Eating disorder therapy in Boulder, CO

Maybe you've got rules about food that keep multiplying. Maybe you're doing quiet math at every meal, checking your body in every reflective surface, or feeling like your worth goes up and down with the number on a scale. Maybe eating has become the one thing you can control when everything else feels like too much, or the thing that turns off a feeling you don't want to have. It can look like restricting, like eating way past full, like exercising to earn or undo food, or just like a relationship with your body that's exhausting to carry around.

Here's something worth knowing: this is far more common than it looks from the outside, partly because so many people hide it well. In one national survey, close to 3% of teens met criteria for a diagnosable eating disorder at some point, and many more struggle with disordered eating and body-image worry that never gets a formal label (National Institute of Mental Health). You do not need a diagnosis for this to be real and worth addressing.

And I want to say this plainly, because the shame around eating runs deep: this isn't vanity, and it isn't a lack of willpower. Really often, what looks like a food problem is an anxiety-and-control problem wearing a food costume. When life feels uncertain or overwhelming, food and body can become the place your brain goes to feel some order. That makes complete sense, and it's something we can work with.

How CBT for disordered eating actually works

My core approach is cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, which has good research behind it for eating and body-image concerns. In plain terms, we look at how your thoughts about food and your body, your feelings, and your eating behaviors all feed each other, and we start loosening the grip of the rules and rituals that keep the cycle going. A lot of the work is also about what's underneath: the anxiety, the need for control, the perfectionism, and the harsh inner voice that's often driving the whole thing. Because disordered eating so frequently travels with anxiety and with a complicated relationship to alcohol or substances, especially in teens, college students, and young adults, we'll keep an eye on the full picture rather than treating the eating in a vacuum.

One honest note. Some eating concerns need more than talk therapy on its own, especially when your body isn't medically stable and a physician or dietitian really needs to be part of the team. If we get into it and it turns out you need a higher level of care, I'll tell you straight, and I'll help you find the right people rather than leaving you to sort it out alone. Getting you the right kind of help matters more to me than keeping you as a client.

What our first steps look like

We start with a free 15-minute consult so you can get a feel for me and I can hear what's going on. If it feels like a fit, the next step is usually a longer evaluation where we get clear on what you're dealing with and whether anyone else (like a physician) should be looped in. From there we meet weekly or every other week, in person in Boulder or online.

Who I work with

I work with teens who are getting more rigid or secretive around food, college students up against body pressure and a whole new food environment away from home, and young adults who've been quietly white-knuckling this for years. If you're a parent who's noticed changes in how your kid eats and can't tell how worried to be, that instinct is worth listening to.