There have been times my clients have come into therapy after having seen someone that said they treated eating disorders, and it didn’t go well. They’ve left feeling discouraged and feeling defeated. These women have felt hopeless because someone that stated they treated eating disorders couldn’t even help them get better. As therapists, we really do care about people and want to help people. The truth is we don’t have the training and specialty to be doing that. Eating disorders require specialized treatment. If your therapist doesn’t have this treatment, you can end up getting worse. That’s not to say that a therapist can’t be helpful to you if they don’t have experience and training in eating disorders. However, to get the most comprehensive care there are things to look for in an eating disorder therapist.
A good eating disorder therapist, will not encourage you to lose weight.
The goal of eating disorder recovery is for you to make peace with food and your body. A therapist that states they treat “obesity” or offers “weight management” likely isn’t your best choice for eating disorder therapy. Someone trained in eating disorder treatment doesn’t want any of their clients to continue to try and manipulate their body into being smaller than what it wants to be. No therapist out there knows what your weight is meant to be. Your body gets to determine that. Continuing to encourage weight loss in eating disorder recovery is harmful. I bet you might wish to lose weight and might even find it appealing to have someone state they can help you with weight loss. It’s ok that you still have those thoughts and desires, but putting the desire for weight loss on the back burner will help you get better much faster.
2. An eating disorder therapist doesn’t look at food as an addiction.
I’ve seen many people talk about being addicted to food or sugar. I’ve seen clients be treated for their eating disorders this way, which has not been helpful. Plenty of research backs up that sugar isn’t addictive, and food is not your addiction, either. I find my clients with Binge Eating Disorder get this approach the most. People with binge eating disorders don’t have an addiction to food. They binge because they have a long history of restricting foods, which results in binging behaviors. These people definitely don’t need the reinforcement that they can’t control themselves around food. Please don’t see any provider that makes you feel that way.
3. An Eating disorder therapist will believe you when you say you have an eating disorder.
An eating disorder therapist will believe you when they say you think you have an eating disorder or disordered eating. You are probably the first person that will try and minimize what you are going through. You’ll talk yourself out of getting help or thinking you have disordered eating for a long time before reaching out for help. If you meet a therapist that doesn’t think you have an eating disorder, that probably just means they don’t understand eating disorders or have the proper training to treat it. Your feelings and experience are valid, and you are the expert on what you know about yourself. Find someone that’s going to believe you and help you get better.
4. An Eating disorder therapist will use a team approach
Eating disorders are complicated mental illnesses; usually, it won’t take just a therapist to help you get better. Often a dietitian and or a psychiatrist will be recommended to help in your healing. Therapists can’t do it all and will often rely on a dietitian's help in learning principles of intuitive eating, challenging your food rules, and helping manage physical symptoms. As a therapist helping clients recover from eating disorders, I focus on their emotions and underlying beliefs about themselves, their bodies, and food. The goal is to get you feeling better and recovering. It might take multiple people to help you with certain aspects of your eating disorder.
5. A good eating disorder therapist will operate from a Health At Every Size Approach.
Health At Every Size is an important aspect of eating disorder recovery. As referenced above, the goal is not for you to weigh a certain amount but to get your body to a place where it’s healthy regardless of what you weigh. Health At Every Size means acknowledging that every person’s genetics will influence their body size, and healthy behaviors are more important than a number on a scale. A certain weight doesn’t make you healthy. An eating disorder therapist should understand this approach and utilize it in helping you in recovery.
You deserve to recover from your eating disorder. It takes work, and it’s certainly not easy. Recovering from your eating disorder isn’t something you should have to do alone and having a therapist with the tools to help you get there makes all the difference.
Looking to start eating disorder therapy in Utah?
You don’t have to stay stuck in your eating disorder. Eating disorder recovery is possible. Ditch your eating disorder and make peace with your body and food. This Utah Counseling Practice has an eating disorder therapist specializing in eating disorder therapy. To begin therapy, follow the steps below:
Meet with an eating disorder therapist in Utah
Begin therapy
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Utah
When you are struggling with an eating disorder, you want the assurance that you’re going to have a therapist that knows how to help you recover and has successfully managed to help others recover too. I know many parts of Utah don’t have access to a therapist with specialized training in eating disorder recovery. This is why I provide Online Therapy in Utah. This allows us to work together without you having to travel.
I work with clients in St. George, Cedar City, Heber, Salt Lake City, Logan, and more.
Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy
Eating disorder therapy isn’t the only counseling service provided by this Northern Utah Counseling Clinic. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include binge eating disorder treatment, EMDR therapy, birth trauma therapy, anxiety therapy, and body image therapy in Utah.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt LCSW is a licensed therapist at Maple Canyon Therapy, located in Utah. Ashlee holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a bachelor’s degree in Family Life and Human Development, and a master’s in social work. Ashlee has extensive training and experience in treating eating disorders and has provided eating disorder treatment at all levels of care. She is passionate about helping women achieve eating disorder recovery. When Ashlee isn’t doing therapy, she loves adding plants to her collection from Sun River Gardens in Orem.