Is Your Struggle with Body Image and Food a Constant Conversation in Your Mind? Wondering if you have an Eating Disorder?

Maybe you are struggling with a full-fledged eating disorder –Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating, or Orthorexia?

Here is your chance to heal your all-consuming challenges with food and finally feel good about yourself….

You are tired of thinking about food, your weight and your body image all the time—or maybe you are tired of trying NOT to think about them all the time! (All or nothing thinking turns into Famine or Feast behavior)

You feel out of control when it comes to food…and you are overwhelmed…

You over eat, or…

You restrict how much you eat, or…

You constantly fluctuate between the two. Either way the obsession with food builds momentum and leads you to feeling crazy and overwhelmed emotionally.

Your eating habits are not healthy –you either have an eating disorder, or you fall into the category of disordered eating—irregular or unhealthy eating habits that are harmful to you in some way….the obsession is there.

~I have some good news for you that with some support you will learn to love~

Your struggle isn’t about the food, but it’s about the food. That’s exhausting and confusing! If you go deeper into your feelings, your struggle is with anxiety and how you use food to self-soothe.

These are some of the common thoughts my clients that struggle with food related issues reveal to me during our sessions:

  • Sometimes I despise my body and think it’s ugly.
  • I feel fat…OR, I’m scared that I WILL BE fat if I change my relationship to food.
  • I feel that I must be perfect or I won’t be lovable.
  • I feel anxious if I don’t exercise every day.
  • When I finally lose weight, people will notice; and I will feel better about myself, but embarrassed that they notice the weight loss.
  • If I stop purging, I will be too scared to eat.
  • I’ve been unhappy for a long time.
  • I want to stop these bad eating habits—gorging, dieting, restricting—but I don’t know where to start.
  • I feel in control when I binge and purge or exercise excessively.

Moving from these thoughts to more recovery based thinking requires a connection to self and…

Intuition, awareness and a major desire to cope with life in a way that keeps the agreement you make with yourself to aim for being recovered at the forefront of your daily life.

You have to eat to survive but I want more for you…
I want you to thrive in your life! I want you to be able to play big and be at cause and on purpose in your life!
Unlike other addictions and disorders, abstinence isn’t an option, so you have to learn new ways of approaching food and daily stress.

So, what is the solution?

You learn a recovery mindset and you engage in different behavior that supports your new life. You make different choices. You practice being in your awareness and intuitive awesome self.

You’ll have to make some changes around your eating habits…but often you are only able to do this once you heal the root causes of the problem.

As a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, I’ll help you overcome your problems with eating by helping you heal the emotional and psychological wounds underneath your compulsion to acting out with food. Like most people, the causes of your eating habits are likely not completely in your awareness. Once they are, the healing will become so much easier and faster.

Through therapy, together we’ll find the best approach to treat your food and body image struggles.

I’ll gently guide you towards a more healthy way of living. You will learn a new way of relating to yourself. Once we uncover the anxiety of what is driving your thoughts and behaviors and you begin to practice the tools you will learn—that feeling of anxiety, the fear that you won’t be able to be normal around food begins to dissolve.

When you feel better about yourself and your body and you have the nourishment you need, you’ll find some of the problems you have with eating will almost melt away. You’ll feel so much more able to steer the direction of your life and your choices surrounding how to handle those old triggers that using food to cope just won’t be so much of an issue anymore.

Here’s How Therapy Can Help With an Eating Disorder….

  • Gently and safely discover the underlying emotional cause of your eating and heal it.
  • Feel safe, secure and in control of your life.
  • Have more time and energy to do the things you love.
  • Come to really love yourself—inside and out (yes, you CAN do this).
  • Feel worthy of love, appreciation & affection.
  • Feel optimistic about your future.
  • Begin to view food as fuel, giving room for a pleasurable experience with food….even the ones you have deemed aren’t safe.

You’re first step in changing your pattern is a willingness to look at what you have wanted to cover-up...

There is struggle in creating a new way of relating in life. There is struggle in any process of recreating old ways of being. Life lends itself to cycles and it is often are biggest struggles that provide us with the most growth, your struggle is in your life to boost you to the next level and you can do it…

Yes, it can be scary to take that next step….yes, you can do it scared and trust me, you will be so amazed at how strong you truly are.

There are a number of techniques to help your transition be less scary. I like results! I am guessing that’s why your reading this….you want to be done with your struggle. If we work together you need to know a few of my beliefs around how I approach struggles with food and eating disorders~

  • I view an eating disorder or struggle with food as an anxiety driven disorder. There are many factors that keep the anxiety in place; the people, places, or things that trigger the underlying anxiety.  I approach the underlying triggers from a variety of methods depending on your age and how long you have been engaging in your behavior. I use a team approach with eating disorders and encourage you to seek help from a dietician (CEDRD) to ensure an effective strategy is in place regarding the structure of your meal planning.
  • I believe that struggles with food are a means to cope and is not a defect of your character. I believe our society as a whole self-soothes and we have to learn what works for us and what doesn’t. I get super excited when you have decided food isn’t the answer anymore and you are ready to transcend and expand…seriously makes me smile.
  • Food is meant to be pleasurable. It is fuel for our bodies so that we can be – on purpose with our lives…to let our light shine brighter! I encourage clients to explore what they desire and to have clarity surrounding their needs and wants.
  • With the entirety of my being, I believe that intuition and being able to tune into your awareness is the key to your recovery success. If you are a young adult, that takes practice. As children, we learned to survive whatever system we were in (family, school, etc). We learned how to please others to have our value mirrored back to us and part of being in your awareness as an adult is to begin listening to your own internal guidance system. You can be successful at intuitive—eating, planning, and decision-making.
  • Having a positive body-image is self-esteem and acceptance practice. Genetics isn’t something we can change. Our body has a set weight and height. If you don’t like your shape and size…where did you learn not to? If your answer is, as long as I can remember, you have an inner kiddo that lives in you that made a decision. It’s time to take the keys away from her and compassionately let her know you will be driving your life’s decision making from now on!

Depending on how long you have been in your pattern of behavior and thinking and whether or not your relating to food is a habitual response will be a deciding factor on how long you need to be in therapy. The good news is, you get a lot of practice around the skills you will learn because you need food to thrive. If you are ready to make some changes and know you need support to do so Contact me.

You’ll then be well on your way towards recovery…

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Download the free declaration from my coaching program High Vibe Soul Society, an online coaching program for women that are maintaining recovery from their eating disorder. Your words and your intention to heal are powerful.  Declare Your Recovery!

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Lorri Lancashire, provides services for clients wanting help dealing with recovery work surrounding relationships, eating disorders, addiction therapy, couples counseling, anxiety and depression counseling, and family counseling. Lorri’s therapy office is located on the Dallas North Tollway off of Lovers Lane in Dallas, Texas. She is available for phone session when travel is limited.