VIRTUAL THERAPY ACROSS ONTARIO
EATING DISORDER THERAPY
When food, eating, or your body becomes a source of constant stress, it can feel impossible to escape the guilt and self-criticism. Therapy offers a compassionate space to understand what you're going through and begin building a different relationship with food and your body.
Disordered Eating Therapy in Ontario
Many people wonder whether what they're experiencing is "serious enough" for therapy. You don't need a diagnosis to reach out. Whether food occupies too much of your mental space, eating has become stressful, or concerns about your body are affecting your daily life, support can help you feel less overwhelmed and regain a greater sense of ease.
Emotional Eating
Using food to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, boredom, or overwhelm rather than physical hunger, often feeling like eating is your only way to manage difficult emotions.
Feeling Addicted to Food
Feeling out of control around certain foods, struggling with intense cravings, or feeling trapped in a cycle of overeating, guilt, and promising yourself you'll "do better tomorrow."
Binge Eating
Eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, feeling unable to stop once you start, and experiencing shame, guilt, or regret afterwards.
Constant Thoughts About Food
Feeling consumed by thoughts about food, calories, weight, or your next meal, making it difficult to focus on work, relationships, or enjoying everyday life.
Poor Body Image & Constant Self-Criticism
Frequently criticizing your appearance, avoiding mirrors or photos, comparing yourself to others, or feeling like your self-worth depends on your body.
Restrictive Eating & Food Rules
Skipping meals, avoiding certain foods, or following rigid food rules out of fear, guilt, or anxiety, leaving you feeling exhausted and disconnected from your body's natural hunger cues.
Understanding What's Behind Your Eating Patterns
Eating difficulties can become deeply woven into everyday life. You may spend hours thinking about food, feel anxious about what you've eaten, or find yourself caught between wanting to change and feeling unable to let go of familiar habits. Over time, this can leave you feeling exhausted, frustrated, or disconnected from yourself.
Despite how heavy this feels, change is possible, and you do not have to navigate it alone.
Therapy offers a place to slow down and make sense of your experience. With evidence-based support, you’ll learn to recognise the thoughts, emotions, and experiences that influence how you respond to food and your body. From there, you can begin developing new ways of coping that feel more manageable, grounded, and sustainable.
How Eating Disorder Therapy Can Help
Therapy isn't simply about changing what or how much you eat. We'll look at the thoughts, emotions, habits, and beliefs that can make eating feel complicated, while building practical skills for handling difficult moments. The goal is to help you feel more capable and less controlled by fear, guilt, or rigid expectations around food.
Food is just the surface. We go deeper.
1.
Understanding Food Patterns
We’ll look at the situations and experiences that tend to influence your eating, from daily routines and stress to beliefs about food and your body. You’ll gain a clearer picture of how these factors interact and identify opportunities to make different choices.
2.
Managing Intense Emotions
When emotions become overwhelming, eating can sometimes feel like the quickest way to find relief. We’ll practise strategies for tolerating distress, reducing emotional intensity, and getting through difficult moments without relying on food to make them disappear.
3.
Improving Your Body Image
You’ll learn to challenge harsh judgments about your appearance and loosen the grip of comparison and perfectionism. The focus is not on learning to love every part of your body, but on developing a more respectful and accepting way of relating to it.
4.
Rebuilding Trust With Yourself
Disordered eating can make it difficult to know whether you can rely on your own hunger, fullness, preferences, or instincts. Therapy can help you reconnect with these signals and make decisions with greater confidence, rather than constantly second-guessing yourself.
Food doesn't have to be the measure of how you feel about yourself.
Healing Your Relationship With Food and Your Body
Your relationship with food doesn't exist in isolation. It can be shaped by the way you see yourself, how you respond to difficult emotions, and the rules or expectations you've developed around eating and your body.
In therapy, we look at these patterns with curiosity rather than judgment. Instead of focusing on another diet or trying to exercise more self-control, we'll work toward understanding what you need and finding ways of responding that feel more flexible and sustainable.
You may be struggling if...
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You feel out of control around certain foods.
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You eat when you're stressed, anxious, lonely, or overwhelmed.
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You frequently feel guilty or ashamed after eating.
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Your self-worth is strongly tied to your weight or appearance.
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You avoid social situations because of food or body image concerns.
Therapy can help you move toward greater freedom around food, less preoccupation with your appearance, and a stronger sense of who you are beyond what you eat or how you look.
Meet Our Eating Disorder Therapists
Our eating disorder therapists work with teens and adults facing challenges around eating, body image, self-esteem, and emotional wellbeing. They bring experience and specialised training to each session, adapting their approach to your needs and helping you develop practical tools for lasting change.
Charlotte MacLean
Accepting New Clients
Availability:
Weekdays, weekday evenings and Saturdays
Jenna Gagliardi
Accepting New Clients
Availability:
Weekdays, weekday evenings, and Saturdays
It's Okay to Be Unsure If You're Ready
Part of you might want things to be different — and another part might feel scared to let go of these patterns.
Eating patterns often develop for a reason. They can help you cope, feel in control, or manage overwhelming emotions. So even if they’re painful, it can feel risky to change them.
You don’t have to be fully ready. You don’t have to “want recovery enough.”
Therapy isn’t about forcing change or taking anything away from you.
It’s about understanding what these patterns are doing for you — and helping you build safer, more supportive ways to cope, at a pace that feels manageable.
We move slowly, with care and respect for where you’re at. You stay in control of the process the entire time.
We're ready when you are.
You don't have to have everything figured out before reaching out. Whether you know exactly what you need or you're still finding the words, this is a good place to start.
1
Explore the Team
Browse therapist profiles to find someone whose focus and approach feel like a good fit.
2
Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation
A no-pressure conversation to get to know your therapist before committing to anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need an official diagnosis to start therapy for eating disorders?
No. Many people seek support long before they meet the criteria for a diagnosis. Whether you're dealing with emotional eating, restriction, bingeing, or body image distress, therapy can help at any stage.
Q: How do I know if I could benefit from therapy for an eating disorder?
If food, weight, or body image are taking up too much mental space, causing distress, or affecting your daily life, therapy can offer relief, clarity, and healthier coping tools.
Q: Do you work with teens experiencing body image or eating struggles?
Yes. We offer support for both adults and teens struggling with eating issues, emotional regulation, self-esteem, and body image.
Q: Do you offer online therapy for eating disorders?
Yes. Although our practice is based in Toronto, we offer online therapy across Ontario to make care accessible and convenient.
Q: What will my first session look like?
Your first session is all about getting to know you. We'll explore what has been happening, discuss your goals for therapy, review confidentiality, and answer any questions you have. There is no pressure to share everything right away—we'll move at a pace that feels safe and comfortable for you. To learn more, visit our blog entitled "What to Expect in Your First Eating Disorder Therapy Session".
Q: What is the session fee for an eating disorder therapy session?
A 50-minute session is $155.
Related Articles
Recovery from disordered eating is rarely linear, and it rarely happens in isolation. These articles offer thoughtful, evidence-informed perspectives on the relationship between food, body image, emotions, and identity. They are written with the complexity of this experience in mind and without the diet culture language that makes so much writing about eating feel unhelpful or harmful.