Treatment

Disordered eating sits on a spectrum and refers to a problematic relationship with food and exercise that may not meet the full criteria for a specific diagnosis, but still tends to impact your quality of life. This can look like chronic dieting, rigid food rules, feelings of guilt or anxiety when eating certain foods, or exercising purely to "earn" or "burn off" calories. If food, weight, and exercise are consuming a significant amount of your mental energy and causing you distress, Cielo Psychology can be a space where you can unpack these patterns, and move toward true food freedom.

Living with body image concerns often means experiencing persistent dissatisfaction with how your body looks or feels. It often manifests as constant body checking (like looking in mirrors or measuring), avoiding social situations, hiding your body under clothes, or a preoccupation with changing your appearance to feel "good enough." Grounded in a weight-affirming framework, therapy aims to help you disentangle your self-worth from your physical appearance, challenge societal body ideals, and work toward a place of genuine body acceptance and respect.

Bulimia Nervosa is characterised by recurrent episodes of binge eating—consuming a large amount of food in a discrete period, accompanied by a feeling of being out of control. These episodes are then followed by recurrent compensatory behaviours such as self-induced vomiting, the misuse of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or excessive exercise in efforts to control weight or “undo” the binge episode. These cycles typically occur at least once a week for at least 3 months. Therapy provides a safe, non-judgmental space to help break this cycle, understand potential emotional triggers behind binge eating, and establish a more balanced relationship with food and body image.

Binge Eating Disorder is characterised by recurrent episodes of eating a significantly large amount of food in a short period, accompanied by a distinct sense of losing control during these episodes. Because there are no regular purging behaviours afterward, individuals are often left with immense feelings of distress, self-disgust or intense guilt. Therapy therefore tends to focus on addressing feelings of shame, understanding the emotional distress driving binge eating episodes, and establishing regular, more balanced eating patterns.

Anorexia Nervosa involves a severe restriction of energy intake relative to what your body needs, leading to a substantially low body weight. It is characterised by a fear of gaining weight, and persistent behaviours that interfere with weight restoration. There is also a distortion in how you experience your body shape/size, generally with a view that your self-worth is closely linked with your weight. Recovery is about gently breaking down those rigid boundaries to help you safely rebuild your health and rediscover a life outside of the illness.

OSFED is a diagnosis given when an individual is experiencing a very serious, life-impacting eating disorder, but their symptoms do not perfectly fit into the diagnostic boxes of other eating disorders. It is vital to know that OSFED tends to carry the same emotional distress and medical risks as any other eating disorder. Your distress is completely valid, and you deserve the same dedicated and evidenced based treatment.

Unlike other eating disorders, ARFID is an eating/feeding disorder that tends not to be driven by distress relating to body image, or by a desire to lose weight. Instead, food avoidance or restriction is based on the sensory characteristics of food (like textures, smells, or appearances), a general lack of interest in eating, or a deep fear of aversive consequences such as choking, vomiting, or gastrointestinal pain. Restriction results in a persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional or energy needs, which can manifest as weight loss, nutritional deficiency, or a heavy dependence on supplements. Therapy focuses on creating a safe, highly personalised framework to expand your comfort zone around food, lower anxiety, and help meet your body's needs comfortably.