Photo credit: © Michiru13 – depositphotos.com
People often want to understand the cause of their problematic eating. Even though knowledge alone will not create long-lasting healing, it can help guide the treatment process and help you understand why we’re suggesting different things.
At my private practice, we work on relationship issues from our clients’ very first therapy session and all the way through their therapy process—partly because your relationships will change while you are growing and healing.
We have relationships with many types of people, and some of these interactions can be very complex. We have partners, parents, siblings, children, extended family, in-laws, friends, work colleagues, bosses, teachers, students, neighbors and committee members, not to mention all the strangers we encounter as we move through our day.
Any and all of these relationship interactions could be a contributing factor to an eating disorder, because people can be difficult to deal with. Disordered eating behaviors can seem easier than facing potential confrontations or disagreements with people. People speak through the food when they can’t speak with words.
Relationships can be linked to emotional issues such as low self-esteem (e.g., as a result of a history of being teased about size or weight) or depression and lack of control (e.g., as a result of physical, sexual or emotional abuse).
I work a lot with my clients on how to express themselves and deal with people. As I often say, “The goal is to be able to speak your truth with kindness and compassion.” At some residential treatment programs, they use psychodrama, which I also use in my intensive programs, along with guided visualization and Accelerated Resolution Therapy. Psychodrama provides a way to go back and heal the wounds of the past, grieve, put them behind us, and move forward in order to be able to deal with current relationships.
It’s really important to form healthy relationships with others while you’re forming a healthy relationship with yourself.