Eating Disorder Treatment
Non-judgmental, HAES (health at every size), and low-pressure help when eating behaviors may be making you anxious, preoccupied, or doubting yourself.
In-person therapy offered in Fairfax City, Virginia and Friendship Heights, Maryland. Online therapy available in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.
Every Monarch Wellness therapist undergoes extensive training and education on eating disorders, offering true expertise in this area. Reach out for a no-fee, no-commitment consultation.
Does thinking about food take up too much space in your head?
Do you have trouble giving your body the nourishment it needs because of tastes, textures or fears?
Do you use food to deal with your feelings?
Does a lot of your self-worth hinge on how you feel about your body?
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At Monarch Wellness, every therapist has a true specialty in eating disorders. We take a HAES, anti-diet approach.
At the same time, we appreciate that eating disorder behaviors exist for a reason- we aren’t here to shame you into healing, but to help you find the tools you need for real, lasting change.
Frequently Asked Questions About Eating Disorders and Eating Disorder Recovery
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Eating disorders often have a genetic component, even if the trait has been recessive in your family for generations. However, the environment is what causes the eating disorder to become active. Society places a tremendous emphasis on weight and body, which can impact people even without their awareness. For other eating disorders, neurologically based sensitivities may play more of a role.
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Every eating disorder has its own set of symptoms, but the unifying theme is that food and body concerns have somehow failed to keep their place as only one important part of your life. They get in the way of relationships, self-worth, or achievement. Often, deeper emotional problems are played out in the arena of food.
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In reality, no two eating disorders are alike. However, for the purposes diagnosis there are a few conditions that we tend to look at more generally.
Anorexia: Difficulty eating enough food, tendency to restrict calories or food groups. Sometimes compulsive exercise or purging.
Bulimia: Feeling driven to get rid of nourishment consumed through a variety of means.
Binge Eating Disorder: Recurrent episodes of eating much more than your body can handle, often with a spacy or dissociative feeling.
Emotional Eating: Eating in order to deal with your feelings in a more ongoing way than is present in Binge Eating Disorder (not an official diagnosis, yet)
Orthorexia: Overemphasis on “clean eating”, to the extent that it gets in the way of living well and nourishing the body completely.
ARFID: Short for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, this condition is not about body shape or size but rather some difficulty with the tastes and textures of foods.
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Absolutely. Monarch therapists believe that full recovery from disordered eating is possible. We have seen clients break entirely free from the eating issues and associated anxiety, depression and obsession that were keeping them back to build creative, fulfilling, successful lives.
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We typically like to help a person figure out the needs an eating disorder is meeting for them such as falsifying self-worth, offering control, or dealing with anxiety.
We help clients to find other ways of meeting those needs, and they often find that unhelpful food-related behaviors decrease as a result.
Monarch Wellness therapists prefer to treat eating disorders on a team if possible. With a dietitian and primary care doctor keeping an eye on the physical side of things, we can help with the emotions.
We treat eating disorders by sitting down one-on-one with individuals, offering family therapy, and providing group sessions.
Common Eating Disorder Diagnoses
(Although There are Problems with Eating Disorder Diagnoses)
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Bulimia
Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by cycles of binging and purging behaviors. People with bulimia often end up eating large amounts of food (binging) and then try to get rid of the calories (purging). There are many behaviors people engage in to try to rid themselves of the calories, but purging is never actually an effective means of weight loss.
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Anorexia
Anorexia Nervosa is a devastating illness that robs you of your joy, your peace of mind, and eventually your health. It is generally an extreme desire to lose weight and a fear of gaining it. People might go to extreme lengths to not eat as much as their body needs. Anorexia takes a toll on physical health, relationships, life achievements and sense of self, often while making you feel as if you are in control.
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Binge-Eating Disorder
People with a binge-eating disorder frequently overeat and often feel a lack of control around food. An individual with a binge-eating disorder may feel remorse about their binge, but they do not partake in purging behaviors. It is important to note that people who suffer from binge-eating disorders can be of any size.
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ARFID
ARFID (Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder) happens when taste or texture issues make it hard for you to meet your nutritional needs. ARFID may appear in the context of neurodiversity, but it doesn’t have to. Some people think of ARFID as “extreme picky eating”.
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Orthorexia
Orthorexia happens when ideas about clean eating, and fears about what could happen if you ate more broadly, take over. In over-focusing on eating the “right” way, some people have trouble meeting their dietary needs.
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Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is the idea of using food to deal with your feelings. When it all happens at once it can be diagnosed as Binge Eating Disorder (BED) but often times emotional eating takes place throughout the day instead of in one specific period of time.
Other Body Image and Food Problems Monarch Works With
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Orthorexia is when “clean eating” has gone out of control and fears about following specific food rules are getting in the way. People with orthorexia might have trouble being flexible with eating when it makes sense to do so, or they may have trouble meeting their nutritional needs.
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Compulsive exercise happens when exercise and physical exercise become a bigger part of your life than is helpful. You might avoid friends in order to exercise or have trouble stopping even when you are injured or sick. If exercise is prevented, people with compulsive exercise can feel very anxious or depressed.
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Muscle dysphoria is an over-focus on muscles and their appearance. People with muscle dysphoria might over-exercise, abuse steroids, or over-focus on muscles.
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Body dysmorphia causes people to relentlessly focus on perceived flaws of the face or body. Someone with body dysmorphia might be focused on their size and shape but not changing their eating or they may be focused on another issue. Some people with body dysmorphic disorder might seek out plastic surgery or use other extreme methods to change their appearance.
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We typically like to help a person figure out the needs an eating disorder is meeting for them such as falsifying self-worth, offering control, or dealing with anxiety.
We help clients to find other ways of meeting those needs, and they often find that unhelpful food-related behaviors decrease as a result.
Monarch Wellness therapists prefer to treat eating disorders on a team if possible. With a dietitian and primary care doctor keeping an eye on the physical side of things, we can help with the emotions.
We treat eating disorders by sitting down one-on-one with individuals, offering family therapy, and providing group sessions.
Collaborative Therapy Tailored to Your Unique Journey
Therapy is a collaborative process, and while we have certain areas of expertise, we also view you as the expert on yourself. Our role is to listen deeply, work with you to understand what is happening, and offer empirically validated tools for changing what isn’t working and build upon what is. Together we can help you to find greater meaning, fulfillment and peace and connect more deeply with others and yourself.
Our approach to eating disorder treatment
The Freedom to Achieve the Life You Truly Want
Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, emotional eating, and disordered eating can control your whole life, but you can take back control.
Monarch therapists help people struggling with these behaviors.
We will work with work you to help you deeply understand what is causing your unhealthy relationship with food.
Often, emotional factors such as low self-worth play a role in your relationship with food. Additionally, we will help you to empower yourself by offering you real-world tools to help you actively combat your eating disorder day by day.
We help our clients feel more comfortable in their bodies. When people are really at ease in their skins they will experience less anxiety, depression, guilt, and stress around eating. To put it simply, nurturing your body and your mind is nurturing yourself.
We are Committed to Helping Clients Heal from Their Eating Disorder
At Monarch Wellness, our goal goes beyond controlling the symptoms of an eating disorder. We want our clients to find true freedom from guilt and fear.
Monarch therapists are deeply committed to the idea that freedom from eating disorders is possible. Finding freedom from an eating disorder means finding greater peace of mind, connectedness with others, and the ability to contribute to the world in a genuinely meaningful way.
We believe that eating disorders develop in order to help you to meet emotional needs. Once you begin meeting your actual needs, the need for the eating disordered behavior can become much less intense. With tools and techniques for tackling the habits that have formed and the support of a good therapist, the symptoms can be tackled much more easily.