Eating Disorders

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In today’s society, we’re surrounded by messaging that focuses on physical appearance and rewards certain types of appearances over others.

This makes it hard to accept our body and can impact the way we feel about ourselves.

Our beliefs around body image are important as it impacts our mental and physical health. While the media portrays a certain body type, this doesn’t cause an eating disorder.

How we think about those messages and apply them to our lives is what affects our self-esteem and self-worth.

What Is Disordered Eating?

Disordered Eating refers to thoughts and feelings about food that affect one’s eating behaviours and alter consumption of food in a way that negatively affects someone’s physical and psychosocial functioning.

This complicated illness can affect a person’s sense of identity, worth and self-esteem. No one develops an eating disorder simply to lose weight; there are often other driving forces behind the condition. Restricting ones eating is often a way to cope with difficult problems or regain a sense of control. Disordered eating is also often associated with other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

Eating disorders can affect anyone, but those experiencing low self-esteem or poor body image, perfectionism or difficulties dealing with stress may be more likely to experience it.

There Are 3 Main Types of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa

Restricting the amount of food eaten
Overexercising
Think about their weight often
Use weight as a measure of self-worth
Denying or ignoring your hunger
Distorted body image – feeling overweight regardless of their actual weight
Intense and irrational fear of gaining weight

Bulimia Nervosa

Periods of uncontrollable binge-eating
Lack of control overeating
Compensatory behaviours to prevent weight gain (vomiting, misuse of laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise)
Distorted body image – May feel overweight regardless of their actual weight
Think about their body weight often and use it to measure their self-worth

Binge Eating Disorder

Periods of over-eating
Feeling that they cannot control what or how much they eat
Eating much faster than normal
Feelings of embarrassment, guilt, or disgust with oneself with regards to eating patterns
May fast or diet after periods of binge-eating

What to Expect

There are many complex emotions surrounding eating disorders and reaching out for help is not an easy step. But luckily, eating disorders are treatable, and you can recover.

Our therapists use a combination of approaches to target our treatment to the client’s needs. Using a holistic viewpoint, we explore the root of the eating disorder. Many people stuck in an eating disorder don’t understand why they overeat or refuse to eat. By treating the source, our client’s mindset and disordered eating symptoms tend to improve.

By using methods like CBT, our therapists help our clients adjust their mindset by identifying distorted thinking patterns and replacing them with healthy and rational outlooks. We also teach our clients strategies to try at home like problem-solving, stress management and relaxation techniques.

Goals of Therapy for Eating Disorders

Reduce the need for control
Explore the sources of the problem
Learn healthy strategies to cope with emotional stress or trauma
Build self-esteem and self-compassion
Acquire a better relationship with your body
Regain balance in your life
Maintain a natural weight

Our Approach

We will do an assessment of your specific situation and goals, to come up with a targeted and individualized approach to therapy that draws from a variety of the listed modalities.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Change unhelpful and problematic ways of thinking got change unwanted or unhealthy behaviour

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Utilized techniques like meditation, stretching, and breathing to increase awareness of our thoughts, feelings and actions

Dialectal Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Develop healthy coping strategies and mindfulness skills like living in the moment to improve relationships and regulate emotions

Narrative Therapy

Learn to separate yourself from your problem by relying on your own skills to minimize the problems in your life

Family Systems Therapy

Focuses on the family as a unit and how generational, social, community and cultural factors influence the family members

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