Therapy for Every Body

Natalia Buchanan's hands outstretched holding a painted red heart with white stars is the focus of the photo

Help For People Who Struggle with a Food Addiction of Emotional Overeating

Do you often feel powerless over food and eat to relieve stress, boredom or sadness?

Has food become a source of comfort rather than a source of nutrition?

Does this leave you worrying about the harmful impact overeating may be having on your health?

Maybe you’re going through a rough transition, such as the end of a relationship or a career change, and you turn to food for solace, only to feel guilty or more depressed afterward. Or, perhaps you often eat mindlessly and don’t quite know why. It may be that you’ve tried diets and counting calories, but you always “cheat” or feel compelled to eat even more, compounding your sense of powerlessness. Perhaps you feel out of control and unsure how to better cope with your emotions and take care of your physical and mental health.

Are You Stuck In A Frustrating Cycle

Of Compulsive Eating and Yo-Yo Dieting?

Many People

Struggle

With Emotional Eating

Has emotional eating caused unwanted weight gain, prompting you to feel self-conscious about your body? Do you feel that others are judging, thinking you’re lazy or apathetic about your health and appearance? Are you constantly surrounded by food because of work conditions or social situations, and you want to learn how to resist the urge to indulge? Do you wish you could better manage difficult emotions, understand your subconscious desire to eat and create a healthy, natural relationship with food and nutrition?

We are a society built around consumption, and food is no exception. It’s not surprising that everyone, to some extent, eats emotionally or for reasons other than hunger. We eat to celebrate, grieve, relieve stress, congratulate or console. We eat to socialize, conduct business, pass the time or simply because everyone else is—even if we haven’t the appetite.

The trouble is, even though food can provide relief and pleasure, your mind can have a hard time identifying food for what it really is—nourishment. That’s why, for some people, eating can become an addiction, just like an addiction to drugs, alcohol or other harmful behaviors. But, unlike drugs and alcohol, food is necessary for survival. And, even though our society can be judgmental of an individual’s eating habits, food does not carry the same social taboo—or legal consequences—as other substances or behaviors.

As a result, it’s easy to slip into unhealthy eating habits without realizing it, and to suddenly find that occasional indulgences have become daily coping mechanisms. In extreme situations, if left unaddressed, emotional eating habits can sometimes develop into other, even more severe conditions, such as food addiction or a binge eating disorder. Fortunately, with a compassionate and understanding emotional eating therapist, you can take control of compulsive cravings and greatly improve your quality of life and overall well-being.

Emotional eating treatment can help you establish a healthy relationship with food
Natalia holds her coffee cup that has a LGBTQIA+ flag and reads "Every one is welcome here!"

Emotional Eating Therapy in Austin Can Help You

Emotional eating therapy is a very effective way of developing the tools you need to tolerate strong and often complicated emotions without turning to food or diets. As a certified intuitive eating counselor, I can re-teach you how to approach food as sustenance instead of as a crutch.

Because the motivations for emotional eating can be different for everyone, I always strive to tailor my counseling approach to your individual needs and goals. In a safe and non-judgmental environment, I will offer you support and guidance as we explore your personal aspirations and develop actionable goals so that you leave our sessions knowing exactly what you need to practice or do differently.

I offer a variety of approaches to treatment, including holistic Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) that access the body’s meridians and employ the use of mantras to calm stress and soothe the impulse to eat. Often, I will combine EFT with somatic strategies that can bridge the disconnect between uncomfortable physical sensations and the emotional desire to eat. We’ll challenge the idea that restrictive eating is healthy eating, help you develop intuitive eating skills and eventually move away from the militant diet culture so that you can form a natural relationship with food and nourishment.

Right now, it may seem like you are stuck in an endless cycle, but change is absolutely possible, and by coming to this page, you have already taken the first step toward sustainable healing. With your dedication and willingness to get in tune with your body and mind, the obsession with food can disappear, your weight can begin to normalize and you can make peace with food and enjoy a natural, positive relationship with nutrition.

What Will We Do In Therapy?

Step 1

Our first few sessions are focused on understanding your patterns. We will talk about times recently where you felt out of control with your eating, what triggers these kinds of episodes, and how it makes you feel afterward.

Step 2

Then, we will identify new strategies that can help you navigate triggers differently the next time. I’ll help you better understand how food may present itself as being helpful in dealing with strong emotions, but ultimately, how it betrays your best interests.

Step 3

We’ll build your toolbox of coping skills that will let you meet challenges in a healthy manner so that stress, panic or sadness no longer overwhelm you when you are not actively eating. These tools combined with your new insight into patterns and triggers, will help you end your emotional eating struggles.

Common Concerns

  • “I'm worried about the financial cost of counseling."

    While it may require an initial investment, you have to ask yourself, “How much do I currently spend on diet books, weight loss clubs, gym memberships, medical visits, specialty exercise equipment and especially food—and how much are those things going to cost me for the rest of my life if I am unable to change on my own?” And, even more importantly, I invite you to consider the cost to your self-image, quality of life and physical and mental well-being. By engaging in therapy, you are gaining the support, guidance and education you need to create a relationship with food that is both sustainable and rewarding.

  • “If I find the right diet, then I won't need counseling."

    Chances are, you have already burdened yourself with numerous diets, tried the latest eating fads and explored weight loss websites and groups only to find that nothing has worked out so far. The weight comes back, or the harmful compulsive behavioral patterns creep back into your life, further fueling a sense of powerlessness. For emotional eaters, the need to consume is rooted internally and linked to something greater and more powerful than appetite and hunger. Emotional eating treatment can help identify the impulses driving your behavior and help you separate your emotions from hunger so that you can develop a conscious awareness of your actions and feelings, fundamentally changing your relationship with food.

  • “I don't want to be in therapy forever."

    For many of my clients, once they understand how emotions affect their behavior, a sustainable change in their lives is already underway. Once you gain clarity about your habits and realize that you do have agency over your choices, the connection between emotions and obsessive eating can be broken for good. Dieting and weight loss are far more complicated than what our culture make them seem, but with therapy, you gain the knowledge, awareness and tools you need to generate a lasting mental, emotional and physical transformation.

You Don’t Have To Overcome
Emotional Eating On Your Own

If you are unable to step out of a pattern of harmful behavior or are worried about your health, emotional eating treatment can help you change your relationship with food.

I would be honored to answer any questions you have about my practice and how we would approach your specific situation in relation to emotional eating in therapy.