Food and Body Image Therapy
Body Trust Certified Therapist in Kirkland, WA
It's Time to Come Home to Your Body!
End the exhausting war with food and your body. As a certified Body Trust® provider, I can help you find a more peaceful, authentic, and sustainable way to live.
For years, you've been told your body is a problem to be solved. You’ve followed the food rules, endured the diets, and chased a version of yourself that always feels just out of reach. What if the problem isn't your body, but the culture that taught you to mistrust it? Here, we do things differently. Together, we’ll leave the battlefield of dieting and body shame behind and begin the journey back to a place of trust, respect, and liberation.
The Cycle Can Feel Endless
If you're here, you're likely exhausted. You may recognize yourself in some of these experiences:
Your days are consumed by thoughts about food, weight, and what you "should" or "shouldn't" eat.
You feel stuck in a painful cycle of restricting food, then bingeing or emotionally eating, followed by overwhelming guilt and shame.
You avoid mirrors, photos, and social events because of how you feel in your body.
You believe that if you could just control your weight, you would finally be happy, confident, and worthy.
You're tired of putting your life on hold, waiting for a "better" body to begin living fully.
This struggle is real, and it is not your fault. You deserve a path to peace.
Imagine a Life of Food Freedom & Body Trust
Healing your relationship with your body isn't about "fixing" yourself. It's about unlearning what has harmed you and reclaiming your inner wisdom. Imagine what it would be like to:
Eat food that you enjoy without anxiety, negotiation, or guilt.
Trust your body’s hunger and fullness cues as your most reliable guide.
Move your body in ways that feel joyful and enlivening, not as a punishment.
Treat yourself with kindness and compassion, especially on difficult days.
Free up the immense mental and emotional energy spent on body worry and redirect it toward what truly matters in your life.
This freedom is not a far-off dream. It is possible, and it is what you deserve.
My Approach: An Integrated Path to Healing
My work is grounded in the belief that you are the expert of your own experience. As a certified Body Trust® provider, our foundation will always be weight-inclusive, compassionate, and focused on liberating you from diet culture. From this foundation, I weave in a variety of powerful, evidence-based therapies to create a plan that honors your unique story and nervous system.
My goal is to offer you a rich, personalized therapeutic toolkit. In our work, I may draw from:
Body Trust® Framework: This is our core. We will always work from a non-diet, weight-inclusive perspective to help you find a more peaceful and sustainable way of living in your body.
A Neurodiverse-Affirming Stance: Your brain is not broken. As a neurodiverse-affirming therapist, I understand that brain differences are normal variations of the human experience. We will explore how your unique neurotype shows up in your relationship with food and your body, honoring your strengths and finding strategies that work with your brain, not against it.
Specialized ADHD-Informed Care: I have specialized training in the intersection of ADHD and eating challenges. We can explore topics like interoception (trouble sensing hunger/fullness), executive function difficulties around meal planning, and using food for stimulation. Our goal is to find compassionate, practical strategies that support your ADHD brain.
Trauma-Informed Therapies (EMDR & Somatic Therapy): Often, our struggles with body image are rooted in past experiences. For clients with a history of trauma, we can use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to gently process painful memories and reduce their emotional charge. We will also pull from somatic (body-based) therapy to help you reconnect with your body’s physical sensations and stored wisdom in a safe way.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) & CBT: We will use Emotion-Focused Therapy to better understand the emotions that drive your eating behaviors, helping you meet your true needs. When helpful, we can also use tools from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to gently challenge the rigid, black-and-white thought patterns that diet culture has ingrained.
FAQs
Q: But what if I can’t imagine being happy if I don’t lose weight?
A: I would be curious to know what “happy” would look like for you. The media does a great job at portraying thin successful people so it is only logical to think that in order to be happy you need to be a certain size. Yet, I have a feeling that if you are here, you might have some doubts about all the diet talk.
Q: But what if I'm scared to gain weight?
A: Fear is a very informative emotion. In session, we could explore the wisdom of fear. As we live in a fat-phobic society, it is normal to dread putting on weight. Too often, gaining weight has been associated with “letting yourself go”. However bodies change whether from aging, pregnancy, stress, hormones, trauma, chronic condition and more. Your body will change but never will your worth.
Q: But what if I hate my body? Is body positivity possible for me?
A: For some, loving their body seems too far to reach. I would invite you to consider body neutrality instead of body positivity or love. This might seem easier to practice and attain. This scale of body hate-love is addressed early in binge eating therapy and throughout the process to make sure you feel empowered in your healing journey.
Q: But what if I need to lose weight for my health?
A: well-meaning loved ones and healthcare professionals will often make the argument that losing weight is better for your physical health. I urge you to research professionals who are truly weight-neutral in their care here. As a reminder weight is not a reflection of someone’s eating and moving patterns. How you eat, drink, sleep and move are better indicators of health than weight.
Freedom is possible!
You don’t have to keep battling food and your body. I can help you find peace.