History
I was licensed as a Marriage Family Therapist (MFC 32410) in 1995. Prior to that I had a practice as a nutritional consultant specializing in eating disorders and substance abuse recovery. Because of my history recovering from my own eating disorder I realized that I wanted to do more than nutrition alone for those struggling with food, weight, body image and exercise issues. That's when I decided to add the psychotherapy piece to my work and trained for my therapist's license. I put together what I think is an effective way to help those restricting, bingeing, purging, exercising compulsively: focus on the body level of the struggle, supporting the body to heal through nutrition, and work on healing the feeling and thinking levels through psychotherapy. What brings together all this work is the focus on empowerment - finding and using your voice, setting boundaries and self esteem building. Addressing all these aspects with compassion and optimism is how I approach recovery.
Specialties
I am a psychotherapist specializing for over 17 years in food, weight, body image and exercise issues for adults. I have a personal history of an eating disorder so my own recovery path has led to my life's work of helping others who struggle with bingeing, restricting, purging, compulsive exercise, body dissatisfaction. As a nutritional consultant we work on the body level to renourish, restabilize and reconnect you to your body. We address the feeling level - the anxieties, depression, self esteem issues - and the thinking level that keeps you trapped - not being good enough, your only friend is food or its the enemy, obsessing about calories, fats, carbs, the gym, you're not ok until your body is a certain size/shape. Central to our work, we focus on empowerment - learning to find and use your voice, set healthy boundaries, improve self esteem in all areas and develop healthier coping skills. Our focus is to normalize eating and change your relationship to food and to your body!