusing on building a healthier relationship with food, body, and self. Together, we address negative self-image, develop effective coping strategies, and foster self-compassion. The goal is to support lasting change by restoring balance, strengthening self-worth, and helping you reconnect

Body image & eating disorders usually develop alongside powerful emotions such as shame, self-criticism, and a sense of disconnection from one’s body. In this work, I draw on CBT, ACT, DBT, IFS and other modalities to help people develop a more compassionate and sustainable relationship with themselves. In addition to food behaviours, we explore emotional patterns, internal pressures, and life experiences that may be contributing factors. Clients benefit from learning how to relate differently to difficult thoughts and feelings while reconnecting with personal values, self-respect, and a sense of balance.

I focus supporting those working with disordered eating which includes restrictive and compulsive eating and irregular or inflexible eating patterns. Eating disorders are an extreme form of disordered eating and are diagnosed. As a psychotherapist, I am unable to provide a diagnosis; however, I do use a team-based approach. We work together to build a care team that you trust and that will support you on this journey. If this leads to an assessment and diagnosis for an eating disorder that may become part of the journey. My approach includes walking alongside you as you learn skills, building safety, self-compassion, and trust, and connect to the value of a support system.

Clients come to see me for psychotherapy in my practice in downtown Toronto. I work with women and men who are experiencing difficulties with eating-related disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and over-eating. Sometimes there are associated conflicts within the family, as well as interpersonal problems including depression, anxiety-related problems, and difficulties coping with early traumas.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder we want to focus on what has brought you to your current eating and nutritional patterns and behaviours. I want to initially focus less about the foods you eat and the current behaviours surrounding your food intake, and more about what you are wanting to accomplish in doing so. Do you feel a need to control your environment? Do you feel anxious or out of control in other areas of your life? Are you wanting to push away or ignore some other important concerns? Let's explore. My primary focus is to help you feel good about yourself and your environment, and empower you to continue to create the changes within yourself that you want to make.

Eating disorders are connected to the value that society puts on appearance. In North American and European cultures, the ideal is to be thin. Being overweight is obvious to the world and viewed by society as a shameful condition. This is a demoralizing position to be in. Eating disorders are predominantly an issue for women, who naturally go through changes in their weight. But this is also an issue for men, who can hurt just as deeply if they feel unworthy of love by virtue of their appearance. My approach is to help people feel good from the inside out. I recognize that weight issues can be the source of shame, bullying and marginalization. These are often the areas we work on in therapy.

While most eating disorder issues are treated by cognitive behavioral methodologies or specialized outpatient/inpatient programs, Grey Matters International and the work of Kevin J. Fleming, PhD provide relief first and foremost for the brain of one suffering from an eating disorder----without giving them medication. We believe that the neural circuitries responsible for the compulsive behaviors with eating are not necessarily only a neurotransmitter issue but of overused neural networks that affect the harmonization, balance, and decisions of the whole brain. Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161 to learn more about this safe and effective alternative.