What is Disordered Eating Counselling?

Eating is a natural part of life. We can’t live without food! It provides us with energy, helps our brain to function properly, and honestly, it can taste pretty good. However, our North American culture idealizes an unhealthy body image. For many men and women, they no longer have a positive relationship with the food they eat. In fact, eating can cause stress and anxiety. By rigidly controlling their diet, some people can find temporary relief from negative emotions. For others, food is the one thing in their life that is theirs to control. If you feel like you have a negative relationship with food, disordered eating counselling might be right for you.

Although it comes in many forms, disordered eating is a simple concept. It is unhealthy associations with food. This can come across as just disordered eating, which the individual recognizes is not beneficial but it is not currently causing physical side effects. It can also come across in the more extreme forms of Anorexia Nervosa and Anorexia Bulimia. If either Anorexia are your concern, Evergreen Counselling Group recommends counselling in concert with your family doctor – with both a counsellor and physician on your team, you are more likely to get positive results!

How Can Disordered Eating Counselling Help?

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The important thing to remember about disordered eating is that it is your body’s natural reaction to stress or anxiety in your life. While you might not understand it, it makes sense when you look at it from that perspective. Disordered eating counselling with this concern starts with the counsellor listening to you and your story. When the counsellor and counselling participant have enough information to contextualise the concern, then healing can begin.

There are two concurrent goals in counselling disordered eating. The first is to understand and reduce the stress and anxiety that is driving the concern. The second is to work to eliminate the negative behaviour that has become or is becoming habitual. This is not an easy process, but when you are working together with someone who knows your story and believes in you, anything can happen!