Specialties · Eating Disorders
Eating Disorder Therapy
An eating disorder is rarely about food alone. It is a way of managing feeling that has taken over decisions about eating, and it usually reaches beyond the person carrying it into the household around them.
60-Minute Sessions · Individual $200 · Family $250
What It Looks Like
Restriction, Bingeing, and What Keeps Both Hidden
Restriction can look orderly from the outside — a person who eats on a rigid schedule, declines food in specific categories, or has an explanation ready for every meal skipped. Bingeing tends to look like the opposite: eating that feels out of a person’s control, often followed by shame that makes the next restriction feel necessary. Purging and compensatory exercise are ways of undoing what was eaten, driven by the same urgency and usually the most closely guarded part of the whole pattern. None of these behaviors are described here in the detail that would make them instructional, because that detail is not the point. The point is what the behavior is doing for the person underneath it.
Secrecy is close to universal. Food gets moved, eaten quickly, or avoided in company. Family members sense something is wrong before they can name it, and the person struggling often works hard to keep it that way, not out of dishonesty but because exposure feels like the end of the only coping strategy they have. Over time an eating disorder recruits the whole household: mealtimes become supervised or avoided, comments about food and bodies get rehearsed and edited, and everyone develops a private theory of what will help.
What gets lost in the focus on behavior is the function. Eating disorders are frequently a way of managing feelings that have no other outlet — control when little else feels controllable, numbness when emotion is too much, punishment when self-worth has collapsed. Treating the pattern as a failure of willpower misses what it is actually doing, and makes it harder to give up.
Medical Care in Parallel
Therapy Runs Alongside Medical Care, Not in Place of It
Athena has extensive training in eating disorders and brings a systemic, relational lens to the work: what the eating disorder means, who else is affected, and what has to change in the surrounding relationships for recovery to hold. She is not a physician and not a dietitian. She does not do meal planning, and she does not do medical monitoring.
That is not a gap in the work; it is a structure. Eating disorders carry real medical risk, and that risk needs a physician tracking it and, in most cases, a dietitian working directly on eating itself. Therapy addresses what is driving the behavior and how the household responds to it. When those three pieces are coordinated, each one can do its part well instead of one person trying to be all three.
If what comes up in session, or what a client or family describes, suggests the level of outpatient therapy is no longer enough — medically or otherwise — Athena will say so plainly and help identify where a higher level of care can be found, rather than continuing as though the situation has not changed.
Seeking help for your problems means you’re taking action.
Family Involvement
When the Client Is a Preteen or Teen
Preteens and teens are seen individually, and parents are brought into the work in ways suited to age and situation. An eating disorder in a young person is rarely something they can address alone, and parents usually need direct guidance on how to respond at mealtimes, how to talk about food and bodies in the house, and how to notice without turning every meal into surveillance. Family sessions are often part of this, held alongside the individual work rather than replacing it.
For adults, involving a partner or other family members is optional and depends on what would actually help. Some households need a session together to agree on how to talk about food; others need the person struggling to have a private space that belongs only to them. Both are reasonable, and the choice is made together rather than assumed.
Across ages, the work moves at a pace set by what is safe and sustainable, not by a timeline. Progress is measured in how food, feeling and relationships are functioning together, not in any single number.
Athena is not a prescriber, dietitian, or physician. She does not create meal plans, set weight targets, or provide medical monitoring. She does not treat substance abuse, grief, or OCD, and will refer out when one of those is the central concern.
Common Questions
Eating Disorder Therapy Questions
- Does Athena create meal plans or track weight?
- No. Athena is a therapist, not a dietitian or physician, and she does not build meal plans, set weight targets, or provide medical monitoring. That work belongs with a physician and a dietitian, and therapy runs alongside them.
- What is Athena’s training in eating disorders?
- Athena has extensive training in eating disorders and works from a systemic, relational orientation. She also has Level 2 Gottman training, which informs how she works with couples and families around the disorder.
- Will Athena tell us if a higher level of care is needed?
- Yes. If what you describe or what she observes suggests medical risk or a level of support beyond what outpatient therapy can safely provide, she will say so directly and help you find the right referral rather than continuing as though nothing has changed.
- Are parents involved when a teenager is the one struggling?
- Usually, yes, in some form. Eating disorders tend to organize a household’s mealtimes, moods and vigilance, and preteens and teens are seen with parents brought into at least part of the work, alongside family sessions where useful.
Start With the Contact Form
Eating disorder work is usually individual therapy, with family sessions involved for preteens and teens. Send the contact form before anything is scheduled.