
Therapy for Eating Disorders
“There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection”
Eating disorders have a harmful impact on physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being. Eating disorders are best treated using a biopsychosocial approach which includes an integrated team of professionals. The role of the psychologist is to provide evidence-based therapy that helps reduce overly rigid food rules and routines, as well as decrease the amount of time spent thinking about food, body-weight, and shape.
For adults seeking help with an eating disorder, the most well-researched treatment options are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders (DBT-E). Dr. Horn provides these treatments for adults who are medically stable and appropriate for outpatient care.
As a part of treatment you can expect that we may:
Identify triggers for eating disorder behaviors and thoughts
Gently and gradually challenge unhelpful eating habits/rules
Challenge distorted thoughts about food and body image
Build mindful and intuitive eating practices
Reconnect to hunger and fullness cues
Build coping skills to manage stressful situations and difficult emotions
Practice boundary setting with others in your life
Cultivate body compassion
Explore other aspects of your identity beyond food and body
Eating Disorder Treatment FAQs
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Eating disorders are complex and having expertise in one area does not always mean a clinician has the expertise or level of care and supervision to provide care in another area. I provide eating disorder treatment for the following diagnoses:
Binge eating disorder
Emotional eating / stress eating
Bulimia, including exercise bulimia
Restrictive eating disorders that do not meet full criteria for anorexia
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I work with adults of any gender who are medically stable and appropriate for outpatient treatment.
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Absolutely. It's vital to coordinate care to receive the best possible treatment. If you have a medical doctor, psychiatrist, nutritionist, or other provider I am happy to work with them.
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In an effort to reduce one of the many barriers to starting therapy, a medical clearance is not required prior to starting therapy. However, in order to ensure you receive adequate care, your provider may ask you to complete a medical evaluation during treatment. This would be most likely to occur if your provider is worried that outpatient care no longer provides you with sufficient support.