Eating Disorder Therapy in Asheville, NC

As a body-centered (somatic) practice, we focus on the connection between the mind and body, using nervous system awareness, movement and somatic practices to explore and heal trauma and attachment wounds. By understanding and transforming your relationship with your body’s sensations and patterns, profound healing on a gut level is possible. 

As you develop new skills to regulate your feelings, you'll learn to attune to and trust your body, increase self-compassion, and embrace the body you have today — without the destructive coping mechanisms you’ve relied on till now.

You will also learn skills to find resilience in the face of an oppressive society that causes harm due to racism, weightism/sizeim, ableism, healthism, sexism and sexual orientation discrimination. You will build skills in connecting to communities of belonging where you can feel safer and celebrated as you are.

Eating disorders are complex and nuanced. What may work in other therapy contexts may be harmful to you. That’s why we’re not a therapy practice that happens to treat eating disorders — it’s all we do. We bring decades of experience and in-depth expertise in helping people heal their relationship with food and their body. We approach your challenges with nuance, sensitivity and knowledge of the dynamics involved.

Working with eating disorders effectively requires a specialized understanding of neuroscience, psychology and the disease itself. Although we are eating disorder specialists, we believe our clients are the experts on their experience and recognize that many clients have been harmed by “experts” who don’t have an understanding of marginalized identities, neurodiversity and the systems of oppression that perpetuate eating disorders and body image challenges. We are neurodiversity affirming, weight inclusive and continue to work to understand our privileges and potential blind spots in supporting recovery for every human.

Eating disorders and disordered eating often result from deep attachment wounds and unresolved trauma. But if trauma is addressed in the wrong way, it can do more harm than good. As experienced psychotherapists, we gently explore these deep issues in a safe and supportive environment. We work mindfully and compassionately, at a pace that respects your current resiliency and available resources. We believe in the importance of context, consent and choice.

We don't actively attempt to stop or reduce behaviors.  Instead, we focus on adding in resources to regulate your nervous system in life affirming versus life harming ways. By working through the core issues and increasing your ability to self-regulate, you will develop the skills and resilience to handle whatever life throws you — without falling back to unhealthy coping mechanisms and destructive behaviors. 

We incorporate yoga, breathing, mindfulness, sensory work and other tools to help you reconnect with your body’s messages and wisdom. Learning to understand and interpret your body's signals will help you respond to your emotions in an empowered way and help you return to a state of calm, alertness, and connection. Drawing on various modalities, we create a personalized therapy protocol based on your individual needs. All of our therapists are informed by EMBODIED RECOVERY for EATING DISORDERS (ERED), which combines the latest research in neuroscience, nervous system understanding, trauma and eating disorders in a bottom-up approach.

We know your healing doesn't happen in a bubble. We work closely with your medical team (with your permission), so we’re on the same page, supporting you and holding you on your road to wellness. It takes a village to heal and we love being a part of that village.