Eating Disorders

I take an anti-diet, intuitive eating approach that allows you time and space to find balance and self acceptance.

I have experience working with people with eating disorders in the outpatient and residential levels of care.

I have over 10 years experience working with eating disorders and am a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist where I must be active in continuing education as the field grows and we learn more about the body and eating disorders. I work in a treatment team approach and often refer to trained dietitians and medical professionals to more fully support someone struggling with an eating disorder. I also provide support therapy via family therapy or parent sessions to support a loved on in recovery.

Struggles with food and body are much more complex than thoughts of vanity. Many of my clients discuss feeling pressure to conform, being overwhelmed with stress, negative self-talk, confusion about what health looks like, and feeling out of control around food. We will address your concerns at the root and help you discover self-acceptance and food freedom.

For the past seven years, I have worked with clients struggling with eating disorders at the partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient level. After working as a milieu therapist, primary therapist, and group therapy facilitator at an eating disorder treatment center, I began working as an outpatient therapist in private practice specifically focusing on members of the LGBTQ+ community who struggle with body image and eating disorder behaviors.

For the past seven years, I have worked with clients struggling with eating disorders at the partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient level. After working as a milieu therapist, primary therapist, and group therapy facilitator at an eating disorder treatment center, I began working as an outpatient therapist in private practice specifically focusing on members of the LGBTQ+ community who struggle with body image and eating

Let’s face it: in our diet culture, being preoccupied with food and your body is the norm. Plus, behaviors that result from these obsessions, like dieting and exercise, are often praised—especially here in California. If you find yourself constantly yo-yo dieting, obsessing about food, or feeling bad about yourself because of your weight or shape, we’ll work together to help you break free from the obsessive thoughts, unhealthy behaviors, and deep fears that are keeping you stuck.

Eating disorders are often misunderstood and can be difficult to recognize, especially for those unfamiliar with them. Through my professional experience, I have worked with individuals facing a wide range of disordered eating challenges, including extreme restriction, binge eating, and ARFID. In supporting clients with these symptoms, we work together to uncover the root causes of these negative behaviors and develop practical skills and coping strategies.

An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's physical or mental health. Common types include binge eating disorder, where a person eats a large amount in a short period of time; anorexia nervosa, where the person has an intense fear of gaining weight and restricts food or overexercises to manage this fear; bulimia nervosa, where individuals eat a large quantity (binging) then try to rid themselves of the food (purging).

I treat all eating disorders through a Health at Every size lens. This includes anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, avoidant and restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), orthorexia, and other feeding and eating disorders. I also work with weight and body image issues for cis and trans individuals.

I provide therapy for adolescents and young adults across the full spectrum of disordered eating, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and picky eating. My expertise is in individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), family-based treatment (FBT), and parent coaching. My therapeutic style is informed by dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and includes skill building for emotion regulation and distress tolerance.

I have been working with eating disorders for almost 4 years. I utilize various modalities when treating eating disorders, such as Internal Family Systems, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I look through the lens of Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating when treating eating disorders.

I make use of my training in intuitive eating and eating disorders to work with clients with disordered eating patterns and body image issues. Destigmatizing and deshaming the experience surrounding eating disorders and making more space for their individual experience is something I aim to do in my work.

Disordered eating has a way of sneaking up on you, even years after you thought you'd conquered it. Maintaining recovery from an eating disorder is tough when life throws us challenges. You might be noticing restricting behaviors popping up when you're under a lot of stress. Maybe you still can't miss a day working out without extreme guilt and anxiety. Finding yourself bingeing again after a frustrating phone call with your mom? I get it. Together, we can take your recovery to the next level.

Over the past year I've worked with multiple clients struggling with anorexia. Together we've been able to find a balance between addressing symptoms such as calorie restriction, body-checking, and strict rules around food consumption, as well as understanding the purpose these behaviors serve in terms of control, distraction, and self-soothing.

Getting help for an eating disorder or disordered eating can feel daunting. I believe that eating disorders are developed as a coping skill to help people get through difficult times in their lives. While they're effective, they're often harmful, and treatment sometimes looks like replacing them with more adaptive techniques and skills. I will work to go at a pace you're comfortable with, and we can slowly work to find stability with food, your body, and your sense of self.

At The Couch Therapy, we are a therapy practice that offers health at every size (HAES) therapy for eating disorders or disordered eating. We believe in a gentle approach to helping those struggling with disordered eating. When working with a HAES aligned therapist, you can expect to sit in a safe space to process the timeline of your relationship with food, process significant moments in life that influenced your beliefs, and remind you to release the petri dish of shame you’ve been holding.

For almost three years I worked at an eating disorder treatment center, working with clients with binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, atypical anorexia, bulimia nervosa, OSFED, and ARFID. I am well versed in strategies to decrease patterns of emotional avoidance related to eating disorders, providing meal support, and exploring how other diagnoses impact one’s ED and vice versa.

Once you made the choice to begin living your life again and not use your eating or lack thereof to deal with your given problems, I can show you how to do that. I can also show you how to reconnect with the different parts of you to create a more harmonious balance between what happens in life and your reactions to it. I can help you connect to your body in a way that helps you feel more centered and grounded and less chaotic and anxious. You will get your life back