Assisting Individuals with Eating Disorders
While everyone has a different relationship with food and eating, sometimes you may feel that this relationship is hindering your ability to live your life in a functional way.
Do you feel a loss of control when you’re around food?
Do you skip meals, or do you rigidly restrict your food intake?
Are you consumed with thoughts about your body shape or your weight?
You don’t have to have a diagnosis to seek support. The signs and symptoms of a disordered eating pattern are similar to those of an eating disorder, although they will vary with frequency and severity.
Eating Disorders can also take a mental and physical toll on a person. You may miss work, school or personal events because of anxiety or discomfort around food, or because of an obsessive exercise routine. Or it might be affecting your ability to focus or concentrate, impacting your performance at work or school.
What causes people to engage in harmful eating habits can be complex, and vary per the individual. Individual therapy can help you examine and understand what led to these behaviours and the emotions underneath. Together we can work towards healthier habits and developing coping mechanisms for difficult cues or triggers.
Assisting Families with Eating Disorders
Not everyone who is struggling with an eating disorder is ready to acknowledge the need for change, or even ready to fight the illness – the most difficult battle they will every go through in their lives.
In the meantime, parents and partners are generally desperate to help, desperate to find ways in which they can support their loved ones. That, in turn, can have a toll on relationships and might result in the person struggling becoming more defensive and disconnected from parents or family. Sometimes, they are ready to change and receiving individual support, but you are being kept out of the look, without guidelines or direction on how to support them.
Eating disorder‐focused family therapy has emerged as the strongest evidence‐based treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa. I have extensive experience working with families in the treatment of Eating Disorders. Over the last 10 years, I specialised in working with the parents of young people and families of adults struggling with this illness. Not because I see them as part of the problem, but because families are part of the solution.
If you are looking for a safe, non-judgmental space to think about how to move forward, get in touch.
Reach out today
(+64) 21 199 6774 | violeta.gaddum@gmail.com
Providing Online Therapy from New Zealand to the World
Face to Face Therapy in Cambridge, New Zealand
