Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa
5
NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED TREATMENT FACILITIES
WORKED FOR
2500+
HOURS OF FORMAL
EATING DISORDER TRAINING
300+
CLIENTS & FAMILIES WORKED WITH
12+
YEARS OF EATING DISORDER EXPERIENCE
CEDS
CERTIFIED EATING DISORDER SPECIALIST THROUGH IAEDP
If I could send you one message:
I see you.
You excel academically.
You’re the star employee. President of the non-profit.
You’re the swimmer, softball player, the dancer.
You try so hard to pull it all together —
so why does it never feel like it’s enough?
You don’t know quite when it happened, but it just took over.
The mental math that never ends — calories, steps, macros, rules.
Trying on the fifth outfit and still hating your reflection.
The fake smile, the mask of perfection — the “I’m fine” when really, nothing feels fine.
On the outside, you have it all together.
On the inside, you feel lonely — like an outsider.
You constantly compare yourself to others.
You morph into what everyone else wants you to be.
You avoid conflicts or hurting someone’s feelings —
because you know what that feels like.
Letting go of control can feel terrifying —
even when you know it’s costing you so much.
But with one small step, things can begin to shift.
Life can become less about food and body checks, and more about connection, laughter, and presence — until one day you notice your spark is back.
Hope is right around the corner beautiful girl!
Dr. Kait.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist.
Certified Eating Disorder Specialist.
What is Anorexia?
Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder that goes far beyond food or weight. It often develops as a way to cope with overwhelming emotions, trauma, identity struggles, or a desire for control in a world that feels unpredictable. While anorexia may begin with intentional restriction, it often evolves into a rigid, isolating set of rules that make life feel smaller, lonelier, and more dangerous over time.
Anorexia can affect people of any gender, body size, age, or background. You do not need to be underweight to be struggling, and you absolutely do not need to "get sicker" to deserve help.
Signs You Might Be Struggling with Anorexia
Obsessive thoughts about food, calories, or body image
Intense fear of gaining weight or being seen as "lazy"
Rituals around food (cutting things small, eating slowly, hiding food)
Feeling powerful or in control through restriction
Withdrawal from social events involving food
Denial of hunger, even when clearly undernourished
Frequent self-criticism, shame, or perfectionism
Binge eating and/or purging after meals (Anorexia, binge/purge subtype)
You may also experience fatigue, mood swings, hair loss, dizziness, or difficulty concentrating. These are not character flaws. They are signs that your body is struggling to survive.
What Causes Anorexia?
Anorexia nervosa develops through a complex interaction of:
Genetic vulnerability — Anorexia is 50 - 60% heritable and among the top heritable psychiatric disorders
Personality traits such as perfectionism, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, and harm-avoidance
Low Self-Esteem
Difficulty regulating emotions
Rigid thinking
Strong need for control
Participation in activities that emphasize body size/shape (gymnastics, swimming, ice skating, dancing, theater).
Family and relationship experiences and cultural influences, and life stressors.
How I Treat Anorexia
Building Motivation to Heal
Anorexia is “ego-syntonic,” meaning in-sync with our identity or values. Part of you may not want to deal with the conseequences of Anorexia, while another part just isn’t ready to let it go. This is where building motivation becomes essential to moving forward in the recovery process.
Foundations of Nourishment
Learning to nourish our bodies goes far beyond knowing what foods to eat. In recovery, we understand the costs behind starvation, how to honor our hunger/fullness cues, the benefits of all macro and micronutrients, diet myths, and how to fuel out bodies.
Understanding How You Got Here
Therapy involves uncovering your history — your story — to determine, why did Anorexia become the solution? We look to your genetics, temperament, childhood experiences, family and cultural dynamics, and life stressors to help understand what shaped the way you think, feel, and behave. These patterns help us uncover what drives your eating disorder.
Addressing Your Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior
Among other daily triggers, most clients with anorexia face high levels of anxiety and guilt, a strong inner critic, the need for control, and drive to be perfect. Identifying your thought process, the feelings that follow, and how it impacts your behavior allows us to restructure unhelpful thinking and safely feel emotions that have been avoided.
Healing Your Relationship with Your Body
& Finding Your Authentic Self
When anxiety and perfectionism need an outlet, viewing our bodies as a problem to be fixed becomes an easy answer. Learning to reconnect to our bodies and embrace their true purpose — to allow us to fully experience life — is key to recovery. When we lack an understanding of who we really are, our identities center around what we can achieve or how we look. Finding your authentic self — who you were always meant to be — is essential to the healing process.
Evidence-Based Treatment
My work is primarily informed by Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-E), the leading evidence-based treatment for eating disorders. Depending on your needs, I also integrate strategies from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Family Based Treatment (FBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Focal Psychodynamic Therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions About Binge Eating
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How do I know if I have binge eating disorder?
Many people occasionally overeat, especially during holidays or celebrations. Binge eating disorder is different.
Signs may include:
Eating much more than most people would in a similar amount of time
Feeling unable to stop eating or control what or how much you eat
Eating very quickly
Eating until uncomfortably full
Eating when you're not physically hungry
Eating alone because of embarrassment
Feeling guilt, shame, or disgust after eating
Repeated binge episodes that cause significant distress
A licensed eating disorder specialist can provide a comprehensive assessment.
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There is rarely one single cause.
BED often develops through a combination of:
Chronic dieting or food restriction
Genetics
Trauma
Difficult life experiences
Anxiety or depression
Perfectionism
Emotional avoidance
Low self-worth
Difficulty regulating emotions
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No.
Emotional eating is common and usually involves eating in response to stress, boredom, sadness, or celebration.
Binge eating disorder involves repeated episodes of eating accompanied by a significant loss of control and emotional distress. While emotions often contribute, BED is a diagnosable mental health condition.
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The Cycle of Binge Eating
Many people who binge are also restricting in some way — physically or emotionally.
That might mean skipping meals, not eating until satisfied, labeling foods as “bad,” or living under the constant threat of another diet.The cycle often looks like this:
Restriction (physical or mental)
Binge (feeling a loss of control)
Shame (followed by renewed restriction)
Therapy helps you break that cycle—not by forcing you to stop bingeing, but by understanding why that part of you feels the need to binge in the first place.
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Is binge eating disorder caused by a lack of self-control?
No.
Research consistently shows that binge eating disorder is a complex psychiatric illness, not a character flaw or failure of willpower.
In many cases, binge eating is the brain's response to prolonged restriction, emotional distress, chronic stress, or unmet psychological needs.
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Absolutely. Binge eating disorder has nothing to do with body size. It can occur in people who are underweight, average weight, or in larger bodies.
Body size alone cannot diagnose or rule out an eating disorder.
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Both disorders involve binge eating episodes.
The primary difference is what happens afterward.
People with bulimia nervosa regularly attempt to compensate for binge eating through behaviors like:
Self-induced vomiting
Laxative misuse
Excessive exercise
Fasting
People with binge eating disorder generally do not engage in regular compensatory behaviors.
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No.
While binge eating and share some similarities, current evidence does not support classifying binge eating disorder as a food addiction.Most eating disorder specialists understand binge eating as a condition involving biological, psychological, emotional, and behavioral factors rather than addiction alone.
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Medical Complications of Binge Eating
While often overlooked, binge eating can have significant physical effects, even without compensatory behaviors like purging:
Weight cycling (yo-yo dieting) → increased inflammation, insulin resistance, and metabolic stress
Cardiovascular strain → elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, and higher risk of heart disease
Type 2 diabetes risk → due to insulin spikes and insulin resistance over time
GI issues → bloating, reflux, constipation, or discomfort from frequent large-volume meals
Joint and mobility concerns → due to increased physical strain in some cases
Fatigue and sleep disturbances → often tied to blood sugar fluctuations and emotional distress
Just like the emotional burden, these effects are not about weight— they’re about the toll of dysregulation and chronic stress on the body. Addressing binge eating from a compassionate, root-cause lens is not only psychologically healing—it’s physiologically protective.
Helpful Blog Posts for Binge Eating
