We offer therapy services for people with eating disorders.

Eating disorders can fall into many categories. It can include more defined conditions such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder or orthorexia. However, eating disorders can include many habits, behaviors or a complicated relationship to food. Anorexia means restricting food, bulimia means eating beyond fullness and then purging food, binge eating disorder typically involves intaking many calories in a short period of time, in a way that feels out of control, and orthorexia is a condition with an extreme fixation on healthy food. Some people will find themselves engaging in all of these behaviors. Some people will have food rules that are rigid. Some will be in a cycle of weight loss and weight gain. What you struggle with may not fit into one particular category. Maybe what you eat and what you way determines your self-esteem and self-worth at any given moment of the day.

We tend to think of our eating disorder as a way that you were trying to solve a problem in your life through your body. Since we work psychoanalytically, we have the orientation towards the theory that what cannot be said has to be expressed in another form outside of words. This is where the eating disorder can develop, as the body can act out what the mind cannot say.

We will explore these themes together in the therapeutic work. We will try to discover the sources of your eating disorder. What environmental conditions allowed your eating disorder to develop? What was happening in your life then that could not be expressed otherwise? What feelings could you not have, either in the presence of others or even just to yourself?

We think of eating disorders in many layered ways, from family of origin issues, society issues and one’s own personality. A unifying theme that we find in eating disorders is that there is a complex relationship with one’s desire. One struggles to connect to their desire in interpersonal relationships. Eating disorders are often a way to manage disappointment and loneliness, a way for people to try and not to have desires that can be met by others. They are a way to try and only rely on the self. This can be tremendously isolating and unsatisfying. Healing is possible through therapy. You can schedule your consultation here and let us know what you are struggling with. We can help.