My Approach to Helping
Live in peace with food and with your body! Eating problems and body image issues encompass both normal and complex struggles. You need a balanced and kind approach to assist you in healing your relationship to food and your body. My style of therapy provides empathy along with challenge to practice new skills of attuned eating, self-compassion, and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors on your way to wellness. You will learn to let go of the obsessive thinking about food, weight, and negative body image. I want to help you live with ease, and to develop a calm and relaxed relationship to food. I work with teens and adults suffering with serious restrictive eating disorders..anorexia and bulimia, taking the same approach. I specialize in journal therapy and expressive writing. In addition, I work with all women's issues from a feminist perspective. My goals are to empower women, improve self-confidentce and self-esteem, strengthen families and deepen connections for all those who may be struggling with day to day concerns, or major upheaval or crisis.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
I have had extensive experience, over 24 years, of working with individuals struggling with eating disorders and body image issues. I understand the complex factors involved in the development and treatment of these problems, which are first and foremost, brain-based biological, anxiety-driven disorders. Cultural, individual and familial dynamics are also addressed. I can help you understand each of these elements and how the interplay and manifestation of symptoms is as unique as each individual client. I work with a team approach in these cases to include RD, DO and MD's as needed. I am a certified instructor for the Journal to the Self class, and am a specialist in extensive journal therapy techniques.
Important Factors for Choosing a Therapist
All human beings are hardwired with a need to belong, to feel seen and valued. When choosing a therapist it is imperative for you to have a felt sense of all three things. While it takes some time to build a truly trusting relationship, you can trust your inner guidance about whether you feel as if I "get" you, whether you feel increasingly understood. Without that kind of resonance and trust, the therapy is not likely to progress toward productive and lasting change.
The second most important factor is finding a therapist who is equally invested in challenge and growth. If you only experience the empathy piece, without the challenge to look at parts of yourself, your life, and your deeper thoughts and feelings, then therapy can be like meeting with a friend who only validates everything you say. I believe therapy is ultimately about growth, change, and often this means getting outside your comfort zone to achieve this. My ability to both empathize and then lovingly challenge you are both crucial facts in effective counseling and psychotherapy.
