Eating Disorder Counseling in Roswell, GA
Is An Eating Disorder Negatively Impacting Every Area Of Your Life?
Are you searching for compassionate and effective treatment for anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, binge eating, or another eating disorder? Do you find yourself:
Withdrawing from social events due to fear of food being present?
Constantly comparing yourself to others and wishing you were thinner?
Experiencing pain and fatigue because of your disordered eating habits
Maybe your days are built around constantly trying to manipulate your body weight—skipping meals, counting calories, and exercising excessively. Although you put on a good face around others, deep down, perhaps you feel unhappy with who you are and how you look, and it’s affecting your confidence to go on dates and meet new people.
You might go to such great lengths to avoid food that you end up experiencing nausea, stomach ailments, and unintended weight loss. As a result, maybe you’re thinking it’s time to see a therapist who specializes in treating eating disorders.
Your Eating Disorder May Have Begun Without You Even Realizing It
Perhaps your eating disorder didn’t begin out of a desire to be skinnier. Instead, it may have arisen because of certain career or dietary requirements. This is especially common if you’re a dancer, an athlete, or anyone else in a line of work that involves maintaining a certain weight or body size. One thing led to another, and now you’ve found that you can’t eat normally anymore, even when you’re allowed to—your mindset revolves around: restrict, restrict, restrict.
Thankfully, there is another way to live. Eating disorders may be all-consuming, but they don’t have to define you or your future.
Here at Renovating Hope, we have counselors on hand who are trained and equipped to help you overcome your eating disorder. Our mission is to empower you to boost your self-esteem, improve your emotional regulation skills, and create a life that’s built around your strengths and values instead of avoidance behaviors and unrealistic body standards.
Have questions about eating disorder counseling?
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Eating Disorders Are The Price Of Our Culture’s Obsession With Thinness
From the checkout line at the grocery store to billboards along the highway and diet ads on the internet, it’s virtually impossible to go anywhere nowadays without seeing thinness being worshipped. Celebrities edit their photos to appear skinnier, doctors are beginning to push Ozempic and other weight loss drugs, and eating less has become a bragging right in many circles.
While there’s nothing wrong with dieting and slimming down, the problem is that our society has all but built a religion around it. The price we pay for this cultural standard is steep, as over 30 million Americans—roughly 10 percent of the US population—suffer from an eating disorder. So if you’re feeling alone in your struggles, it’s worth considering that many of the people around you may be battling the same demons as you.
All Too Often, People With Eating Disorders Struggle In Silence
Because many people feel ashamed of their behaviors, they often hide their disordered eating for years before reaching out for help. They turn down potluck dinners and brunch with friends without saying why and build their lives around avoiding anything that could lead to weight gain.
Additionally, eating disorders can malnourish the brain. When this happens, it’s easy for people to lose sight of how severe the issue is, which only makes their challenges even more severe. The more an eating disorder clouds a person’s judgment, the less likely they are to get support.
This is why reaching out is not only important, but paramount. The number one factor in eating disorder recovery comes down to getting help. And when you have a compassionate, experienced professional to walk with you on that recovery journey, healing becomes a very real possibility.
Counseling Can Help You Improve Your Body Image And Overcome Your Eating Disorder
Many people with eating disorders say things like “I’ve always been this way” and “I don’t know if I can ever really change.” That’s why we like to teach our clients about neuroplasticity—the brain’s remarkable capacity for change.
With the right support, insight, and skill-building, new pathways can open up in your brain. Perspectives can shift, old habits can fade, and unconscious motives can stop governing your life. At Renovating Hope, this kind of transformation is what we’re all about. Our mission is to help you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and use that knowledge as a springboard for healing and growth.
Our therapists provide counseling for a wide range of eating disorders, including:
Anorexia
Bulimia
ARFID
Food addiction
Binge eating
Purging
We work with dancers, athletes, working professionals, and people from all walks of life, offering both individual and group therapy options depending on your needs and preferences. We also provide counseling for teens and adolescents struggling with eating disorders, so if you are a parent of someone with an eating disorder, we are confident that we can help.
What To Expect In Therapy For Eating Disorders
Eating disorders often go hand in hand with a desire for control, and this desire is often linked to trauma. After all, the hallmark of trauma is that it disempowers you and takes away your sense of control. This is why Renovating Hope approaches therapy from a trauma-informed lens. We like to help clients dig deep into the roots of their struggles so that they can understand how eating disorders can function as a coping method for trauma.
Additionally, we will provide psychoeducation about how eating disorders impact your health on a mind-body level. Once that understanding is in place, we’ll work on creating long-term strategies for increasing self-esteem and building new ways to tolerate and cope with difficult emotions. Some of the main approaches our practice draws from include:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - Eating disorders have a way of disconnecting you from your body through avoidance and restriction. DBT equips you with mindfulness and emotional regulation skills that can help you break out of these behaviors and get reconnected with your body in the process.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - The goal of ACT is to lean into body acceptance, focusing on your strengths, your values, and other things that are within your control instead of endlessly trying to alter your weight or body size.
Psychodynamic Therapy – Eating disorders never arise out of nowhere. Psychodynamic therapy can help you explore the connections between the past and present, shedding light on how your eating disorder may be related to unhealed emotional wounds.
In the end, our hope is that you will experience relief in both your mind and body, since eating disorders are a mind-body phenomenon. We want to help you gain a deeper connection with yourself, practicing self-compassion and self-acceptance on your journey toward recovery.
You May Have Some Questions About Christian Counseling...
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If your eating disorder is causing significant safety concerns, then it’s generally best to seek a higher level of care than outpatient therapy. But if your safety is not at risk and you’re simply looking for new ways to manage your disordered eating, counseling will be well worth your time and energy. We encourage you to reach out so that we can discuss your options and assess the severity of your struggles.
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If you simply want to gain some new coping skills, therapy may be a short-term investment. But if your eating disorder is rooted in unresolved trauma and you’re looking for deeper mind-body healing, long-term counseling may be more appropriate. Either way, we encourage you to be patient with yourself and remember that your journey is uniquely yours and no one else’s.
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At Renovating Hope, we know how disempowering eating disorders can be, so we’ll never judge you for what’s ultimately beyond your control. Many of our clients have had negative experiences with counselors in the past, so we get it: not everyone understands how eating disorders really work.
Our eating disorder therapist, Jordan Lawler, has experience helping people work through a wide range of food-related challenges, from anorexia to ARFID to binge eating disorder. Her approach is compassionate, nonjudgmental, and evidence-based, ensuring that clients feel accepted no matter their size and their goals for treatment.
Let’s Build A Future Defined By Recovery And Healing
Whether you’re dealing with food addiction, anorexia, bulimia, or any other eating disorder, we believe that counseling can help you enjoy a healthier relationship with food. To connect with Jordan and book a consultation, we encourage you to use the contact form. We look forward to working with you!