Online Therapy for Anorexia
Compassionate, individualised support for adults across the UK
As an accredited therapist specialising in working with adults struggling to overcome an eating disorder, bringing my own lived experience of an eating disorder, I know how isolating it can be. The need for someone to see you as more than just a set of symptoms, to be patient with you, to make sure you’re truly heard, and to help you develop the skills you need to move forwards, is crucial.
What is Anorexia?
Anorexia (or Anorexia Nervosa) is a serious mental health condition involving an intense fear of gaining weight and preoccupation with food, shape, and your body. It can affect anyone, regardless of gender or age.
Those with anorexia have often developed this complex condition as a coping mechanism for managing challenges such as anxiety, perfectionism, trauma, or other difficult thoughts and feelings.
Importantly, anorexia doesn’t look the same way on everyone. Weight is just one aspect of anorexia, with many people having Atypical Anorexia. With Atypical Anorexia, all of the other features of anorexia are present except being underweight. Whatever your weight or BMI, you still deserve support, which is why I don’t have any weight criteria (and I won’t weigh you as part of our work).
Does any of this sound like you?
People I work with will typically engage in extreme efforts to restrict their food intake and may have an obsessive preoccupation with weight, calories, and food. This might include some combination of:
Significantly restricting your food intake
Exercising excessively
Being preoccupied with your body weight, shape, and size
Feeling stuck with food and dieting
Having a voice in your head that tells you what you should be doing
Socially withdrawing or isolating yourself
Having food rituals
Experiencing anxiety and depression
Feeling cold, tired, or dizzy
Even if you haven’t had a diagnosis, if you’re struggling with any of the above then therapy can be an appropriate option for you.
What causes anorexia?
Anorexia doesn’t have a single cause. It’s brought on by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors. Restriction itself then reinforces the problem by changing how your brain and body respond to food, emotions, and the way you think about things.
It’s certainly not just about food (this is why someone telling you to “just eat” isn’t helpful).
Anorexia serves a particular purpose, usually as a coping mechanism for difficult feelings, as well as offering a sense of control and identity. Effective therapy is about helping you to understand that function, develop alternative coping mechanisms, and build a sense of identity, meaning, and purpose beyond what the anorexia has been offering.
Most of the people I work with tell me there’s a big part of them that doesn’t want to recover. That’s completely normal and is why therapy that doesn’t work with this part of you often fails to help.
Who I work with
I work online with adults (18 and over) across the UK and internationally, supporting those with a range of anorexia challenges.
This includes:
Restricting type
Those with this form of anorexia will severely restrict their calorie intake and may engage in excessive exercise in order to maintain a low body weight
Bingeing/Purging type
This involves restriction of calories but episodes of binging, followed by compensatory behaviours to maintain a low weight (vomiting, taking laxatives, excessive exercise).
Atypical anorexia
Individuals with atypical anorexia usually present with all of the usual symptoms of anorexia nervosa but are not underweight.
Anorexia in males
Whilst not always the case, anorexia in males tends to emerge in men who are focused on physical fitness. Excessive exercise is very common in these cases and, coupled with restricting food intake, can result in becoming dangerously underweight.
How I work
Often people choose to work with me because they’ve received therapy previously, either with the NHS or privately. My approach is usually very different than the standard talking therapy or CBT you may have had previously.
The reality is that there is no single approach that is considered effective for anorexia (even the “evidence-based” therapies). Because of this, I draw upon my training (including having completed an advanced diploma with the National Centre for Eating Disorders) and clinical/personal experience to tailor therapy to your needs.
My approach is unique whilst still being grounded in compasisonate, ethical support. Rather than try and fit you into a manualised model of therapy that doesn’t work for you, or try and convince you to change, I take a different stance. I work with you to discover what a more meaningful life looks like and we work together to let go of what’s holding you back, and develop the skills you need to move towards that.
What does therapy look like?
Our first session looks at what’s going on for you, what your goals are, how I work, and what moving forwards looks like. I can’t tell you from the outset exactly how therapy will look as we need to figure that out together.
We meet weekly for 50 minutes. This takes place via videochat on Psychology Today’s secure ‘Sessions’ platform.
My work with people dealing with anorexia is usually longer-term, though I work open-ended which means you can keep having therapy for as long as you feel you need it. We’ll review regularly along the way to make sure you’re finding it helpful and make any adjustments.
The first step is to have a free, 20-minute informal consultation. This helps us to see if we might be a good fit for working together, with no pressure for you to make any decisions straight away.