Eating Disorder Therapy
in Baltimore
Have You Developed A Love/Hate Relationship With Food?
Has your relationship with food been wrecked by body image issues or society’s implicit demand for perfection? Do you struggle with:
Binging, purging, extreme food restrictions, or unhealthy changes in eating habits?
Unwanted weight loss/gain, headaches, dizziness, weakness, or constant fatigue?
Insomnia, irritability, hormonal irregularities, or other disruptions to daily life?
For instance, you may spend so much energy ruminating on food throughout the day and resisting urges that you can’t focus at work, tend to basic responsibilities, or even enjoy being out with friends.
Or...maybe you lose control around food and overdo it, only to feel guilty, depressed, and ashamed afterward, which eats away at an already fragile sense of self-worth.
Living With An Eating Disorder Can Be Exhausting
If you’re considering eating disorder therapy, you’ve likely found yourself routinely skipping meals and restricting foods. You may be trying to achieve a specific look to match a certain persona or role, so you compensate by exercising excessively, eating only healthy foods, and tracking every calorie.
It may even be that body dysphoria is distorting how you see yourself, so you go through your day consumed with how others perceive you. To prevent friends and family from discovering your struggles, you probably bow out of engagements, avoid eating around other people, or just keep to yourself entirely.
Our therapists at BrykMinds understand just how small the world can get when you’re living with an eating disorder, but you absolutely can have a healthier relationship with food. Working together, you can erase the guilt and shame, gain greater awareness and control over impulses, and fully realize the person you want to be.
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How Society Complicates Our Relationship With Nutrition
Western society places a huge emphasis on body (self-)consciousness with implicit messages that we’re “not good enough” seemingly coming from everywhere. We’re constantly led to believe that we need to look a certain way to be entitled to certain privileges—or just to be seen as “good” or responsible.
Some individuals, such as dancers, athletes, models, and business professionals, are forced to conform to industry expectations for the “right” body type. As a result, people will try anything and everything to match these standards even if it’s a detriment to their health.
Why Counseling For Disordered Eating Versus Just Being More Self-Disciplined?
For many people, life is just so overwhelming and chaotic that it feels like the only thing they can control is their body or diet, so they either restrict food to “look better” or turn to it to “feel better.”
Some people find themselves immersed in careers or systems where they have little agency in their appearance. Others simply don’t know what their body should look like, what foods are healthy/unhealthy, or how to cope effectively with everyday stressors—so eating disorder recovery is more than just a matter of will-power or self-discipline.
Change requires developing an awareness of your impulses and the emotions that arise in those moments. It requires understanding those feelings, developing tools for self-regulating, and, most importantly, learning how to love, respect, and accept yourself as you are—and that’s what eating disorder treatment is all about.
Eating Disorder Therapy Meets You With Respect And Compassion
Like most people seeking therapy for an eating disorder, you probably worry a lot about how others perceive you. Whether you’ve experienced the insults directly or it’s just a nagging, self-critical voice in your own head, it’s easy to fall for the false narrative that you’re lazy, undisciplined, or just not taking care of yourself.
What you are going through is real, which is why our therapists will always meet you with unconditional positive regard, acknowledging the intrinsic value and unique strengths you possess. Together, we’ll unpack the shame cycle, strengthen your sense of self-worth, and define the values that define you so you can start building a life that’s more in harmony with those ideals.
What Will We Do In Eating Disorder Treatment Sessions?
First, we’ll work on creating a relationship of safety and trust where you feel seen, heard, and validated. That’s especially important in therapy since so many of the struggles involved with eating disorders stem from relationship stress coming from other people. Once you feel comfortable, we’ll explore the various behaviors you lean into either to manage difficult emotions or exert control over your body, your identity, or your life in general.
You and your eating disorder counselor will work to better understand what activates you and triggers maladaptive behaviors that arise in the moment. At the same time, we’ll teach you breathwork exercises, grounding strategies, and other effective distress tolerance skills designed to enable you to ride the wave of emotion and, ultimately, make better choices that align with your values.
What Specific Tools Are Involved In Eating Disorder Counseling?
Our eating disorder therapists at BrykMinds take a humanistic approach to therapy that meets each person with compassion and respect. We also appreciate the various contexts and systems that contribute to our clients’ eating disorders, so we’re always looking at how to best empower people to navigate those dynamics as well.
Oftentimes, we utilize a blend of modalities to tailor eating disorder treatment to each individual:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on meeting thoughts and feelings from a non-judgmental stance, empowering us to behave more in alignment with our values over time.
Mindfulness brings a conscious awareness to what we’re thinking, feeling, and experiencing in our bodies, giving us greater agency over how we respond to those internal experiences.
Relational Cultural Therapy addresses the unique challenges individuals have in navigating their various identities—needing to look a certain way, defining self-worth by body image, or simply missing out on life because of the intense focus on appearance.
We’ll help you challenge any societal expectations or cultural messages that you may have internalized throughout your life about eating, food, and your body. You'll also learn about the mental and physical impact that different eating disorder behaviors have on you. We can even connect you with a nutritionist for additional support with eating disorder recovery through that lens.
With Our Support, You CAN Learn How To Control This
Although you may feel powerless at the moment, eating disorder treatment truly can give you more agency over the decisions you make and how you live your life.
Over time, you’ll finally be able to respond to your thoughts, feelings, and life experiences without resorting to ineffective behaviors that do not align with your values. As you develop new skills, gain greater self-awareness, and grow in your ability to tolerate distress, you’ll finally reclaim control of yourself and enjoy a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food.
Considering Eating Disorder Therapy But Still Have Questions/Concerns?
What if talking is so stressful it only makes things worse?
Stress is one of the biggest factors behind disordered eating, so understanding the emotions and psychological triggers responsible helps you in two huge ways.
With the awareness and tools you’ll gain, you’ll finally have the ability to control urges and make healthier choices in the short-term. Moreover, you’ll learn how to consciously build a more sustainable model of caring for yourself—one that includes the ability to manage and tolerate any of the stressors that come up in the long-term.
I worry I’ll be judged like I was by my last therapist.
This is a common worry that clients share with us about eating disorders. The truth is that these behaviors are indicative of coping mechanisms that you’ve developed and utilized on your own to survive as best you could—and we completely respect that. Our eating disorder counselors are here to honor your experiences, acknowledge your strength and resilience, and help you come to a place of healing and compassionate self-acceptance.
How do I know online therapy for my eating disorder will work?
From the start of therapy, we’ll tailor treatment to you and the specific challenges you’re running into, the goals you have, and the kind of person you ultimately want to be. We can talk about what successful therapy might look like to you and create ways to track progress so we can adjust treatment, mark off milestones, and celebrate victories together. Healing is seldom a linear journey, but in the end, the understanding, awareness, and strengths discovered can lead you to profound growth and change.
Your Love/Hate Relationship With Food Can End Here
Whether you struggle with binge eating, food addiction, or any other eating disorder, therapy truly can improve your relationship with food. To get started, set up your free, 15-minute consultation by calling 240-222-5293 or using the contact button below.
BrykMinds offers online Eating Disorder Therapy services in Baltimore, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Howard County, MD, Washington, DC, and throughout the state of Maryland.
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