Eating Disorder & Body Image

It's Hard to Make Peace With Your Body in a Culture That Profits From You Hating It

We don't develop relationships with food and our bodies in a vacuum. We're surrounded by messages about which bodies are desirable, disciplined, healthy, feminine, masculine, successful, or worthy of being seen. Diet culture can make restriction look like self-improvement and the attention can reinforce behaviors that are quietly making someone's life smaller.

When you've absorbed those messages for years, they don't disappear because someone tells you to stop. You don't have to love every part of your body every day. Sometimes a more realistic place to start is simply making your body less of the problem you have to solve.

You Might Be Here Because...

• food takes up far more mental space than you want it to

• you restrict what, when, or how much you allow yourself to eat

• eating something “bad” can derail the rest of your day

• your mood changes depending on how you feel about your body that morning

• exercise sometimes feels less like something you choose and more like something you owe

• you compare your body constantly to other people's

• weight or appearance has become closely tied to your self-worth

• you avoid photos, clothing, intimacy, social situations, or activities because of your body

• you know intellectually that diet culture is harmful but still feel trapped by its rules

• you've received praise for behaviors that don't actually feel healthy or sustainable

• you feel caught between wanting freedom from food/body obsession and being terrified of what might happen if you stop trying to control it

• you're exhausted by how much of your life this takes up

You don't have to wait until things are “bad enough” before it's worth talking about.

HAES-Informed & Weight-Inclusive

Health at Every Size (HAES)-informed care means I don't use weight loss as the measure of whether therapy is working. Your body size isn't a moral grade.

We can talk about health without assuming that smaller automatically means healthier, and we can explore eating, movement, medical experiences, body image, and self-care without making shrinking your body the treatment goal. Weight-inclusive therapy also means taking seriously the impact of weight stigma and anti-fat bias rather than treating every painful experience in a larger body as evidence that the body itself needs to change.

The goal is not to tell you how you should feel about your body. It's to create more flexibility, trust, compassion, and choice in a relationship that may have been governed by rules and shame for a very long time.

What Is the Behavior Doing For You?

When something is hurting us, the obvious question is: How do I stop?

But first, we want to dig deep and find: What is this doing for you?

Restriction, control, checking, avoidance, exercise, or fixation on appearance may serve a function—even when the consequences have become painful. Maybe control around food creates predictability when everything else feels chaotic. Maybe changing your body feels like a pathway to belonging, desirability, safety, gender affirmation, or finally being “good enough.” Maybe focusing on appearance gives anxiety somewhere concrete to land.

Understanding the function doesn't mean we keep a behavior that's hurting you. It means we don't rip away a coping strategy without first understanding and creating what you're going to need in its place.

Bodies, Presentation & Identity

Bodies and presentation aren't just about appearance. They're also connected to gender, sexuality, privilege, identity, belonging and so much more.

For queer clients, body image may intersect with exploring gender expression, unpacking oppressive norms, coming out, dating, sex, or trying to understand what feeling at home in your body actually means for you. My LGBTQ+ and queer-affirming therapy work gives us space to explore those intersections without assuming every body concern means the same thing.

Food, Bodies & Neurodivergence

ADHD and other forms of neurodivergence can complicate our relationships with food and our bodies in ways that aren't always captured by traditional advice. Executive functioning, interoception, sensory preferences, impulsivity, routines, forgetting to eat, seeking stimulation, difficulty planning meals, or becoming intensely focused on particular rules can all affect eating. And years of feeling “different” can influence self-esteem and the desire to control how we're perceived.

When relevant, we can look at these experiences alongside the work I offer in ADHD and neurodivergent therapy, rather than treating your relationship with food as something completely separate from how your brain works.

Therapy With Me

I'm attachment-based and person-centered, with an active approach. That means we're interested in more than stopping a behavior. We'll look at the beliefs, emotions, relationships, experiences, and patterns surrounding it—and build practical ways to respond differently.

I draw from CBT, DBT, ACT, mindfulness, and attachment-based approaches to help clients challenge rigid thinking, tolerate difficult emotions, increase flexibility, understand patterns, and practice responding to themselves differently. And because insight doesn't automatically change what happens when you're standing in front of a mirror on a day when you're not feeling great, we may experiment with things between sessions too.

The goal isn't perfection around food or loving your body every morning.

It's creating more freedom and less domination by food, appearance, weight, and shame.

FAQs

Do I need an eating disorder diagnosis to do this?

No. You may have a diagnosed eating disorder, recognize patterns of disordered eating, or simply feel exhausted by how much food and body image occupy your thoughts. You don't have to prove that you're “enough” for a problem to deserve attention.

Will you ask me to lose weight?

No. My approach is weight-inclusive and HAES-informed. Weight loss is not the goal or measure of success in our therapy work.

Do I have to learn to love my body?

No. For some people, “love your body” feels like one more impossible standard they're failing to meet. We can work toward body respect, neutrality, flexibility, reduced preoccupation, or simply having more space in your life for things that aren't your appearance.

Do you provide comprehensive eD treatment?

No. I provide psychotherapy addressing eating disorders, disordered eating, body image, and related emotional and behavioral patterns. Eating disorders can sometimes require a broader treatment team—including medical monitoring, nutrition support, or a higher level of care. When that's clinically appropriate, we'll discuss additional support rather than expecting outpatient individual therapy to do a job it can't safely do alone.

Your Life Gets to Be Bigger

Than Your Body

You don't need to wait until you love your reflection, eat perfectly, stop comparing yourself, or "get your body good enough" before you get to participate fully in your life. Let's start by getting curious about the rules you've inherited, what your current patterns are protecting, and what might become possible if food and your body didn't matter.

Wondering whether I'm the right fit for what you're experiencing? Email me.

© 2026. All rights reserved.

Michelle Hansen, MSW, LSW
Colorado Licensed Social Worker
Clinical supervision: Becky Zal-Sanchez, LCSW (CSW.09923198)
Specialized training in Discernment Counseling and divorce recovery