eating disorder therapy +
body image therapy

You may be feeling disgusted by what you see in the mirror, ashamed of your body, and exhausted by thinking about food and weight constantly.

I help people heal their relationships with food, movement, and their bodies using an anti-diet, weight-inclusive approach.

Hi, my name is Danielle Carney, and I’m a therapist who specializes in eating disorders and body image.

I provide online counseling in Florida, Delaware, and South Carolina. 

Maybe you have been chronically dieting for years. You’re at your wit’s end with feeling like you’re always on a diet, not getting the results you want, and still hating the way you look. Or maybe, you’ve developed an eating disorder as a result of this cycle.

 

Regardless of where you are on the dieting, disordered eating, and eating disorder spectrum, you might find it nearly impossible to imagine letting go of wanting to control your weight and learning to meet yourself (and your body) where you’re at.

 

You might already be following body positivity accounts on Instagram and TikTok but struggle to make sense of how you can’t apply these same concepts when you look in the mirror. You probably recognize the way you view and speak to yourself isn’t how you’d judge anyone else, but you’re also having a hard time changing it. 

 

All you know is that you’re tired of fighting with yourself. You don’t want your insecurities and eating habits to keep getting in the way of your life. You want to stop missing out on get-togethers with friends because you’re too focused on what you will eat or not eat when you’re there, or because you can’t choose what outfit to wear that’s going to alleviate your anxiety about your body.

 

There’s an alternative to endlessly dieting and waging a war against your body. You deserve to make peace with your relationship with food, your body, and ultimately, with yourself.

 

If you’re ready to say goodbye to dieting, disordered eating, or an eating disorder, I’d love to meet you.

Make peace

with your body.

woman in larger body in pool to show HAES and weight-inclusive therapy for eating disorders and body image.

My approach to eating disorder therapy + body image therapy

As both an eating disorder specialist and a human being who has recovered from an eating disorder, I am intimately familiar with how all-consuming thoughts about your appearance can be. I get it on a level I don’t think you could if you hadn’t lived through it yourself. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, it might be difficult to believe standing where you are now, but full recovery is 100% possible and will be the end goal in our work together.

 

Focusing so much on food and appearance can serve as a placeholder for other unmet needs.  In our work together, I want to empower you to shape your own path in recovery to become the best version of yourself. We’ll seek to make connections to understand what might have led to having an unhealthy relationship with food and your body, and we’ll take steps to help you get your needs met and heal your relationship with not only food and your body, but with yourself.

 

I approach therapy for eating disorders and body image through a weight-inclusive, HAES-informed, anti-diet lens. I believe all of your experiences related to gender, sexuality, race, culture, trauma, size, disability, and class have shaped how you might feel in your body. Therapy provides a supportive space to help you honor and process your experiences while learning to deconstruct and let go of beliefs that may no longer serve you. 

“Making peace with your body is your mighty act of revolution. It is your contribution to a changed planet where we might all live unapologetically in the bodies we have.”

Sonya Renee Taylor

Eating Disorder Therapy + Body Image Therapy FAQs

You don’t need to know if you have an eating disorder to seek out help for your eating and body image issues. If you have concerns, it’s more than valid to bring to therapy. With that being said, disordered eating is unfortunately normalized and reinforced in our culture. During our first few sessions, we’ll go through an in-depth assessment of any disordered eating behaviors, and after, I will share my clinical impressions with you. 

 

If you have an eating disorder that can be safely treated within my care, we will talk about what that means for our work together. Sometimes we might need to meet more frequently or involve other professionals, such as a psychiatrist or dietitian, as a part of your treatment team. If you’ve already received an eating disorder diagnosis from previous treatment, we’ll talk about where you’re at in your recovery process and what the next steps will be. If you need more intensive treatment than I can provide, I will work with you to find the appropriate care. Regardless of if you meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, if you want to improve your relationship with food and your body, I am absolutely here for it.

Of course you want to lose weight. Our experience in this world, especially as women, has been shaped by the idea that we need to be in a smaller body to be worthy. But here’s the thing - you do not need to be a certain size or weight to be deserving of seeking out care to assist with healing your relationship with food and your body. I have never met a person who struggles with disordered eating and body image who doesn’t also struggle with a bigger, broader sense of not feeling good enough, and it’s no wonder (!) with these ideas being programmed into us since early childhood.

 

If it were really, truly about just losing weight, you would have either stopped by now, and/or you would not have spent a large majority of your life on a diet, cycling between gaining the weight you lost back and trying to lose it again. I am here to help you connect with how much focusing on food and your appearance might be standing in the way of treating yourself with the care, love, and literal nourishment you deserve.

It can be tough (and freaking badass) to recover from an eating disorder when we live in a society that reinforces disordered eating and harmful beliefs about our bodies constantly. And though I am with you in wishing it would - none of that goes away. Friends will still go on diets and talk about the weight they want to lose. Family might continue to have feedback on how much you are or are not eating, or the foods you're choosing. People will continue to make comments about your body. And you will still need to prioritize your recovery. What does change is your response to these things, the tools you turn to in order to cope with your emotions in a way that’s aligned with your values, and an increase in an understanding of how to meet your own needs. 

 

Eating disorder treatment typically requires the coordination of care between myself and other medical professionals. I will ask you to sign release forms for all members of your treatment team to collaborate with the goal of providing you the best care possible.

 

This process will not be perfect, and it most certainly is not linear. As much as we would all love things to be as simple as going from point a to point b, it can be expected that there might be slips and regressions into old behaviors. We can welcome that, as long as we're applying the knowledge and the lessons learned along the way. The focus will be on full recovery through a lens of progress, not perfection. 

You deserve to heal from disordered eating and body image issues.

Schedule a complimentary consultation today.

Full Bloom Therapy

Online Therapy in Florida, Delaware, and South Carolina

based in Fort Lauderdale, FL