While individuals who are either actively engaging in patterns of disordered eating or who are in the early stages of recovery require considerable support, family members are often left to suffer in silence in the background. Witnessing a loved one manipulate their relationship with food and struggle to maintain healthy habits can be traumatic, confusing and evoke strong feelings of helplessness. 

Family members often require a certain type of support that honors the complexities of being in relationship with someone struggling with disordered eating. There is very little education provided about how to best navigate the intricacies of this type of self-harming behavior, and family members often benefit from support that is understanding and compassionate while also providing tools to shift patterns that may be accidentally supporting some of these behaviors. 

Do you have a loved one who is actively engaging in disordered eating?

It can often feel challenging to know how to intervene on our loved one's harmful behavior, and it can be very difficult to take care of ourselves when we are concerned with the mental and physically well-being of another. Counseling for Friends & Family of Individuals with Disordered Eating can support you by giving you a safe space to process your experiences being in relationship with someone struggling with disordered eating and in identifying ways to shift patterns of codependency and unhealthy involvement in the problematic dynamics. By supporting you in exploring your own relational patterns, relationships with food/nutrition/body image, and family of origin dynamics, our therapists can help you navigate these challenging dynamics and cultivate more peace and healing. 

Is your loved one working on changing their relationship with food/their body, and you are wanting to learn ways to support these new and healthier dynamics?

Disordered eating is a very complex and multi-faceted issue, often stemming from struggles relating to feelings of loss of control and lack of necessary social support as well as internalized societal values regarding the "ideal" way to look. Despite family members' best attempts to support their loved one's newfound recovery, there are often ways that the family/relational system inadvertently and unintentionally supports these dysfunctional dynamics. If you are looking for a safe and supportive place to explore your own relationship to your loved one's disordered eating so as to set the path for a healthier, more sustainable and connected future, Counseling for Friends & Family of Individuals with Disordered Eating may be a good fit for you.

We believe that there are many paths to successful recovery, and we will work with your goals and desires to ensure you can make the life changes you want to make. 

Our clinicians offer virtual Individual Therapy sessions in Colorado, Florida and New York and provide a free 15-minute consultation call prior to scheduling an initial session in order to ensure that we are the right fit for you and your therapeutic goals.

Please reach out today for a free consultation or to schedule your first appointment!