DISORDERED EATING & BODY IMAGE CONCERNS
N O U R I S H E D R E S I L I E N C E
THERAPY OFFERED ONLINE & IN-PERSON IN PENNSYLVANIA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND WASHINGTON D.C.
Many people come to therapy feeling exhausted by the constant mental noise around food, body image, and self-worth. You may feel stuck in cycles of restriction, bingeing, guilt, overthinking, or rigid rules that seem impossible to break—even when part of you deeply wants things to feel different.
You don’t have to keep doing this alone.
At Nourished Resilience, I provide specialized therapy for individuals navigating eating disorders, disordered eating patterns, and body image distress. Together, we work to understand not just the behaviors, but the emotions, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped your relationship with food and your body.
Healing is possible—and it does not require you to hate yourself into change.
The relationship you have with your body is the longest one you will ever have.
YOU FEEL PREOCCUPIED WITH FOOD AND BODY IMAGE MORE THAN YOU’D LIKE TO BE
THIS CAN SHOW UP AS
✦ You feel distracted with food, calories, or body image throughout the day
✦ You swing between restriction and loss of control around food
✦ You feel guilt, shame, or anxiety after eating
✦ You struggle with rigid food rules or “good vs. bad” thinking about food
✦ Your self-worth feels closely tied to your body or weight
✦ You avoid social situations because of food or body concerns
✦ You find yourself constantly comparing your body to others
✦ You feel disconnected from your body’s hunger or fullness cues
✦ You’re navigating recovery from an eating disorder or relapse
✦ You feel like food and body image are taking up too much mental space in your life
You hold yourself to standards you would never expect from anyone else.
Common areas of concern
✦ Anorexia nervosa
✦ Bulimia nervosa
✦ Binge eating disorder
✦ Other specified feeding or eating disorders (OSFED)
✦ Chronic dieting and disordered eating pattern
✦ Body image distress across the lifespan
✦ Exercise compulsion or rigid movement patterns
✦ Perinatal eating and body image concerns (pregnancy & postpartum)
✦ Relapse prevention and recovery maintenance
✦ Anxiety and perfectionism that reinforce eating patterns
Recovery is not just about changing behaviors—it’s about rebuilding trust with yourself.
I’m interested in what the behavior is communicating, not just what is looks like.
I draw from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and body image–focused interventions within a Health at Every Size (HAES)-informed, weight-inclusive framework. My work is informed by experience across higher levels of care, as well as outpatient treatment, supporting individuals with a range of eating disorder presentations. I am a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS) through IAEDP.
In our work together, we attend not only to eating behaviors, but also to the emotional and relational layers underneath them, including shame, control, trauma, identity, and perfectionism.
I often use the allegory of the log to help make sense of eating disorder patterns. Behaviors like restriction, bingeing, or body checking often began as survival strategies. When we understand what they were once protecting you from, we can begin to create change without shame leading the way.
We move at a pace that feels supportive—not punitive. You will not be shamed in this space. You will be understood, supported, and gently challenged toward healing.
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The Allegory of the Log
Imagine you’re standing on the bank of a river, watching the water move by. Suddenly, the ground beneath you gives out. Before you have time to orient yourself, you’re in the water—kicking, fighting, trying to keep your head above the surface so you don’t drown.
By chance, a log floats by and you grab onto it tightly. It becomes your only lifeline as you’re carried downstream—over rocks and through rapids. The water is loud. It’s freezing. You’re scared.
Eventually, the current begins to slow. The water becomes calmer, and you’re still holding onto the log. You look up and see the people in your life—the ones who love you—standing on the riverbank. They’re calling out, “Let go of the log. The water is calm now—you can swim.”
So you try.
You let go.
And immediately, you’re underwater again. Panicked, you grab back onto the log as tightly as before.
It can feel confusing—almost ironic—that the very thing that helped you survive now feels like something you can’t live without.
So how do you learn to let go?
Maybe you don’t let go all at once. Maybe you start by slowly building trust in the water again. You take a small lap around the log. Then two. Then three. Each time, you notice you can come back to it if you need to.
Over time, those laps become longer, and your confidence grows. Eventually, you begin to trust your ability to swim toward the shore without needing to hold on so tightly.
This is how self-efficacy is built.
We don’t hold onto behaviors because they don’t work—we hold onto them because at some point, they did. Even when they are no longer sustainable, they once made survival possible.
RECOVERY ISN’T LINEAR
It often is the quiet, repetitive, everyday practices that slowly build stability and support lasting change.
✦ Food taking up less mental space
✦ Less guilt and anxiety after eating
✦ More flexibility with food choices
✦ Reconnecting with hunger and fullness cues
✦ Feeling more present in your body (not at war with it)
✦ Reduced compulsive behaviors or binge-restrict cycles
✦ A more stable, compassionate sense of self
✦ The ability to engage in life without food or body rules running the show
INSTEAD, WE FOCUS ON:
✦ Reducing body-based self-criticism
✦ Untangling self-worth from appearance
✦ Understanding where body beliefs came from
✦ Building neutrality and respect toward your body
✦ Expanding identity beyond appearance
✦ Creating space for embodiment and presence
Body image work in therapy is not about forcing you to love your body every day.
VIRTUAL CARE OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN PA, NH, & DC
Whether you prefer the flexibility of virtual therapy or the grounding of in-person sessions, I offer both options. I provide virtual therapy in PA, NH, and DC, and in-person therapy in Pittsburgh.