Coping with Food and Body Image

Clients with eating and body image concerns come to therapy after years of suffering in silence, and some after years of ineffective interventions.  Our Clinic Director has had success in this area in part from research and personal experience suffering, extensive reading on this subject and have an approach that is personal, direct, honest and integrative.  It is often different than what they are used to.

Shirley Katz, Ph.D., RP, our Clinic Director has written about her beliefs on this topic and supervises therapists who work in this area.  She believes that any compulsive behavior, defined as that which is repetitive, unhealthy, unwanted, mindless  - is avoidance of Self which is made up and informed by emotion.  Most have learned for some reason or another that there was no room for the emotions.  Trauma, childhood neglect or abuse, growing up with someone whose emotions were out of control - these are just some of the reasons people learn to sweep their feelings and opinions under the rug.  People learn overt and not-so-conscious ways of controlling themselves and interpersonal relationships only to find that painful patterns keep coming back and they are out of control of their harmful behaviors despite so much effort.

Without addressing underlying social learning about emotion, teaching new ways of coping with feelings, and changing the way people think about themselves and others, there can be no real healing from eating disorders.  Whether it is body hate, counting calories, denying the self nutrition - its all the same.  These obsessions take us away from healthy relationships with our Selves, with food, with out bodies and with others.  The therapists in our clinic work with this model, including Audette, Chantel and Carolina. 

Therapy for eating disorders tends to be a bit difficult and long term.  It takes more time to feel understood and to be understood when emotions and vulnerability are repressed.  Out therapists understand the difficulty for our eating disorders clients to feel vulnerable, to trust and allow their feelings to emerge.  They work patiently to build the therapeutic relationship and help clients feel respected, heard and understood so they can feel safe to explore and make valuable changes.  This sometimes goes along with the process of learning to trust one's self and effectively manage emotional experiences.

Audette is a Registered Social Worker therapist who is also a Registered Nurse with training and special interests in this area of work.  Chantel also has special interests and training in working with this issue.  She was a varsity athlete and understands how the role of competitive career areas interact with this issue. Carolina has experience in working with Eating Disorders including a past role as a hospital based Psychologist in Brasil.