Therapist for Eating Disorder

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Therapist for emotional eating/body image?
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May 2, 2025

Hi all, I am looking for a therapist for an adult that specializes in disordered eating - not an ED exactly, just mildly-moderately upsetting emotional eating/snacking and body image issues.

Anyone know of a therapist who was especially helpful with these issues? Thank you!

May 2, 2025

YES! I have two suggestions. The first is to check out Kindful Body (https://www.kindfulbody.com/). The second is my therapist, Meghan Montgomery https://www.guidedrevolution.com/therapist-littleton-colorado. I began working with Meghan while she was with Kindful Body, and now see her privately online since she left the group. She is amazing and works precisely on body image issues.

May I suggest also working with an anti-diet dietician? I began seeing one at Kindful Body together with Meghan; once the dietician also left the group (perhaps implying something about the group... who knows?), I went with her. I find that my dietician often digs up more about emotional eating and body image issues than the therapist. She kind of pokes at them, uncovers them, then I work on them with my therapist. Feel free to privately message me if you'd like more info.

May 7, 2025

Not a therapist, but I have found SociEATy to be a wonderful online community with lots of support and advice on these issues. It is the best resource I've found, and much better than the coach I tried working with. https://colleenchristensennutrition.com/

May 7, 2025
Therapist for teen who is binging/purging
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Jan 24, 2023

I'm looking for therapist referrals in the East Bay, preferably Oakland/Berkeley, who specialize in teen eating disorders and anxiety. Also maybe teen support groups? My high school-age daughter told me she's been binging/purging to cope with the overwhelm of Junior year. She wants to stop her behavior but needs help; so do I. Thanks for your ideas and recommendations.

Jan 24, 2023

I don’t have any recommendations for clinicians, but I know that today is so tough for kids- the pressures on keeping up and massively scheduled days/years- with no developmental oversight to see if it’s all ok. I used to work with eating disorders inpatient and a big thing we taught was choices. Kids lose the ability to make their own choices and control their own lives- in a time they need to start to make choices for themselves. Eating disorders can be a way due kids to harness control in a with that is over controlling them. Not sure if this helps- as the holes are deeply dug with school pressures too. Advocate fir your kid at school. If they expect too much, say something. If something isn’t making sense snd they want to exclude your kid because she doesn’t meet a bottom line when she needed downtime- say something. Sometimes the schools expect these kids to manage adult type schedules- and much of this is driven by the sects of parents before us that we’re well meaning of course. The ones that demanded this opportunity or that to get into this or that program or school. Don’t be afraid to place brakes on things. Each child is battling against the pressures in their own way- so you are not alone. There is new info out there that colleges are actually looking for a more balanced student that didn’t have all t’s crossed. I could be misreading the pressure part of your inquiry so please pardon me if I am- Take care! 🤗

Jan 30, 2023

Our daughter’s therapist, Samar Warmerdam, is wonderful. She is knowledgeable, mature, and speaks effectively to both teens and parents.

Samar Warmerdam

samarwarmerdam.com

therapy [at] samarwarmerdam.com (therapy[at]samarwarmerdam[dot]com)

Jan 30, 2023

I would absolutely second the recommendation of Samar Warmardam -- we feel really lucky to have her as our daughters therapist! She's warm, smart, flexible, fun, and is equally good at connecting with us and our 14-year old (who struggled with anorexia and continues to deal with a range of anxieties). Our daughter literally commented when we left her office last week, "I'm soooo glad we found Samar!".

In addition, you may want to reach out to a group in Rockridge that we found extremely helpful for us as parents. They have a wealth of experience working with kids and families dealing with all sorts of eating issues. When we realized that our daughter was restricting food and losing substantial weight, we were connected with them. We did a phone consult followed by a parent group (online at the time but they may offer in person services at this point?). The group was fairly structured and focused on helping the participating parents learn about FBT (the approach used to treat eating disorders that is fairly widely accepted as the standard of care in the field), problem solve together, and just get support since this whole thing can be pretty hard on your family! The group leaders (Suzannah Neufeld and Elizabeth Burns Kramer) were caring, experienced, and actually made a very difficult time much more hopeful for us. I know this is stressful time for you and I'll just say that it has been a huge relief to know there are some great people out there entirely capable of helping your daughter get on a more positive track and helping you gain control of a tough situation! Their website: It's https://www.connectedbayarea.com/

Feb 6, 2023
Therapist for teen with eating disorder
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Mar 8, 2021

We are desperate for an in person therapist (with Covid Safe precautions)for our 15 year old daughter.

She has had an eating disorder for 3 years due in part to severe fat shaming from peers in elementary school. She never told us about the bullying until after we discovered her eating disorder.

She has been failing her classes and has been very manipulative with us and her teachers. Pretending to do homework and just got in trouble for plagiarism in one class.

We greatly diminished screen time. We don’t want to completely isolate her from friends so she gets one hour a day.
We have now discovered cuts on her inner thighs and are so saddened and lost about what to do.

She has been in therapy but ended up not liking the therapist.
We need someone who can smell bullshit because she has a tendency to lie for no good reason.

Mar 8, 2021

UCSF and Stanford have excellent ED programs. Also please go to aroundthedinnertable.org for a parent forum of eating-disordered kids that will provide support for you and ideas to help your daughter. It's important to recognize that none of this is your fault as parents, and also none of it is HER fault either. She doesn't choose this; it's a brain disorder. The lying and even the self-harm are not at all unusual for eating disordered teens, and again, she isn't "choosing" this. School is not a priority right now; she is not in her rational mind. Good luck.

Mar 15, 2021
Therapist / treatment for daughter with anorexia
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Apr 22, 2019

Our 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with anorexia last fall. She had been seeing a Kaiser therapist for nine months for anxiety, depression, and difficulty sleeping. Eventually she was referred to a psychiatrist who spotted the eating disorder immediately. She started seeing the teen pediatrician, a nutritionist, and a therapist and we were coached to feed her three meals and three snacks daily (which was extremely difficult for her at first, but she is mostly compliant now).Since that time she has regained about half of the weight she lost, started her period again (after losing it for 9 months). Her mood has improved (she’s taking antidepressants) but her ED thoughts are still very strong and she says she doesn’t want to recover. She does not particularly like her therapist at Kaiser. Has anyone else had experience with the eating disorder teen treatment team at Kaiser Oakland and have you supplemented with any other outside therapist or treatment programs? Can you recommend a therapist in Oakland or Berkeley who specializes in eating disorders? Any other advice or hope for us as we navigate this horrible illness?

Apr 22, 2019

Hello,

I recommend you take a look at the following website:

https://www.ankabhi.org/casa-oakview.html

Through Kaiser, my girl received treatment for anorexia at this residential facility in Lafayette.

During my daughter's long, challenging road to recovery from anorexia, this proved an absolutely fantastic facility.

Find out if your daughter qualifies for treatment there.

Best to you!

Apr 29, 2019

Our daughter was hospitalized for AN and is now fully recovered. Please read Lock and Le Grange's "Help your Teen Beat an Eating Disorder". But my most valuable recommendation is aroundthedinnertable.org, a forum for parents of kids with eating disorders, mainly AN. Those parents coached me through all of it, great ideas and support, at any hour of the day! Look at Maudsleyparents.org. It's a marathon, and if you are giving her 3 meals and snacks per day, all of them high-calorie, that is the number one thing you should be doing, so celebrate your superhero parenting.

May 2, 2019

Our family has a lot of experience with the eating disorder team at Kaiser Oakland. We also had difficulties with the therapist on that team and eventually found an outside therapist. There are a number of outside therapists, and I can point you in that direction if that is something you'd like to consider. I would really welcome speaking with you- please contact me through my username below. I really sympathize with you-- it is indeed a horrible illness, and we have learned so much that we didn't know at the beginning. I would also recommend that you considering asking about the Kaiser Intensive Outpatient Program in Walnut Creek-- a number of people go there and experience improvements in their kids' situations when they've stalled out in a regular outpatient setting. It's also important to understand that it's possible that your daughter's lack of desire to get better might be connected to the fact that she is still underweight compared to where she was. I don't know your situation, but I know that there can be major mental health implications for being significantly below one's target weight. Looking forward to speaking with you- it's so important that other people who have also had this really difficult experience support each other. I'm so sorry that you and your family are going through this.

May 8, 2019