California

I work with folks who are recovering from disordered eating and/or wanting to reconnect with their bodies. I am centered in self-compassion work, and I help folks explore ways they restrict in multiple areas of their life (not just with food or exercise). I help clients reconnect with themselves and re-parent themselves, learning to replace shaming, critical cognitive patterns with messages of validation and comfort.

I work with individuals, as well as their support systems, who struggle with eating disorders, disordered eating habits, over-exercise, or poor body image. In regards to supporting parents who have kids with eating body issues, I aim to provide psychoeducation, increase healthy familial communication and understanding surrounding helpful vs unhelpful support, decrease emotional enmeshment if present, and highlight parents' own needs and self-care if applicable. I offer individual, couples, and family therapy.

My practice is rooted firmly in the principles of HAES and Intuitive Eating. I have experience working in treatment center settings in addition to my private practice. Collaboration with family members and a united clinical team is vital to the success of treatment. We all live in a diet-culture, weight-centered, weight-biased, fat-phobic society and sometimes the loved ones of clients need support and learning/un-learning of their own to gain awareness and understanding of the influence of society on values, belief-systems, and what is often mistaken for "health." I help families understand what the client is experiencing so that they can become allies in recovery for their loved one.

As a therapist treating Eating Disorders for over a decade at multiple levels of care, I have seen the challenges of feeding a child, self, or loved one in a nutritious yet flexible manner. Body acceptance and positive home environment are keys to success but I also treat the clinical components of Eating Disorders and mood disorders that trigger misuse of food. I am an advocate for body acceptance, intuitive eating, and viewing food as self-care. I utilize multiple treatment components including traditional CBT/DBT but more eclectic art therapy, book studies, and games to help teenage clients break free from maladaptive eating patterns.