Find An Eating Disorder Therapist in Mount Albert, ON.

Winnie has walked with clients to understand their root cause of their binging and purging. It is not just the compulsion of binging. Your body and your emotional well-being are also strongly impacted by it. Being aware that you may have some symptoms of Eating Disorders is a giant step. With self awareness, you can learn about what is Eating Disorders, and learn different coping strategies to help yourself. You can make a change! You can break the cycle of binging and purging!

If you are reading this profile, you are probably concerned about yourself to the point that you want to seek help. You are likely to be "an emotional eater". You may have been battling with your weight and sense of self-image for a long period of time. You are constantly looking for a sense of control over the struggles on your feeling and your weight etc... With over 12 years of clinical experiences, I humbly and wholeheartedly want to support you in this battle. There are evident-based and effective therapeutic approaches to address your struggles. I offer integrative approaches to meet your needs. Please don't hesitate to reach out and start to get the help you need at this moment.

While counselling clients with eating disorders, it is often discovered that the cause is from childhood and relationship challenges. While I suggest you have a doctor and nutritionist on your team, sessions with me can include a safe place for you to share thoughts and feelings and explore coping strategies. Topics such as body image, self-esteem, anxiety and anger, and depression can be explored in sessions to help you understand yourself and your eating disorder in your unique circumstances.

Eating disorder recovery is a transformative journey towards a healthier relationship with food and yourself. Through a supportive and non-judgmental therapeutic process, we will work together to develop healthier habits, improve body image, explore emotional triggers, and restore your overall well-being. If you are on the path to eating disorders recovery, reach out today for a free consultation.

Clients who seek eating disorder counseling and treatment can benefit in a variety of ways. Firstly, counseling can help clients to understand the underlying causes of their eating disorder, such as past trauma or negative self-talk. By addressing these underlying issues, clients can begin to develop healthier coping mechanisms and strategies for managing their symptoms. In addition, counseling can help clients to develop a healthier relationship with food and their body image. Clients can learn to identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs that may be contributing to their eating disorder, and they can develop more positive and self-affirming self-talk.

I offer individual counselling to support your efforts to lose weight based on the diet of your choice. Stress, depression, or anxiety due to hormonal changes, cravings or emotional difficulties may lead some individuals to overeat. Being overweight alters the functioning of the whole body plus may hurt emotionally as well. The psychological component of a successful weight loss is just as important as nutrition and exercise. Counselling supports you by identifying the emotional factors that affect your weight by rebalancing your lifestyle in a holistic way. We also work on improving your relationship with food, with your body and to learn to respond in a different and compassionate way.

I have been working with eating disordered clients since working in a college setting over 30 yrs ago and I am still using a two-track approach: helping an individual change their behaviour and life-style on the one hand, and then walking with them through many of the underlying emotional and spiritual issues that drive the eating disorder on the other. Compulsive eating, anorexia and bulimia have a tight grip on so many women (and some men) but if you are one of them, I want to assure you that your future is not hopeless. I would be glad to help you get free from this. Call me today with any questions you may have regarding my experience and approach.

“There are various ways that individuals with eating disorders describe “dealing with” painful feelings: They may numb them through starving, soothe or push them down with bingeing, or get rid of them through purging. This vicious cycle of fearing, avoiding, and feeling overwhelmed and incapacitated by feelings, to the point of having to stay ill or inflict self-harm to escape, makes Emotion-Focused Therapy a compelling approach to treating eating disorders. Emotion-Focused Therapy works directly with painful emotions, and views them as a source of information and meaning. Emotion, if paid attention to, can be like a beacon or a flashlight, leading us to what is important.

Eating disorders are a complex mental health problem with many contributing factors. My approach focuses on understanding the context of the eating disorder development with each individual client, learning about triggers for related behaviours, and exploring and healing underlying issues. Clients will learn to cope without the eating disorder and will be able to minimize or eliminate unhealthy behaviours. In addition, clients will rediscover who they are away from the eating problem. Many clients have described feeling free or like they have "been lifted out of the fog" as they recover and are able to enjoy their life without the eating disorder thoughts and behaviours interfering.

Eating disorders are not really about food. They involve complex emotional issues that have significant impact on ones physical, emotional and social health. If you are preoccupied with your weight, focused on body image, size, or shape, compelled to perform specific rituals around food, obsessive about food, or deem foods as “safe” or “unsafe” to eat or uncomfortable participating in social activities involving food (such as getting dinner with friends) you may be engaging in disordered eating. I offer free consultations to answer your questions and help you determine if therapy will be beneficial for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Eating disorders can threaten physical health as well as mental health and may be associated with other disorders such as trauma, self esteem and body dysmorphia. I work from a comprehensive/holistic approach to eating disorders and often use the potent tool of hypnosis when working with these issues. I provided a safe and supportive environment in which to address these sensitive issues.

Dealing with an eating disorder is difficult, made all the more difficult if the people you love do not know how to support you through this time. Working with someone trained in treating eating disorders, you will feel understood in a way that you might not have thought possible. There is no reason why you should be going through this alone. Reach out to get the support that you need.

Shyamala's approach to working with eating disorders is to address the underlying issues that often perpetuate disordered eating: anxiety, perfectionism and a need for control. In helping clients build confidence and explore alternative ways of managing the underlying issues, clients are able to move towards a life that is no longer controlled by food and body image.

Our Registered Social Worker, Meghan Bird, RSW, has both formal training and clinical experience delivering Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders and has a special interest in working with both youth and adults experiencing self-esteem and body image concerns. She also has training and experience in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS), including the completion of a certificate in Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT). In addition, she provides art- and play-based therapy for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, complex trauma, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.

I help clients overcome addictive relationships with food. Like all addictions, the behavior is the tip of the iceberg, used to cope with underlying thoughts and emotions. Through collaborative conversations, clients gain insight into underlying concerns, gaining coping skills to more effectively navigate these issues. I draw on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI), helping clients achieve a sense of freedom and control over their lives, leading to long-term change.

Issues with eating are an understandable reaction to difficult or traumatic circumstances. The word disorder is faulty as it implies that it is a single person's disorder. However, the disorder is one of society. Due to limitations and restrictions of society, institutions, media, and groups, we have learned to restrict and or indulge ourselves in food. It is my goal to explore the emotional and cognitive roots of your issues with food as well as to figure out just how these limitations and restrictions of our society and/or families have affected you. In discovering the roots of the struggle, we can then collaboratively work towards health and healing.