Eating Disorder Therapy in Tampa

Hi, my name is Keri, and I’m an eating disorder therapist in Tampa, FL.

You may be feeling so stuck in your food behaviors that you can’t see a way out.

You feel completely overwhelmed in your day-to-day life when it comes to food. You spend each day obsessing over what you should or shouldn’t eat, and the thoughts swirling around in your brain make it feel like you have nothing left to give. You meticulously plan out, count, and track every morsel of what is going to go into your mouth and it takes an incredible amount of energy to do so.  It also takes an indescribable toll on your physical and mental health.

I help people find their way back to their lives by figuring out whatever recovery looks like for them (and to be honest it can look different for everyone).

If you’re ready to start feeling better, let’s connect and see if we would be a good fit.

Why Eating Disorder Therapy?

You may restrict, binge, purge, over-exercise, or rely on any combination of these to be able to get through the day.

You feel anxious and depressed, and are simply using everything in your arsenal (including food or exercise) to try to cope. You feel completely out of control around food (even if your coping mechanism is to attempt over-control by restricting) and do not trust yourself around it. Things that at one time brought you joy – such as going out to eat with friends – now brings along with it so much anxiety that you can’t remember what that joy used to feel like. It feels like your eating disorder has ruined everything.

You rely on the scale to tell you if you have had a “good” or “bad” day.  It rules your emotions and any fluctuation can either send you on a high or into total chaos. You have tried to stop weighing yourself “cold turkey,” but you just come back to it again and again – it is the only thing that seems to make sense or give you any sense of control or validation.

You may have grown up in a family who:

  • Dieted frequently

  • Put an emphasis on bodies looking a certain way

  • Held beliefs about food being “good” or “bad”

  • Were restrictive in the types of food that were let into the home

You may not have experienced any of the above – perhaps you suffered trauma that led you to want to feel in control of some aspect of your life, or were (and likely currently are) overwhelmed by the weight of the society we live in that tells us what we should look like, and that only certain types of bodies are deemed worthy.

The truth is that Eating Disorders can develop for a variety of reasons. And absolutely none of those reasons are your fault.

It’s likely that you have been struggling with eating or exercise concerns for a while now, and you have recently come to the realization that you no longer want this to run your life. You want to lessen their impact on you and make your own choices in line with what you value most. If you are are reading this, it is likely that you are feeling ready to start exploring what life could look like without your Eating Disorder. You may have never been formally diagnosed with an ED, but you resonate with what you have read here and know that you want to be free from these obsessive thoughts and behaviors that have an impact on your day-to-day functioning.

I’m here to tell you that you deserve recovery – and when I say recovery, this is very individualized. For some clients, they want to be free of all the behaviors that they feel are having an impact on them. For others, it means a decrease in those behaviors, or figuring out an approach that centers harm reduction. The bottom line is that there is no “right way” to recover. We will work together to decide what feels right for you.

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    • Eating disorders range in the ways that they present themselves. It’s also important to know that even if you don’t meet “official” (I for one am not a huge fan in some of the ways in which EDs are diagnosed) criteria for an eating disorder, you may still be experiencing symptoms that are affecting your life. If you are experiencing any kind of distress around food – whether it be restricting, binging, purging, or finding yourself hopping from diet to diet, you deserve to get help.

    • Although there are multiple ways to treat eating disorders, I do not believe in a one size fits all approach. Each person comes to treatment with a variety of experiences, likes and dislikes, motivation for recovery, and more. Although this is flexible,

      My approach to treating Eating Disorders is influenced by:

      Internal Family Systems (IFS)

      Health at Every Size and weight neutral care

      Anti-Diet framework (which includes Social Justice)

      Intuitive Eating principles

    • Disordered eating can refer to a range of behaviors/experiences, some of those being: a preoccupation with food or weight, inflexible eating patterns, restriction or compulsive eating, dieting behaviors, and more. Think about it this way – if you are spending a significant portion of your day worrying about food, you may be experiencing disordered eating. Don’t let this scare you – there is help!

    • A team approach to eating disorders can be super beneficial when it comes to treatment. You may have had a doctor who was concerned and thought you might need to explore seeing a therapist or dietitian – this team can work together to pinpoint a diagnose (if needed/necessary!). You do not need to have a specific or official diagnosis to get treatment – if you are experiencing any kind of discomfort around food or your body, you deserve to get help.

    Eating Disorder Therapy FAQs

    Getting Help With an Eating Disorder

    I encourage you to take me up on my offer for a free 15-minute consultation to ensure that we would be a good fit and that you will feel comfortable with my approach. In our initial session, we will do all the normal paperwork and fact gathering so that I understand your history and we can decide where to start.  If you are currently working with a physician and/or dietitian, it may make sense for me to connect with them as well. If you aren’t, we will make sure you are set up with whatever services make the most sense for you based on your current symptoms.

    I am here to support you while you find the relief that you so desperately seek. We will work together to help you experience more self-compassion, find more connection, and learn how to care for yourself in a way that is in line with your own values. 

    If you are ready to work through your Eating Disorder or Disordered Eating head-on with a gentle and compassionate approach, let’s connect. There is hope for recovery in an individualized way. As an eating disorder therapist in Tampa, we can meet in person in my office or virtually. I can help you get there.