Body Positivity and Eating Disorder Treatment in Colorado
Are you hyper-focused on what you look like, on food, or on exercise?
Do you find that your confidence is highly tied to your physical appearance?
Are these fixations impacting your relationships, school, or work because you find yourself struggling to not be consumed by insecurities?
If this sounds like you, then eating disorder treatment and working with a skilled therapist can help. You can overcome these issues and live a happy and fulfilling life.
Understanding the origins of an eating disorder
Thoughts and emotions about food, weight, exercise, being "good enough", and what we think we look like, can all get in the way of feeling happy and fulfilled. As therapists, we know that developing a positive body image and healthy eating behaviors is a lifelong process. It’s not something that is achieved overnight.
Thoughts of How We Look Start in Early Childhood
Research shows that thoughts and feelings about the food we eat, how much we weigh, and the way we look, often arise as early as age 5 or 6. This is developmentally normal to an extent. However, a lot can influence this development, and it’s very easy for these thoughts and normal childhood curiosity to turn into poor body image.
This is why we believe and teach others that knowledge is power, especially when it comes to your body. Therapy along with education can guide, empower, and bring clarity as you embark on your journey to find health and healing after struggling with body image and/or an eating disorder.
Body Image Affects Everyone
Your body image is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture the way you look in your mind. It encompasses the beliefs you hold about your physical appearance including memories, assumptions, and generalizations. Furthermore, your body image also includes the way you think and feel about your height, weight, shape, and size, as well as the sense of control they have over how your body looks and moves.
Having an unhealthy body image may look like:
Not wanting to wear a bathing suit because of how you look
Avoiding looking in the mirror or looking in the mirror excessively
Wearing loose-fitting or overly tight clothes
Feeling ashamed of the way you look
Withdrawing or isolating from others
Avoiding being in photos
When Disordered Eating, becomes an Eating Disorder
Eating Disorders can impact the way you feel about yourself mentally and physically. Unknowingly to most individuals who are affected by these disorders , their struggles impact not only them but their loved ones as well.
It can be quite challenging to know if you or your loved one is suffering from an eating disorder. Oftentimes, disordered eating occurs for an extended period but doesn’t raise cause for concern. This is why it is difficult for change to occur.
Do I have an eating disorder?
If you suspect that you or someone you love has an eating disorder, we recommend looking at the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website to look at the specific symptoms that attribute to each type of eating disorder. For further resources, check out:
ANAD
FEDUP
MEDA
Nalgona Positivity Pride
NEDA
Project Heal
However, we encourage you to talk to a professional if you or someone you love struggles from two or more of these symptoms:
Inadequate food consumption that may or may not lead to weight loss
Self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives as a means of weight control
Frequent episodes of consuming very large amounts of food but without behaviors to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting
A feeling of being out of control during a binge-eating episode
Self-esteem is overly related to body image
Excessive nighttime food consumption
Excessive exercise (exercising more than two hours a day, having to exercise every day, or becoming deeply distraught when unable to exercise)
Low sense of self-worth, frequent crying, isolation
Many times, the tendency to focus on what's missing or imperfect about your appearance mirrors what is missing or imperfect within yourself. Therefore, controlling what you eat, how much you eat, and how and when you exercise can become an all-consuming way to protect yourself from the feelings you’re afraid to face. It helps you feel like you’re in control. But this is a false sense of control and it is dangerous.
As a group of Denver and Florida therapists, our goal is to help you identify some of the insecurities and struggles that lie beneath your body image concerns and help you enter into a place where you can experience self-acceptance.
Are Wondering if you or a loved one have an Eating Disorder?
If you suspect you or someone you love is experiencing disordered eating or an eating disorder, then we invite you to take our quiz to determine your attitude towards your body and the food you consume.
Types of Eating Disorders
Please click on the links below to learn more about the following eating disorders and how they are treated by our team of skilled therapists.
Counseling and Eating disorder Treatment will Address the following:
What you believe about your appearance (including your memories, assumptions, and generalizations)
Greater body awareness through movement and play
Teaching you the tools to dispute negative existing thoughts that affect your body image
How you feel about your body, including your height, weight, shape, and size
Creating a positive view of yourself as a whole
How you sense and control your body, in stillness and movement
How you feel in your body, not just about your body
In some cases, your eating disorder therapist may recommend that you seek further treatment from medical professionals, registered dietitians, or in-patient care if necessary to support your recovery.
Therapy can help you develop food freedom, address concerns about your body, and navigate the need to be rigid or perfect. Developing a greater sense of peace, joy, and light can arise when you work towards healing from your eating disorder or body image concerns. This will allow you to fully engage with your life and live a life that brings you happiness.
Begin Body Positivity Counseling and Eating Disorder Treatment in Colorado
With the help of a therapist, you can find freedom from disordered eating or an eating disorder and naturally improve your body image and sense of self. If you’re ready to begin counseling in Broomfield, CO or online therapy in Colorado, we encourage you to take the following steps:
Meet with a Colorado eating disorder therapist for a free consultation to get to know their style and ask any questions you may have about counseling
Begin treatment and improve your body image and self-worth.
Other Counseling Services Offered at Well Minded Counseling Center
Our Denver area counseling center sees clients of all ages and addresses a wide variety of mental health concerns. In addition to eating disorder treatment including anorexia nervosa treatment, bulimia nervosa treatment, binge eating disorder treatment, and orthorexia nervosa treatment, we offer the following counseling services: