Anytime a person faces the challenges of having a mental health disorder, therapy lies at the heart of helping them overcome it. Individual therapy helps the person open up about their emotions, experiences, and fears in a private setting with a trusted, compassionate therapist. Trellis Recovery Centers provides individual therapy for eating disorders for each of our patients. This allows the men and women we treat to have a safe space to discover their power to heal through self-exploration.
What to Expect During Individual Eating Disorder Therapy
When someone takes part in our individual therapy for eating disorders, they engage in one-on-one sessions with a trained and licensed expert in the field of mental health disorders. Therapy can be provided by the following professionals:
- Clinical psychologists (Ph.D. or PsyD)
- Psychiatrists (MD)
- Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT)
- Clinical Social Workers (LCSW)
The initial individual therapy session includes an intake during which the therapist takes the history of the person they are treating. This includes their past experiences, previous diagnoses, current condition, and developmental and emotional functioning. This gives the therapist an overview of the issues at hand. As a result, they can develop a plan for treatment. This includes working with the patient to establish short-term and long-term goals for treatment.
Individual therapy for eating disorders provides each person with a safe space in which they can open up and speak freely. Through conversations, directed exercises, and homework assignments, the individual gains a fuller understanding of themselves. They dig into what issues or experiences may have contributed to developing their eating disorder. Working through these helps prepare the person to move forward into a place of strong recovery. Men and women can use individual therapy not only as a tool to recover from their illness but as preparation for staying on a healing path as they move further on into life.
What Does Individual Therapy for Eating Disorders Treat?
Individual therapy for eating disorders is used to treat a diverse group of disorders. The types of eating disorders that respond well to individual therapy include:
- Binge eating disorder
- Bulimia nervosa
- Anorexia nervosa
- Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
- Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED)
- Pica
- Rumination disorder
Each person we treat receives an initial evaluation to make sure they have an accurate diagnosis of which eating disorder they have. This helps the staff prepare the right schedule of therapies that will best address their unique circumstances.
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Benefits of Eating Disorder Individual Therapy in Los Angeles
The benefits of our Trellis Recovery Center’s individual therapy for eating disorders begin with providing a safe space for men and women to open up. Part of having an eating disorder involves living in isolation. As well, the person often uses disordered behaviors in secret. Having a trusted, compassionate source to speak to provides a much-needed outlet. The sessions provide a private setting in a comfortable office that influences a person’s ability to discuss the intricacies of their illness with someone trained to help them.
Another benefit involves addressing previously held beliefs that prove to be false and unhealthy. They may have spent months or years believing they were helpless to change their mindset or even recognize that it was negative. The therapist helps the patient change their thinking process so they can recognize how long-held beliefs have only served to damage them. This includes thoughts and beliefs that have been on repeat in their heads, including:
- I can only be happy at one specific weight
- The only way to feel powerful is to control the size of my body
- I can’t consume less food or more food than I usually do
- Clothing sizes determine a person’s beauty and value
In short, therapists help teach their patients that “fat” is not a feeling. A focus on body size and weight are actually symptoms of the real problem. Through therapy sessions, both men and women learn to rebuild their belief systems and develop healthy new self-dialogue. From there, the behaviors begin to diminish as they learn to move past the limited, punishing view of living in a world controlled by an eating disorder.
Begin Individual Therapy for Eating Disorders in Los Angeles, CA
Those with eating disorders typically feel at a loss for how to overcome their illness. Trellis Recovery Centers includes individual therapy for eating disorders as part of each person’s treatment to help overcome that feeling. Our therapists use their extensive experience treating a wide variety of eating disorders to help build bonds with their patients. Our goal is to help each man and woman feel comfortable speaking openly and learning the skills they need to improve their relationships with their body and food. Each therapist provides insight and motivation that help the individual feel powerful and headed down a healing path.
If you would like to know more about how our individual therapy in Los Angeles, CA, can help you overcome an eating disorder, contact us today. We can answer any questions you have about individual therapy and other components of our program.
