Eating disorders and disordered eating don’t always look the way people expect. You might not even be sure if what you’re struggling with is “serious enough” to count. But if your relationship with food, chronic dieting, movement, or your body feels exhausting, dissatisfying, obsessive, or out of your control—you’re not alone. And you don’t have to stay stuck in that cycle.
Whether you’re always thinking about what you’ve eaten (or what you’ll eat next), feel like your worth is tied to your weight or size, or find yourself stuck in patterns, therapy can help you reconnect with your body and reclaim your life. We approach treatment from a Health At Every Size aligned perspective.
Eating Disorder Therapy
Do you want to nurture a more balanced relationship with food, movement and your body?
Does getting dressed feel like a task that’s so much harder than it should?
Does your relationship with food include stress, rules and guilt?
A lifelong battle with body image that leaves you exhausted?
Our work is grounded in the belief that every body—no matter its shape, size, or ability—deserves care, respect, and dignity. We align with the principles of Health at Every Size® (HAES), which means we do not view weight as a measure of health, morality, or success. Instead, we focus on supporting your mental, emotional, and physical well-being without promoting weight loss as a goal.
We also recognize that body love isn’t always realistic—especially when you’ve spent years at war with your reflection. That’s why we support a body neutrality approach: shifting the focus from appearance to appreciation for what your body allows you to do, feel, and experience. It’s okay if you’re not ready to love your body. Therapy can help you unlearn the shame and soften the self-talk, even if love doesn’t feel accessible (yet).
Together, we’ll explore what it means to:
Move away from body surveillance and toward body awareness
Make peace with food and exercise—without guilt, fear, or “shoulds”
Reject weight stigma and diet culture, even when it shows up quietly
Reconnect with body cues like hunger, fullness, rest, and pleasure
Build self-worth that isn’t dictated by a number or reflection
You are allowed to exist in your body, just as it is—without earning it, shrinking it, or apologizing for it.
Rooted in Body Respect: HAES & Body Neutrality
It’s Not Just About the Food
Most people think eating disorders are only about food or appearance—but that’s rarely the full story. Disordered eating is often a way of coping with deeper emotional pain, anxiety, perfectionism, trauma, or a need for control.
Therapy creates a space to explore what’s underneath the behaviors without shame or judgment. You are not “too much.” You are not a failure. Your struggles make sense—and they are absolutely treatable. Between social media, comparison, and a culture that is body focused and values thinness, it’s no wonder we become preoccupied with food and our weight.
Many of us are navigating:
Guilt after eating something “off plan” or not “clean enough”
Shame about our body, no matter how hard we try to change it
Fear of losing control around certain foods
Secret eating, bingeing, or hiding behaviors from loved ones
Exhaustion from trying to “start over” every Monday
Comparison spirals on social media or in real life
A fear that letting go of food rules means letting ourselves go
Feeling like our worth is measured in pounds, size, or willpower
Living in a culture that normalizes disordered eating and calls it “wellness”
When you're living in a world that constantly tells you to shrink, control, and measure your worth by how you look, disordered eating isn’t a personal failure—it’s a solution. Therapy offers a space to understand that, to validate your experience, and to help you find new ways to care for yourself that aren’t rooted in self-punishment or fear.
Read more about disordered eating, body image, cultural pressures and more on our blog, no appointment needed
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Read more about disordered eating, body image, cultural pressures and more on our blog, no appointment needed *
What Eating Disorders Can Look Like
Eating Disorders don’t always have a “look”. Sometimes it’s more subtle—like:
Feeling guilt, shame, or panic after eating
Exercising to “earn” or “make up for” food
Constant thoughts about food, calories, or weight
Bingeing, restricting, or purging
Preoccupation with choosing “clean”, “whole” or “healthy” food or lifestyle choices
Avoiding social events or photographs because of food or body image
Our Approach to Treating Eating Disorders and Body Image Concerns
We know that eating disorders are not “just” about the food and we know that recovery is not one-size-fits-all. We’ll meet you where you are—whether you're just starting to notice patterns or you’ve been in recovery for years and need continued support.
In therapy, we’ll help you:
A non-diet, weight-inclusive, and trauma-informed approach
Tools to reconnect with body cues and develop trust in yourself
Support to challenge internalized beliefs about food, weight, and worth
Development of adaptive coping skills to support you in your recovery
Gentle space to process grief, identity, trauma, or perfectionism underlying the eating disorder
Skills to move away from black-and-white thinking and toward flexibility and freedom
We use evidence-based approaches, including mindfulness, somatic tools, and trauma-informed care—always with a warm, collaborative, and non-judgmental style.
You Deserve to Feel Safe in Your Own Body
Eating Disorders and body image concerns don’t have to control your life. With the right support, you can learn to respond differently to food, reconnect with your body, and show up fully in your relationships, your work, and your life.
Therapy is a space where your worries are welcomed without judgment, and change is possible.
Your Body Was Never the Problem
People may think negative body image is just about wanting to look a certain way—but for many, it runs much deeper. How we feel about our bodies is often shaped by pain, perfectionism, anxiety, trauma, or a lifelong pressure to be “good enough.” In a culture obsessed with appearance and thinness, disliking your body can feel normal—even expected.
Therapy offers a space to gently explore where those beliefs came from and how they’re impacting your relationship with yourself, your relationships, your work—your life. This work isn’t about learning to love your body overnight—it’s about learning to relate to it with more compassion, respect, curiosity, and care—no matter what it looks like.
Many of us are navigating:
Shame about our bodies, no matter how much we try to change them
The belief that we’ll feel confident only once we look different
Body checking, hiding, or avoiding mirrors altogether
Missing out on life while waiting to feel “ready” or “thin enough”
Constant comparison to filtered images or curated feeds
Fear of gaining weight, even if it means sacrificing mental health
A sense that body image controls our mood, choices, or self-worth
Living in a system that moralizes thinness and pathologizes difference
When you’ve spent years being told or believing your body is a project to fix, it makes sense that you’ve learned to disconnect from it—or even resent it. But your body isn’t the enemy. It’s not something to fight, conquer., or shrink. It’s something to come home to.
Therapy can help you begin that return—with compassion, not criticism.
What To Expect In Therapy
Starting therapy can feel vulnerable—especially when managing an eating disorder or body image concerns already take up so much energy. If you're wondering what it’s actually like, here’s what you can expect:
A Space That’s Just for You
Therapy is your time. You don’t have to perform, have the “right” words, or explain everything perfectly. You’ll be met with curiosity, compassion, and zero judgment.
A Collaborative Approach
We’ll work together to explore what’s going on beneath the surface of your relationship with food—where it evolved from, how it’s affecting you, and what tools and strategies can help. You set the pace, and you’re always in control of your process.
Practical Tools You Can Actually Use
Yes, we’ll talk about your feelings—but we’ll also build skills. We incorporate both bottom up and top down therapy techniques to help get you out of your head and create real change.
Room for the Big Stuff and the Everyday Stuff
Some sessions may involve untangling long-held beliefs or past experiences. Others might focus on managing your week, preparing for a difficult conversation, or figuring out why you couldn’t sleep last night. It all matters.
Progress That’s Not Always Linear—but Always Possible
Therapy isn’t about “fixing” you. It’s about helping you feel more grounded, more empowered, and more like you. Growth may not happen in a straight line, but over time, you’ll notice shifts—more ease, more clarity, and more self-trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Delaying therapy often means that emotional pain quietly grows in the background—until it demands your attention in louder, more disruptive ways. What might have been manageable with early support can become more complex over time, leading to longer, more intensive treatment down the road. Starting therapy sooner is a proactive investment in your well-being. When you tend to anxiety early, you create space for quicker healing and long-term resilience.
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That depends on what you’re looking for. Many high-functioning people have already done the self-awareness work—but still feel stuck in patterns of food rules, body obsession, perfectionism, or shame. In our work together, we go beyond insight to help you develop real tools, shift entrenched behaviors, and explore the deeper roots of your relationship with food and your body—without pathologizing your ambition, discipline, or desire for control.
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We get it—your calendar is full, your responsibilities are real, and downtime is rare. But therapy can actually help create more space: mentally, emotionally, and practically. Sessions are structured and intentional, so your time is respected and well spent. Many clients say that therapy becomes the one hour a week where they don’t have to hold it all together.
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You’re smart, capable, and used to solving problems. So it’s frustrating when your relationship with food and your body doesn’t respond to willpower, plans, or logic. But eating disorders aren’t about lack of discipline—they’re often rooted in deeply wired patterns, emotional pain, and beliefs about control, worth, or safety that can’t be undone with mindset shifts alone.
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If food and body thoughts are taking up mental space, affecting your relationships, dictating your choices, or just making life feel harder than it needs to be—that’s enough. You don’t have to wait until it gets “bad enough,” and you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.
It’s okay to want more than just “coping” with food and body struggles.
Ready to feel free again? Let’s get started…
At The Third Space Collective, our mission is to help you cope with disordered eating and body image concerns so that you can be fully present in your relationships and reconnect with your sense of joy. To learn more about our approach to eating disorder counseling, we encourage you to contact us or book an appointment. You can find additional resources for eating disorders and body image repair in our blog posts, here and downloadable resources, here.
