Eating Disorder Therapy
Stephanie has been working with eating disorders since the early 2000s. Having spent years learning about best practices, research on various eating disorders, Stephanie is considered an expert in the field. Stephanie studies and writes on the subject regularly, is quoted in several well known publications and is part of the steering committee at the Eating Disorder, Compulsion and Addictions programs at the William Alanson White Institute, where she also teaches.
Stephanie takes an eceltic approach to the treatment of eating disorders. Being a psychoanalyst and completing her AF-EMDR training, Stephanie utilizes an approach that gets to the underlying causes as well as focusing on the body and nervous system to begin working on healing ones relationship to food and their bodies.
Stephanie believes in an foods fit model and works with people to allow themselves enjoyment in food and balance in their decisions. Stephanie works with adolescents and adults. She also works with families who have someone who is struggling with food or who feel unsure about how to talk about and manage food choices at home. Whether you have a diagnosed eating disorder or are wanting to have less stress around food in general Stephanie will help you get to a better place.
Using a variety of therapeutic models Stephanie will collaborate with you to get you on a path of less stress and more enjoyment.
Stephanie also works with folks who feel excessive exercise has taken over their life. She very much beliefs that movement is part of our life and we can achieve enjoyable movement without feeling overcome by a need to exercise.
Eating Disorders and Athletes
Stephanie understands the specific needs that athletes have when they look to recover from eating disorders or disordered eating. She is here to support your individual needs whether you are looking to continue your sport or need help with the retirement process. Eating disorder treatment for athletes focuses on not just our relationship to food, but our relationship to sport and our bodies. Sometimes in early treatment an athlete is forced to stop training and/or competing in order for their bodies to heal. This can be a challenging time for some and the support of a therapist is often helpful. Therapy can help support your emotional needs while recognizing the loss (temporary or not) with your sport and parts of your identity.
It is her belief as a provider that your sport can be part of your eating disorder recovery with the right support in place. For athletes, we can think of eating disorders as an injury. It is helpful to have a mental health provider who is aware of the culture of sport; who can work with you and your team to help you get back on track. As with all injuries, healing is needed and not always linear and she is available to support your mental health concerns during that journey.
Some of the signs to look for in athletes who are struggling with disordered eating:
Overtraining
Obsessive rituals around food
Rigidity in food intake (quantity, time, rules)
Continuing to train or crossgrain when injured
recurrent injuries
Obsessing about training data, details, schedules,
Adding workouts to training schedule
Irritable moods
About Over Exercising
While overexercising isn’t considered an eating disorder itself it can become a compulsion that is similar to patterns of bulimia. Over exercising isn’t always linked to an eating disorder, but it is usually connected to how one feels about their body overall. Sometimes over exercise can be hard to identify as it is normalized and praised in our society. Some key signs to look for are:
Linking food to exercise
The “earn it or burn it” mentality.
Prioritizing exercise over other areas of life to the detriment of those other areas
The need to exercise taking away from ones ability to tolerate their emotions
Using exercise as their only emotional outlet
Rigid ideas about exercise and food
Multiple workouts in one day when not competing in athletic events or multi-sport events.
Are you ready to work on changing your relationship to food, your body, and your sport?