Eating Disorder Treatment in Cary, NC
Food and body worry can take up more room than almost anything else, and it rarely announces itself. It shows up as rules that keep multiplying, a running tally in your head, or a day that goes sideways because of one meal. You do not need a diagnosis, a certain weight, or a dramatic story to deserve help with this.
We are therapists, not dietitians or physicians, so we do not set weight goals or write meal plans. We work on the thinking and the coping underneath the eating, and we coordinate with your dietitian and medical provider, or help you build that team, so the whole picture is covered.
What We Work With
People come to us with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, chronic dieting, and the kind of disordered eating that never got a name but shapes every day. Often it arrives attached to something else. Anxiety that eating rules seem to quiet. Depression that flattens appetite entirely. Trauma that made control feel like the only safe thing. A body you have been at war with since you were twelve.
If the eating is the newer layer on top of anxiety, depression, or a harsh inner critic, treating only the eating tends not to hold. We work both.
What This Often Looks Like
Disordered eating is rarely obvious from the outside, and it almost never looks the way it does in a film. More often it looks like this:
Rules that keep multiplying
A list of safe foods that gets shorter each month, or conditions that have to be met before you are allowed to eat.
A running tally
Constant mental arithmetic about calories, macros, steps, or what you have earned. It runs underneath conversations and follows you into bed.
Eating in secret, then the aftermath
Episodes that feel outside your control, followed by shame, and often by something meant to undo them.
Checking, or refusing to
Mirrors, waistbands, photographs, the scale. Either repeatedly, or avoided entirely because the answer is unbearable.
A life that has quietly shrunk
Meals out declined, holidays dreaded, plans arranged around what will be served or who will notice.
Eating that is not about weight at all
With ARFID and some sensory or medical presentations, the fear is choking, texture, or illness rather than body size. That is an eating disorder too, and it is treatable.
If several of these are familiar, that is worth a conversation. It does not commit you to anything.
How We Work
There is no single protocol that fits everyone. After we understand what you are carrying, your therapist builds a plan from approaches that fit eating concerns specifically:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for eating disorders
The most studied talking treatment for eating disorders. It targets the specific loop of rules, checking, and self judgment that keeps disordered eating running, rather than treating it as ordinary anxiety.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills
When eating is doing a job, usually numbing or steadying an unbearable feeling, DBT builds other ways to get through the moment so the behavior is not the only tool you have.
Somatic and body based work
Hunger and fullness cues go quiet after long enough at war with your body. This work rebuilds the connection slowly, so eating stops being a maths problem and becomes something you can feel again.
Trauma-Informed CBT
When the eating started as a response to something that happened to you, we treat it that way, at a pace that keeps you steady rather than forcing the story out early.
Coordinated care
We are therapists, not dietitians or physicians. We work alongside your dietitian and medical provider, and if you do not have them yet we will help you build that team before we go further.
Being Honest About Fit
Outpatient therapy is one level of care, and it is not the right one for everyone. If you need medical monitoring, daily structure, or supported meals, the responsible thing is a higher level of care such as an intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, or residential program, and we will say so and help you find it.
Our eating disorder caseload is also limited. If we cannot take you, or cannot take you soon enough, we would rather tell you in the first conversation and point you somewhere good than keep you waiting. That is a real answer you can get from a free consultation, not something you have to find out three weeks in.
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in North Carolina
We see clients in person at our Cary office and by secure telehealth anywhere in North Carolina. For this work, telehealth has a real advantage. You are in your own kitchen, at your own table, in the place where the hard moments actually happen. Body image work and self esteem therapy travel well over video.
Who You Would Work With
Eating concerns rarely arrive alone, so the right therapist for you depends on what else is going on, whether that is anxiety, trauma, depression, or body image and self worth. Rather than assign you to whoever is free, our care coordinator, Tori, listens first and matches you to the clinician whose training actually fits.
She will also tell you plainly if our caseload cannot take you right now, or if you would be better served at a higher level of care. You can see every clinician, their credentials and what they work with on our therapists page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to be a certain weight to get help?
No. Eating disorders occur at every body size, and most people with one are not underweight. Weight is not how we decide whether your experience counts or whether you qualify for care. If your relationship with food or your body is taking up room in your life, that is enough of a reason to reach out.
Will you put me on a meal plan or tell me to lose weight?
No. We work from a weight neutral, all foods fit position, so we do not set weight goals or prescribe meal plans. Nutrition planning belongs to a registered dietitian, and we coordinate with yours. Our work is the thinking, the coping, and the relationship with your body underneath the eating.
What if I have been dealing with this for years?
Long standing patterns respond to treatment. Many people we see have lived with this since adolescence and assumed it was simply part of who they are. Length of time tends to change the pace of the work rather than whether it can help.
What happens in the first session?
Mostly listening. Your therapist will ask what eating and body image look like day to day for you now, what you have already tried, and what you want to be different. You do not have to disclose numbers, behaviors, or history you are not ready to share. Together you will decide whether outpatient therapy here is the right level of care.
Do you take my insurance?
We are in network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Tricare and United. Tricare and United plans are seen by fully licensed therapists only. Our care coordinator, Tori, will confirm your coverage before your first session.
Take the First Step
You do not have to have it figured out, and you do not have to be at your worst to deserve support. A free 10-minute consultation is a low pressure way to describe what is going on, ask whether we are the right fit, and get an honest answer either way.
113 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 130, Cary, NC 27511
