Eating Disorders

Eating disorders arise out of a dis-ease with a many factors – physical, emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, and spiritual. Successful treatment requires attention to each of these areas. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers a treatment approach that addresses all of these areas in a targeted, skills-based manner. DBT gives clients and therapists ways to explore the function of the eating behaviors and find more skillful ways of meeting unmet needs. The foundation of the DBT treatment model is mindfulness, or the ability to turn one’s attention inward to identify emotions, sensations, and thoughts. This is particularly helpful for clients who are used to looking outside of themselves for validation, or self-knowing, a phenomenon often found in people with eating disorders.

The therapeutic relationship is an essential part of the treatment. The goal is to form an honest, non-judgmental, authentic connection between client and therapist. In the safety and trust of this relationship, vulnerable feelings are explored and expressed, coaching is given around food choices, disordered thought processes are gently challenged, and an acceptance, and eventually a celebration, of the body can be reclaimed. We offer individual and group treatment. For more information about eating disorders, see www.something-fishy.org