Eating Disorder Therapy & Body Image Therapy in Athens, GA
Healing the Wounds Beneath the Relationship with Food using EMDR, CBT, and IFS-Informed Parts Work
Living with an eating disorder (ARFID, Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, OSFED, ect.), chronic dieting, or intense body-image distress is exhausting. Your day may be filled with obsessive thoughts about your diet, caloric intake, body shape/size and an overwhelming urge to restrict, binge, or purge. All of which feed into an almost relentless cycle of shame and guilt that results in immense isolation from yourself, others, and the world.
Traditional medical approaches to eating disorders often focus solely on behavior modifications and nutrition intervention. Both are beneficial in correcting immediate risk of harm but often leave deeper feelings undiscovered. Alternatively, traditional therapeutic approaches can be harsh, leaving little room to explore deeper, underlying causes of the eating disorder and subsequent negative beliefs. Hospital based and residential treatment programs, while life saving, can leave behind their own trauma instead of a holistic healing experience.
At our Athens clinic, we view disordered eating behaviors through a compassionate, trauma-informed lens, recognizing that there is significant hurt within the rejection of self for emotional safety. We acknowledge that eating disorders are almost always an adaptive, intelligent coping mechanism born out of a desire for safety, acceptance, emotional regulation, or need for control. Our eating disorder recovery approach addresses the unaddressed– working to heal the underlying pain driving the need for comfort, control, or coping, replacing it with a sustainable sense of self that lasts for years to come.
Our Root-Cause Healing Framework
Led by our specialized eating disorder clinician, our approach blends advanced trauma processing with body-centered integration to help you reclaim your life.
IFS - Informed Parts Work for Eating Disorders: Your eating disorder isn’t the bad guy! We work gently with the hard-working "parts" of your internal system (brain) like your inner critic, societal standards, the protector that restricts, or the part that uses binging to numb pain. We aim to understand their protective intent and fears while learning how to care for it in a way that honors you.
EMDR Trauma Reprocessing: We use Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to target and clear out the roots of past distressing events, childhood attachment wounds, or appearance-related bullying that originally fractured your relationship with your body. We can also use EMDR to treat trauma that you have experienced related to eating disorder treatment in the past.
Somatic Tracking & Regulation: Because body image distress lives deeply in the physiology, we teach you how to safely inhabit your physical self, track sensations without panic, and release chronic "freeze" or hyper-vigilant states. You do not have to spend your life fighting your food intake or your reflection in the mirror. Let us help you heal the root causes, restore safety to your nervous system, and build a truly free, authentic relationship with your body.
