Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are not about food. At heart, they are about trying to find happiness in a world that feels too difficult.
Eating is one of the first things we do when we come into the world. Through eating, we get our most primal survival needs met – food and love. From the very start, eating is for all of us a profound way of receiving love, sustenance, nurturing, attention and comfort.
We believe eating disorders are just another way of trying to find acceptance and love and satisfaction – a way to feel good about yourself, when underneath, you feel bad about yourself. So when it comes to food, you may under-do it, or over-do it.
Treating and healing from eating disorders is not a quick fix. It requires a psychotherapeutic approach which takes a long time – but relief can start right from the beginning, when you understand that eating disorders have their own logic.
The symptoms may need to remain in place in a less extreme form, and simply be managed responsibly, through the early stages of healing. This approach allows you to recover gradually while developing new ways of managing, so that you feel a sense of confidence in your own responses, before you attempt to give the old responses up.
Dr Anita Johnston has written a book called Eating in the Light of the Moon, which describes this staged approach to giving up symptoms – that once helped you to manage severe stress – but now the symptoms are the very thing that are getting in the way of your ongoing growth and healing.
If you feel stuck thinking more about eating and food portions than about anything else, let us help you get your life back.
Call us on 1300 739 531 to make an appointment
- Phones answered business hours Monday to Friday, and Saturday mornings
- After-hours appointments available weeknights to 8pm, Saturdays 9am to 4pm.
- Medicare and Private Health rebates can be processed at your session.
- For details on our psychologists, see Our Team
Open Sky Psychology serves the local areas of Ryde, Gladesville, Putney, Lane Cove, Meadowbank, Hunters Hill, Top Ryde, East Ryde, West Ryde, North Ryde, Denistone, Drummoyne, Eastwood, Epping, Chatswood, and surrounding suburbs.
Victoria Road buses also make our practice accessible for city workers, see Contact Us. But if Our Team’s areas of specialisation make a good match for your particular needs, we welcome people from anywhere.
