Eating Disorders:

I have been working with people with eating disorders since the beginning of my training and throughout my career. I co-led groups for women with eating disorders for many years. I believe that developing an eating disorder is a way that some people cope with very difficult feelings that are often unconscious. A person may feel, for example that being in conflict with another person (often a parent) is terrifying. The anger, frustration and hurt they may feel gets directed onto themselves, as a way of coping that makes them feel that eating or their bodies are the problem, rather than a whole host of painful feelings that seem too hard to address.

In therapy, we delve into what's behind the symptoms to help the person begin to express and really know and feel the difficult feelings they're having, again in a safe and supportive manner. I know that people with eating disorders often want help with the symptoms themselves. They may say, "Yes, I feel sad, but how do I stop binging and purging?" The process of reducing the symptoms of an eating disorder is often not as fast as people want it to be, but it does come. And I work with people on developing alternatives to using their eating disordered behaviors to cope with their feelings.