Anorexia Therapy & Nutrition Counseling
See Anorexia treatment FAQs here.
The fear of weight gain and food control have taken over your life.
You are feeling alone and exhausted by your constant thoughts about numbers, body fat, and obsessions about your shape. The anxiety about potential weight gain gets in the way of your ability to live your life fully. And, perhaps you are concerned about the harmful consequences of restricted food intake and/or overexercise on your physical health.
At Austin Center for Eating Disorders (ACED), we understand how lonely and tired you are. Eating disorders can be invisible illnesses that thrive in secrecy and shame.
Anorexia, or any type of restrictive eating issue, can make you feel both invincible and worthless, and occurs across all body sizes.
We’re Here to Help
Anorexia is a complex issue
Understanding why you are stuck in the pattern of restriction and self-punishment or over-control is a first step towards reclaiming your life. Eating disorders are about so much more than the pursuit of thinness.
Perhaps you do have a deeper understanding of your reasons for extreme dieting, for example, you may limit your calories or food groups in an effort to feel in control, productive, superior, or to attain some sense of perfection. Your eating disorder can feel like your best friend: the one thing you can depend on for comfort, safety, or self-esteem. Despite having this awareness, you are here because you’re ready to take the next step in your eating disorder recovery.
Anorexia Athletica, “Atypical” Anorexia, & Anorexia Subtypes
There are several types of Anorexia Nervosa subtypes. This reflects the uniqueness of each person’s struggles, genetics, history, and lived experiences. The ACED clinicians are highly skilled and trained to work with the full spectrum of Anorexia presentations. If you or your loved one’s symptoms do not match the typical diagnoses, do not worry, this is quite common. We are all different! Each client requires and will receive a personalized treatment plan that is highly specific to their own needs and goals.
Contributing Factors in Anorexia and Eating Disorders
Suffering with an eating disorder is overwhelming, and effects everything in your life— your relationships, your work or school, your body image and physical health, your emotions, your mental health, your capacity to pay attention, and your identity. Anxiety can skyrocket. Complicating matters is the incessant cultural pressure to be thin and attractive based upon narrow and oppressive beauty standards. And, if exercise is wrapped up in your eating disorder, fitness/gym culture is even worse. These beauty and fitness standards are ubiquitous and convince all of us that if we want love, care, and respect in this world, we must conform (read: lose weight).
On top of all of this, we can imagine that someone in your family also struggles with food, body image, and/or exercise. Eating disorders have a strong genetic component and tend to run in families. If you grew up in an environment of restrictive eating, body shame, and overexercise, you are more likely to struggle in these ways as an adult, especially if you have the genetic predisposition. We’re not here to blame your family, even though they may have accidentally contributed to the development of your eating disorder. Your parents’ parents likely passed these things down as well, and so goes the cyclical nature of trans-generational food and body image issues. That is, until someone finally heals it. We hope that person is you.
We often hear about the shaming doctors visits our clients endure as children and adults. Having a doctor tell you that there is something wrong with your body shape or weight as a child (or adult) can spur body image distress and disordered eating, and contribute to having an eating disorder later in life. We are doing everything we can to educate doctors about eating disorders and the harms of fat phobia in medical treatments. We want you to know that it’s not ok that you were shamed as a child, and told that your body was somehow defective.
Many People Struggle With Eating Disorders
No matter where you are in the process of recovery, you deserve to be heard and get support. Struggling with an eating disorder does not mean that you are inferior in any way, and you are certainly not alone. Eating disorders are treatable mental and physical disorders that affect people of every age, sex, ethnicity, gender, race, and socioeconomic group. National surveys estimate that 20 million women and 10 million men in the USA will, at some point in their lives, have an eating disorder. Anorexia is the third most common chronic disease among young people, after asthma and type 1 diabetes. Learn about more statistics here.
Eating disorders can negatively affect every organ system throughout your body, and seeking professional help is important. The earlier you seek treatment, the greater the likelihood you have to fully recover physically, mentally, and emotionally. For more information about the health hazards of Anorexia, click here. Oftentimes, full recovery from an eating disorder takes multiple attempts, and this is not your fault. We live in a culture that reinforces disordered eating and unrealistic beauty standards, which infinitely complicates the process of recovery.
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Let Us Help
With the help of a skilled, specialized therapist and/or dietitian, you can develop the insight and compassionate self-care needed to sustain the long journey of healing. We can provide the support you need:
You will receive a personalized treatment plan that is highly specific and aligned with your unique needs and goals
Tools and skills to manage and diminish eating disorder behaviors
Support in developing insight and understanding in your relationships with food and your body, and about yourself in general
Education about the science behind eating disorders and trauma
Help learning to regulate and soothe your intense emotions
Coping skills to advocate for yourself, especially when it comes to difficult relationships and diet culture
Nutrition support, education, and guidance
Tools and guidance in dismantling the restrictive food rules and obsessions that take over your life
A meal plan, if necessary, with a specialized Registered Dietitian
Inspiration, motivation, and accountability
So much love and compassion
See eating disorder treatment FAQs here
Anorexia Treatment Can Repair Your Relationship With Food and Body
Psychotherapy and Nutrition Therapy can be an extremely effective method to heal your relationship with food, your body, and your life. Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa, although complex and commonly long-term, can guide you toward developing insight into your dysfunctional patterns of thinking and coping by giving you the skills and space necessary for authentic growth.
Therapy can give you a refuge, a place where you can be vulnerable, and trust that you will be unconditionally accepted, respected, and loved. Working at your own pace, you can find your voice, reconcile unaddressed emotions, and summon the power and courage required to take charge of your life.
We will help you to understand the science behind eating disorder behaviors if you desire this information, and help you understand why these behaviors harm more than help. Together, we will explore your unique history of relationships, food and body image, and any trauma to help you figure out how your eating disorder helps you. You’ll need to know this information so that we can find better ways of getting you what you need without your eating disorder, when you’re ready to let go. We’ll identify potential triggers for eating disorder behaviors, underlying activating emotions, and major stressors to clarify your needs.
Our Collaborative Approach Toward Eating Disorder Recovery
Depending on your symptoms and needs, we will refer you to a registered dietician and/or therapist specializing in eating disorders to assist us on our journey together. Working with a specialized dietitian can be very important, and we will collaborate to make sure that you are getting the best care possible.
We will also refer you to a specialized medical doctor to check in about your physical health. Again, we want to do our best make sure that you have everything you need to recover from your eating disorder.
Another option and recommendation we’ll likely provide is to join a therapy group that focuses on eating disorder recovery, so that you can connect with others who share your goals and struggles.
We’ll also look for other possible mental health concerns, such as anxiety, depression, or trauma, that may be complicating or intensifying your need to cope using eating disorder behaviors.
We utilize a number of therapeutic modalities to aid in your unique recovery process:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Family Based Therapy (FBT)
Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Psychodynamic Theory
Feminist Theory
Health at Every Size® and Intuitive Eating
Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Parts Work
Relational Cultural Theory
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
We Cherish Your Autonomy
You and you alone (given that you are an adult) are in charge of your body. You make decisions based upon what you believe is best for you. We will have plenty of recommendations (see above) to aid your recovery process, and if your symptoms are more severe, we may be more directive in nature. However, you are always free to agree or disagree, to come and go as you please, and do what you believe is the best thing for you.
We believe that you must make your own decisions to get the most out of therapy, and we support you in doing so. We cannot make you do anything, and you simply will not change unless you want to. We unconditionally accept you for who you are, right now.
You may be considering Anorexia Nervosa Treatment but still have some questions or concerns…
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Investing in your physical and mental health is one of the most valuable and important investments you could possibly make. Anorexia typically involves immense feelings of loneliness, shame, and feeling like a failure, and this can destroy the quality of your everyday life. We realize that treatment is expensive, but the costs to your wellbeing if you don’t get help can be even greater. If you simply cannot afford treatment, please reach out anyway, and we can look at alternatives through other programs.
If you are noticing worrisome physical symptoms, improving your relationship with food now might prevent costly medical treatments down the line. Furthermore, compensatory behaviors (e.g., compulsive overexercise, unprescribed medications, laxative use, etc.) can damage the health and functioning of your body in multiple ways. By engaging in therapy for Anorexia, it’s possible to learn to better care for yourself, cope with challenges successfully without resorting to eating disorder behaviors, and create the life that you truly want to live. The benefits of seeking treatment are infinite and although it looks different for everyone, recovery is possible.
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It can be incredibly scary to face the unknown or hidden parts of yourself, especially when it comes to food and your body. Your eating disorder serves a beneficial purpose in your life, and understanding that purpose is essential to evolving the way you think about food and feel toward yourself. We want you to find better ways to deal with anxiety, emotional pain, and body shame that don't cause you harm. Whatever your situation may be, we will proceed as slowly as needed, and we will be there for you as a loving support, a source of strength, and a compassionate voice of reason.
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We understand that you're really busy. The demands of work, family, and life in general can make it seem as if there is no time left in the week just for you. However, restricting self care and time for yourself might play a role in maintaining your eating disorder. We encourage you to make time for yourself, and make your healing a priority in your week. Your mental health and the quality of your life matters so much. We can help you to develop healthy coping skills to deal with stress, and guide you toward creating a life that you can truly love.
Help Is Available for Anorexia.
We’re here for you. Schedule a complimentary phone consultation to ask all of your questions, and see if we might be a good fit for you.
