We help teens with eating disorders to have a better body image and more self-confidence.
Does you or your loved one have extremely picky eating habits? Or, does your young adult obsess around calories or food choices? Eating disorder therapy in Southeastern Connecticut through teletherapy online build positive coping outlets. At Wisdom Within Counseling, the team of marriage and family counselors specialize in eating disorder counseling.
Eating disorders impact children, teens, couples, and adults alike.
Also, eating disorders can include self-harming behaviors like bulimia, purging, over exercise, starvation, and compulsive food rigidity. Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in eating disorder treatment online through video counseling or in person in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Eating Disorders in Teenage Years
Also, the team of child and teen therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, CT don’t focus on pathology and diagnoses. Instead, when it comes to teens with eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, purging, and binge eating, we focus on strengths. We help teenagers and adults with eating disorders see their full potential. Teenagers with eating disorders need help remembering they are good enough and turning off the inner critic. Sometimes, teenagers with eating disorders also need academic accommodations, and a 504 plan or IEP for extended testing time.
Looking for a self-love approach to rigid food behaviors?
We help using art, yoga, music, drama therapies, and holistic counseling. Teenage girls with low self-esteem develop healthy self-confidence in counseling. When your teen has issues with food, now is the time to seek professional help. they can gain lifelong coping tools for a living relationship with their body and food. Your teen’s eating disorder is a way of asking for help. They may not be able to call a therapist to call their own. But, a therapist with an eating disorder specialty can help your teenager feel safe letting go of their feelings.
What Does An Eating Disorder Look Like?
Weight loss, vomiting, hiding food, and weight gain are some typical signs your teen has an eating disorder. Avoid trying to control their food behaviors. Instead, reach out for professional eating disorder therapy. An eating disorder specialist can help you teenager learn to nurture themselves through food. Your teen may show you signs of an eating disorder without being direct. Often, teens will show you what they need through negative self-harming behaviors, over exercising, and food issues. Some teens struggling with the eating disorder, anorexia, pick and nibble at their food, eat extremely slowly, and take tiny bites.
Does my child have eating issues?
First, many teens are at risk for developing an eating disorder. As a proactive parent, it is important to know what to look for if you are concerned that your teenager has an abnormal or unhealthy relationship with food. As a team of eating disorder specialists, we know that society has depicted eating disorders as strictly starving oneself, binge eating, or self-induced vomiting.
Characteristics of Compulsive Exercise Disorders
- Exercising for more than once per day, and for longer than 90 minutes including warm up and cool down
- Uncontrollable urges to exercise and physical training resulting in harmful consequences
- Feeling upset and angry when a loved one of friends tries to question your exercise routine
- Only having friends who exercise with you
- Pushing through and continuing to exercise despite a physical injury, which exercise often makes worse and prevents healing through lack of rest
- Creates an escape or becomes a “numbing out,” addictive behavior over time slowly
- The lack of self-control to relax or take a rest day
- Some reasoning behind working out more is to be “perfect,” lose weight beyond what is healthy for you, to have more muscle definition, to an extreme
- Exercise behaviors are often kept in secret due to shame
- Anger, irritability, panic, and anxiety when the exercise routine is disrupted
- Choosing to exercise instead of socialize, build friendships, or work
- High level of rigid behaviors fueled by an inner critic voice or challenging childhood
- Furthermore, high levels of self-guilt, internalized shame, and showing a need to gain self-nurturing
- Exercising for longer than appropriate for that exercise. For instance, these are typical exercise times: yoga flow class for 60 minutes, or lift heavy weights for 45 minutes, whereas run/jog may be 20-30 minutes.
- Caution: Certain gyms, hot yoga studios, and various work out environments can promote self-harm in their culture through peer-condoned compulsive over exercise. Likewise, exercise camps can promote over exercising.
COUNSELING TO HELP YOUR FAMILY FIND CONFIDENCE AND CLARITY
Appropriate Exercise Guideline Goals For Recovery of Compulsive Exercise Disorders Alongside Eating Disorders
- To note, exercising is appropriate for one hour per day, at most and 3-6 days per week with at least one day of rest, with proper nutrition and food intake
- Exercise is appropriate when there are no physical injuries causing pain
- So, if a person misses a day of exercise, other positive coping skills (To name a few: crafts, painting and art, meditation, watching a comedy show, gardening, or playing a board game with friends) can easily and resilient be utilized to feel calm, relaxed, and inner peace
- Working with a licensed marriage, family, and individual therapist can help a person develop positive coping skills for building a loving relationship with themselves
Healing from eating disorders can come from developing self-love and self-acceptance in working long-term with a therapist, such at Wisdom Within Counseling.
Adolescents & Teenagers: Eating disorders and food issues
The longer your child lives with an eating disorder, the harder it is to recover, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, trauma-related eating, picky-eating, texture sensitivities, choking fears that impact eating, social eating anxiety, fixation and more. In addition to counseling, we offer nutrition sessions in combination with family therapy and individual therapy. Art, music, animal, and yoga therapy are very effective for transformation and healing of eating disorders. And, getting into see a compassionate, empathetic therapist in Niantic and building a goal-oriented, positive plan as quickly as possible can save your son or daughter’s life.
When To Call And Get Help From A Therapist
Indeed, there are times when it’s clearly important to call and ask for help for your child or adolescent for instance drug use, self-harm, cutting, suicidal language, eating disorders, alcoholic use, and a parent’s divorce, to name a few. Our team of holistic therapists love help teens with eating disorders learn self-care and build positive coping skills to have a healthy relationship with food.
Call or text Wisdom Within Counseling for over working out and eating disorder help today.
For Parents/Grandparents/Caregivers:
It took a lot of courage to get here. You may feel unsure of how to meet your teenager’s needs and how to parent in some ways. As well, parents tend to get irritated about the long rituals that teenagers with eating disorders do. Sometimes, teenagers will have to do certain OCD like tasks in order to eat food. Teenagers with disordered eating habits can learn to stop fad dieting with the help of a therapist. They may have rigid food habits, even after you cooked an amazing meal. But, you are not alone. Many parents feel concerned with raising teens and young adults with eating disorders, when there is also cutting or self-harm. You are brave and strong for reaching out. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling collaborates in family sessions, individual therapy sessions, and parent conversations to help your teen.
Build relaxation around food choices and a healthy relationship with your body image.
Click the button below for a phone consult to work with an eating disorder specialist.
COUNSELING TO HELP YOUR FAMILY FIND CONFIDENCE AND CLARITY
Through holistic counseling, your teen can learn to love themselves and build a healthy relationship with all foods. We also help teens who are LGBTQIA+, queer, or transgender.
Expressive arts in therapy for teenagers with eating disorders
Further, art projects and crafts within therapy sessions help with releasing the inner critic and instead focusing on positive body image. Through creating art, teenagers feel a sense of accomplishment and self-care. Therefore, self-love and positive energy can come from art and drama therapies. We offer self-care focused eating disorder therapy for teenagers to learn self-awareness. Sitting in the sun and talking about food is an option. Or we offer creative expression through art.
To begin, click the button below for eating disorder treatment in Southeastern Connecticut or online telehealth sessions.
Holistic eating disorder therapy along the Shoreline of Connecticut using yoga, art, and emotional expression through self-acceptance
Although these are accurate signs of an eating disorder, there are many other signs that go unnoticed. Furthermore, there are many markers that indicate a child or teen is in trouble. And, these aren’t ever discussed or explained to teens, their caregivers or other influential adults in their lives. In this blog, as an eating disorder specialist in Niantic, you are provided with an overview or lesser known signs of an eating disorder.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, in Niantic, we specialize with teens struggling with eating disorders. And, we love helping teens love themselves, learn positive coping skills, and build self-confidence. Call or text to get your teen with an eating disorder started in holistic counseling (860)-451-9364.
Less commonly discussed signs of an eating disorder:
Additionally, your son or daughter may cut their food into very tiny pieces. And yes, both men and women can equally be impacted by eating disorders. Furthermore, teens with anorexia will also take part in extreme exercising, keep an itemized log of food eaten and count calories. Anorexia is related to restricting. Likewise, a teen with anorexia will often avoid restaurants. We offer online through telehealth video counseling from any location. Or, come to the Wisdom Within Counseling office for eating disorder therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
COUNSELING TO HELP YOUR FAMILY FIND CONFIDENCE AND CLARITY
Eating disorders must be treated sooner than later for effective recovery and often go hand in hand with mental health disorders
Sometimes, eating disorders go hand in hand with mental health complications. For instance, your spouse may have an eating disorder, work addiction, and need empathy skills. Furthermore, your child may have trouble making friends, anxiety around social events, and an eating disorder. Also, you may have anorexia, hold a good job, and look like you have it together, but feel very overwhelmed. Common co-occurring behaviors in teenagers and adults who have eating disorders include self-harm (cutting, burning, scratching) and suicidal ideation.
To begin, click the button below for eating disorder therapy through video telelhealth or in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Signs that your teenager deeply and immediately needs professional therapeutic support for their anorexia, bulimia, or eating disorder
Depression, panic attacks, agitation, and moodiness can go hand in hand with eating disorders. In holistic counseling session at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Connecticut. Therefore, the team of professional therapists work together to help your whole family function better around sensitive family issues. Also, a new diagnosis of an eating disorder impacts all members of your family . Each sibling may have a different emotional reaction. Parent support sessions are often used in conjunction with individual teen therapy sessions to get your teen’s eating disorder in recovery.
To begin, call or text 860-451-9364 for a phone consultation for eating disorder counseling online through telehealth or in person in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Signs of an eating disorder, from your local Niantic eating disorder specialist
On another note, having rigid eating patterns (I.e. limited # of foods child will eat), having structured routines surrounding preparing and eating meals (I.e. must engage in ritual of cutting veggies for salad as opposed to allowing parent to make it or buying one), and distraught responses to being unable to engage in structured routines or rituals regarding food are signs of an eating disorder.
Call or text 860-451-9364 for eating disorder treatment in Southeastern Connecticut or through telehealth online video counseling.
Seeking Help: Cutting and Self-Harm in Teenagers
If you discover your child has been hurting his or herself, even if the marks are light and did not break the skin, call a teen therapist right away. This means that your teenager is dealing with a lot of stress and in search of an outlet. Even if he or she said it was a one-time thing, it’s important to get help and put a scheduled session on your calendar. Read more about self-harm and teens, here.
Improved Parent-Child Relationships
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help frustrated teens stop negative eating habits and self-harming, to instead build confidence, and feel worthy enough to belong. By integrating art, yoga, music, and animal therapy with evidenced-based Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and traditional talk therapy, your teen can live a life they LOVE!
Call Us 860-451-9364
Parenting A Teen Through Self-Harm and Eating Issues
In session, we meet to discuss parenting tips and ways to help your teen be successful and overcome self-harm. Self-harm and eating disorders in teens often go hand in hand. First, keep reminding your teen that you are there to support them and hug often. Note, even if your teen stops self-harming, it is important to continue twice weekly therapy sessions continually for a number of weeks to ensure the new skills solidify. Sometimes, eating disorders and self-harm flip flop in teenage years. Additionally, cutting and self-harming, alcohol use, and drugs are dangerous behaviors that can last for years as negative coping skills. Don’t wait until it is too late to get your teen with an eating disorder started in holistic counseling. Their eating disorder is your teenager’s way of asking for help without directly asking!
