What Your Eating Disorder Is Trying to Tell You
The function beneath the behaviour — and why understanding it matters more than stopping it.
Compassionate, weight-neutral therapy for those navigating the painful complexity of eating disorders and disordered eating in Ottawa.
The struggle with food is rarely about food. It's about what food has come to mean — safety, control, punishment, comfort, numbness. Whatever it means for you, it makes sense. And it can change.
Perhaps food occupies most of your thinking. Perhaps there are rules — strict, exhausting rules — about what you can eat, when, how much, and what happens if you break them. Perhaps you swing between restriction and the relief of eating, then the shame that follows.
Perhaps you've been told your eating is a problem. Or perhaps nobody knows — because you've learned to hide it well, and the hiding has become its own weight.
I work with people navigating anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, ARFID, orthorexia, and the quieter, unnamed forms of disordered eating that don't fit a clinical category but still cause significant suffering.
I work from a weight-neutral, HAES-aligned (Health at Every Size) framework. This means that weight change is never a therapeutic goal — your worth, your health, and your healing are not contingent on what your body looks like.
Therapy for eating disorders often involves exploring the function the eating disorder serves — what it protects, what it expresses, what it holds. This is done gently, collaboratively, and at a pace that feels manageable.
I draw on approaches including somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) — tailoring the work to what fits you, not a protocol.
Recovery is not a destination with a fixed finish line. It is a gradual, non-linear process of developing a different relationship — with food, with your body, with yourself.
It might look like eating without guilt. It might look like being present at a dinner table. It might look like trusting your body's signals again — slowly, tentatively, then with more ease.
I work alongside dietitians, physicians, and other healthcare providers where appropriate, to ensure you have the support your recovery requires.
"Your body is not the problem to be solved. It is the home you're learning to live in again."
The function beneath the behaviour — and why understanding it matters more than stopping it.
Why "loving your body" isn't always the right goal — and what might feel more honest.
If something in you is ready — or even just curious — I'd be honoured to sit with you and see what might be possible.
Free 20-minute consultation. No pressure. No obligation.