Eating Disorder Therapy
When Food and Body Image Start Taking Up Too Much Space
Eating should not feel like a constant source of anxiety, guilt, shame, or conflict.
Yet for many children, teens, and adults, thoughts about food and body image can slowly begin to take over. You may find yourself thinking about what you ate, what you should eat, how your body looks, or how to compensate for eating throughout much of the day.
Maybe you promise yourself that tomorrow will be different, only to find yourself caught in the same cycle again.
You may restrict food, binge eat, purge, constantly check your body, avoid mirrors, compare yourself to others, or feel intense shame after eating. You may know that your relationship with food or your body is becoming unhealthy while still feeling unable to change it.
For others, the struggle may be less obvious. You may appear successful, active, or healthy on the outside while privately spending an enormous amount of mental energy worrying about your body, food, exercise, or weight.
You deserve a life that has room for much more than this.
Eating Disorders Can Look Different for Everyone
There is no single picture of what an eating disorder looks like.
Eating disorders and disordered eating can affect people of all ages, genders, body sizes, and backgrounds. Someone does not need to look a certain way or reach a particular weight before their relationship with food deserves attention.
Therapy may be helpful if you or your child are experiencing concerns such as:
• Binge eating or feeling out of control around food
• Purging or other attempts to compensate after eating
• Frequent dieting or food restriction
• Intense fear of gaining weight
• Significant guilt or shame after eating
• Obsessive thoughts about food, calories, exercise, or appearance
• Frequent body checking or avoidance of mirrors
• Comparing your body to others
• Difficulty accepting changes in your body
• Body dysmorphia or persistent distress about perceived flaws
• Avoiding social situations because food will be involved
• Exercising primarily to compensate for eating
• Feeling that your self worth depends on your appearance or weight
Sometimes people recognize these patterns immediately. Other times, they have lived with them for so long that the behaviors begin to feel normal.
Eating Disorders in Children and Teens
For parents, watching a child struggle with eating or body image can be frightening and confusing.
You may notice that your child has suddenly become very particular about food, skips meals, avoids foods they previously enjoyed, becomes distressed around eating, exercises excessively, or seems increasingly focused on weight or appearance.
Sometimes parents notice emotional changes first. A child who was previously flexible may become anxious or irritable around meals. A teenager may begin withdrawing from family dinners, avoiding activities involving food, comparing their body to peers, or becoming increasingly critical of their appearance.
Parents often wonder whether they should say something, whether they are overreacting, or whether addressing the issue will make it worse.
Therapy can provide a place to understand what is happening while also helping parents learn how to support their child without allowing every meal or conversation to become a battle.
Body Image and Body Dysmorphia
You do not need to have a diagnosed eating disorder to struggle significantly with your body.
For some people, dissatisfaction with appearance becomes a constant background noise. You may repeatedly check certain parts of your body, compare yourself to other people, avoid photographs, change clothes repeatedly, or have difficulty believing reassurance from others.
Body dysmorphia can cause someone to become intensely focused on a perceived physical flaw that other people may barely notice or may not see at all. The distress can affect relationships, school, work, social activities, and self confidence.
Therapy can help you understand the thoughts and behaviors that keep body image concerns going while developing a more flexible and compassionate relationship with yourself.
Bulimia and the Binge and Purge Cycle
Bulimia can create an exhausting cycle.
You may experience periods of feeling out of control around food followed by intense guilt, fear, or shame. Purging or compensating may provide temporary relief, but the relief rarely lasts. Instead, the cycle often becomes increasingly difficult to interrupt.
Over time, someone may begin organizing their entire day around food, eating, exercise, or opportunities to purge.
Therapy focuses on understanding what maintains the cycle, identifying emotional and situational triggers, developing healthier coping strategies, and gradually creating a more stable relationship with food and the body.
Binge Eating Disorder
Binge eating is not simply a lack of willpower.
Many people who struggle with binge eating describe feeling disconnected or unable to stop once an episode begins. Afterwards, they may experience shame, embarrassment, physical discomfort, or promises to severely restrict food the following day.
Unfortunately, restriction can often contribute to another binge, creating an ongoing cycle.
Therapy can help identify the emotional, behavioral, and environmental factors contributing to binge eating while helping clients develop more sustainable ways to respond to stress, emotions, hunger, and body image concerns.
Eating Disorder Treatment Often Requires a Team
Eating disorders can affect both emotional and physical health, which is why treatment frequently works best when providers collaborate.
Depending on your needs, your treatment team may include your therapist, physician, psychiatrist, registered dietitian, or other specialists.
Our therapist is pursuing advanced training toward becoming a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and participates in ongoing eating disorder supervision, professional consultation, and continuing education. She also participates in consultation opportunities through Eating Recovery Center and the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals community in San Antonio, allowing for collaboration and connection with other eating disorder professionals and dietitians when additional support is needed.
When appropriate, we can work collaboratively with outside providers so that emotional health, nutritional needs, and physical health are all being addressed.
You Are More Than Your Relationship With Food
Eating disorders have a way of making life smaller.
Meals become stressful. Social events become complicated. Your body becomes something to constantly evaluate rather than simply the place you live your life.
Recovery is about more than changing eating behaviors. It is about creating space for relationships, experiences, interests, confidence, and a life that is not organized around food or appearance.
Whether you are an adult who has quietly struggled for years, a teenager beginning to recognize that something is wrong, or a parent concerned about changes you are seeing in your child, you do not have to wait until things become more severe to ask for help.
Heights Family Counseling provides eating disorder and body image therapy for children, teens, and adults in San Antonio. We can help you determine the appropriate level of support and, when needed, collaborate with medical and nutritional professionals as part of your treatment team.
You can reach out to schedule an appointment or speak with our intake team about whether eating disorder therapy may be a good fit.
Begin Counseling for Eating Disorder Therapy in Houston, TX or San Antonio, TX:
Taking the first step can be scary. We are here to help with the process every step of the way. To begin counseling in Houston, TX or San Antonio, TX, follow these steps:
Contact our Houston Heights and San Antonio's Alamo Heights counseling practice and set up your free phone consultation,
Meet with one of our skilled adult therapists,
Begin counseling for burnout and find passion in your profession again.
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