Services
EATING DISORDERSAssessment and Treatment of Eating Disorders
The Women’s Therapy Service of Montclair, LLC, offers assessment and treatment for the full range of eating disorders and body image problems – Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge/ Compulsive Overeating. We have experience in treating eating disorders with both men and women, and children and adolescents, both boys and girls.
We offer counseling and psychotherapy for:
- Anorexia/Bulimia
- Binge Eating and Compulsive Eating
- Body Image/Body Dissatisfaction
- Pre and Post Weight Loss Surgery Counseling
- Health at any Size
To schedule your initial consultation for yourself or for your child,
Call (973) 783-2292
Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa
The aim of the Women’s Therapy Service is to provide assessment and treatment for eating disorders and offer our firm belief that recovery is possible. The Women’s Therapy Service strongly advises early detection and intervention of eating disorders, which is when the prognosis is the most favorable.
Getting started means making an appointment for your initial consultation and individualized assessment of you or your child’s eating disorder and body image problems. Part of our evaluation is a “level of care assessment” to help determine that outpatient private therapy is the right level of care for you. As a result of the evaluation, we will offer recommendations to maximize the efficiency of your recovery or your child’s recovery.
Today, the approach that has proven to be the most effective approach , is the “Team Approach”. Your primary therapist at the Women’s Therapy Service can help coordinate your outpatient care consisting of the necessary treatment team members needed for your specific phase of recovery. This team can include outpatient eating disorder specialists and physicians from the community who are knowledgeable and sensitive in treating eating disorders.
Warning signs of anorexia and bulimia:
- Pre-occupation with food and weight
- Restrictive or ritualistic eating behaviors
- Social Withdrawal
- Binging
- Frequent bathroom trips
- Compensatory behaviors such as purging or excessive exercise
- Exercise that is compulsive and driven
- Laxative, diuretics, diet pill abuse
- Depressed or anxious mood
- Mood changes such as irritability or guardedness
- Weight loss accompanied by cessation of menstruation for more than 3 months
- Thinness without vibrancy
- Reluctance to eat in front of others or eat out.
- Dishonesty with self and others
Binge Eating Disorder/Compulsive Overeating
Binge Eating Disorder and Compulsive Overeating are symptoms used to self-soothe and cope with a variety of feeling states and memories. These behaviors lead to guilt feelings, self-loathing, depression, and feeling more out of control with food. The binge/diet cycle ultimately leads to more weight gain and lowered self-esteem. This cycle cannot be cured or healed with yet another diet.
Warning Signs of Binge Eating Disorder and Compulsive Overeating:
- Constant Weight Fluctuations
- Yo-yo dieting
- Feeling a lack of control around food
- Low Self-Esteem
- Late night binging
- Closet or sneak eating; hiding or hoarding food
- Self-loathing in regards to overeating
- Inner critical voices
- Eating to the point of painful fullness
- Depressed or anxious moods
- Eating large amounts of food in a short amount of time (usually under two hours)
Body Image
Body Image is not how others see you, it is how you see yourself… from the inside…. in your mind’s eye. Body image is a complex, not a simple phenomenon, with many conscious and unconscious layers.
Take the ONE MINUTE Body Image Test
When you close your eyes and picture your body, what do you focus on first?.....
Are your first images positive or negative?
DO FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT YOUR BODY….
Influence your decisions to attend or avoid social situations? …
Trigger restricting, binging or purging, or overeating?....
Stimulate self-loathing or negative internal voices?....
Interfere with your relationships or career?....
Prompt you to exercise or run daily, even when you are sick
and over-tired?..
Or prompt you to avoid exercise programs in the first place?...
Cause you to obsess with, or continue with, cosmetic surgery?.....
If you have answered “yes” to at least half of these questions, individual and/or group therapy at The Women’s Therapy Service may be beneficial for you. Our INNER IMAGE Group Program for Eating and Body Image Concerns is for adolescent girls and adult women.
Improve your body image,
Your relationship with food,
And your self-esteem!
Pre and Post Weight Loss Surgery Counseling
The Women’s Therapy Service offers individual and group therapy for those who are deciding on weight loss surgery or having already undergone it. Prior to surgery, the more you understand about how you have come to use food for emotional reasons, the better your emotional adjustment will be afterwards.
Post-surgery, many feelings are triggered by this surgery, when food is no longer possible for suppressing feelings. People often get depressed and anxious and are not emotionally prepared. Body Image changes much slower than weight can drop and often the person is left with a new body and an old body image.
Without the proper emotional support during this process, binge eating can return with damaging effects. Some people finding that their reduced body size did not automatically bring them more fulfilling relationships, and they find themselves replacing their food addiction with new addictive behaviors, such as impulsive sexual behavior, drugs or alcohol, shopping, and even gambling to fill up empty or lonely feelings.
The key to successful adjustment to bariatric surgery is individual and/or group counseling prior to the surgery and after surgery. Bariatric patients have been integrated into our INNER IMAGE group program for Overcoming Emotional Eating with much success.
To schedule your initial consultation, Call Barbara Reese, LCSW at (973) 7873-2292
Health at any Size
The Women’s Therapy Service supports and counsels individuals who wish to maximize their mental and physical health, at any size. We live in a society that is hyper focused on size and appearances. Our philosophy and methods help chronic dieters reshape their thinking, shed unhealthy habits, become mindful and conscious about their eating behaviors, seek new enjoyment in physical activity, thus increase their sense of self-esteem and self-worth.
Research has show that individuals of every size can improve their overall physical and mental health by increased activity alone.
Learning to recognize and follow the body’s natural, internal cues to hunger and satiation, and finding enjoyable physical activity, can help end yo-yo dieting.
Our job is to help you
Improve your body image,
Your relationship with food,
And your self-esteem!
…at any size!
Call us to make an appointment for your initial consultation, (973) 783-2292
