Disordered Eating–managing feelings through food

Johanna Courtleigh, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor, expert in Building Confidence and Self-Esteem, and Resolving Conflict, Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Eating Disorders

“Sometimes it is necessary to re-teach a thing its loveliness.”    Galway Kinnell

Are you . . .

  • Out of control around food?
  • On a rollercoaster ride of weight gain, loss, exercise and diets?
  • Consider yourself bulimic (bingeing and purging), or a compulsive eater?
  • Ashamed of your body and yourself, so hiding from life?
  • Using food to both punish and soothe yourself?
  • Tired of the inner voice that both hates your body and the cycle you’re in, yet drives you to eat till you’re miserable?
  • Fed up with struggling all the time?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you may have an eating disorder.

“Since your Loving Yourself And The Body You’re In workshop, I am down 36 pounds! Healing. I can feel it. Not dieting–just caring.”

Not only have I helped many women and men break the addictive cycle of binge eating, purging, starvation and self-hatred, I know the territory from the inside-out. Including how hard it is to change. And what a relief it is to finally be free of being out-of-control with food.

Whether you want to lose ten pounds or one hundred, the process is the same.

Johanna Courtleigh, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor, expert in Building Confidence and Self-Esteem, and Resolving Conflict, Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Eating DisordersWhat Is An Eating Disorder?
An eating disorder is a symptom of deeper emotional needs that you probably never learned to manage in other ways.

Often we come from addictive, punishing families where we weren’t properly ‘met’ or emotionally ‘fed’ when we were distraught. So we learned to turn to food as a coping mechanism. We learned to be out of control with food, in an attempt to feel better.

I will help you learn to meet your emotional needs in ways that won’t result in further suffering.

I will help you cultivate a gentle inner voice that can mentor you when daily upsets and challenges occur.

I will help you build and practice a skill set that will result in a more loving, respectful relationship with your feelings, body, food and life.

I will help you learn to be kind to yourself in a real way.

So that instead of making yourself feel worse when you’re upset, you can truly begin to comfort and make yourself feel better.

Addictive Eating
A definition of addiction I like is ‘continuing to do something, despite negative consequences.’ It is also ‘a means of seeking pleasure or relief in a way that results in pain and/or a lack of self-respect.’

An eating disorder isn’t just another addiction. We can’t just stop eating. We need to learn to eat to live, including eating for pleasure, in a way that doesn’t cause us pain or threaten our health or self-esteem.

Your relationship with yourself is a crucial one. One you will be in every moment for the rest of your life.

You are worth everything, including taking beautiful care of. I know you can break your cycle of misery with food and self-hatred, and I know I can help you.

Johanna Courtleigh, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor, expert in Building Confidence and Self-Esteem, and Resolving Conflict, Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Eating DisordersNow is not the time to give up on yourself. Now is the time to commit to loving yourself. In a real way.

You can heal your disordered eating and begin to take loving care of yourself and your body.

Please feel free to give me a call so we can discuss your particular needs.

(503) 473-7787