THERAPY
BODY IMAGE & EATING DISORDERS
The Moving Target
For many people, the relationship with their body can become all-consuming.
Someone may appear comfortable in themselves while living with relentless self-scrutiny around their body or the way they eat.
Constant body awareness can begin taking up an exhausting amount of emotional and mental space.
It can become nearly impossible to just be in your body without also evaluating or managing it.
THE DAILY REALITY
thinking about food, appearance, or how they are perceived by others far more than they want to
feeling emotionally worn down by the effort it takes to stay in control
becoming harshly self-critical around eating, body changes, or feeling out of control
comparing themselves to other people despite knowing how painful it is
feeling unsure what hunger, fullness, or physical needs feel like anymore
feeling unable to fully relax around food or in their body
using control around food or the body to create a sense of stability or relief from distress
feeling like reassurance or validation never really changes how they feel about themselves
The Body as Proof
For many people, how they feel about their body becomes inseparable from how they feel about themselves.
Some people learned very early that being wanted meant being easy, useful, or low-maintenance. The pressure to keep meeting those expectations can turn into chronic self-surveillance, with the body becoming evidence of worth or belonging.
Someone may become highly skilled at monitoring themselves while growing increasingly disconnected from their own needs, feelings, and instincts. What other people interpret as discipline may internally feel unforgiving, emotionally costly, and hard to escape.
It Didn't Start Here
Therapy focuses not only on symptoms, but on understanding the emotional logic underneath them.
The goal is not simply to stop behaviors, but to make sense of what they have been protecting or helping someone survive. Many people learned to relate to themselves through monitoring, correction, and control long before they had language for what was happening. After years of living this way, these patterns can become so deeply ingrained that insight alone stops feeling sufficient.
This work involves helping someone reconnect with parts of themselves that are buried under shame and vigilance. My approach is attachment-focused and trauma-informed, recognizing how this can become woven into someone’s relationship with themselves and their body.
I use EMDR, parts work/IFS, and neuroscience-informed therapy to help these ways of being feel less overpowering, punishing, and identity-defining.
Therapy becomes a place to practice responding to yourself in ways that allow more of who you are to come forward.
WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE
Beyond the Proof
Your body no longer has to carry the burden of proving your worth.
As that pressure begins to ease, there is more room for the parts of you that have been crowded out by the relentless pursuit of being enough.
And the story your body tells about you stops being the final word.