Food and Body Image
Self Diagnosis Checklist for Eating Disorder
Adopted from The Eating Disorders Collaborative.
- Do you feel guilt and remorse about your eating/ not eating?
- Are you terrified about being overweight?
- Has anyone ever told you that you have a problem with food/ weight/ body-image?
- Does the scale tell you how you feel about yourself?
- Do you feel that food or thinking about food/ body size controls your life?
- Do you have a history of dieting?
- Do you avoid eating when you are hungry or continue to eat when you are full?
If you answered ‘Yes’ to 4 or more of these questions, chances are that you suffer from an eating disorder. Call Ondina at (415) 381-1065.
Freedom
It is possible to…
- Be free from your obsession with food and weight.
- Put an end to body hatred and dieting.
- Break out of “the shame trap” and have an identity/self esteem that is not based on your weight.
- Think and talk about your problems rather than eat/starve yourself about them.
- Reclaim your body and appetite for life!
“When women begin to internalize permission to feed themselves as an act of affirmative self love, they rarely experience themselves as out-of-control or in thrall to their food.” – Marion Woodman
Ondina speaking at the Commonwealth Club on Emotional Eating and the Illusion of the Perfect Body (August 2008)
Do you obsess that if you only had the perfect weight, your life would work out?
So many people through dieting and body hatred have become blocked in their connection to themselves. The body instead of being our ‘home’ becomes the battleground. What we don’t realize is that in trying to control the body and suppress her appetites we also numb our capacity to feel pleasure and savor life’s abundance and flow. We count the calories, hate ourselves for slipping up and resolve to try harder. But what we are really doing is boxing in our life force through self denial and self denigration. Then we wonder why we feel so stuck and unhappy.
I am a licensed psychotherapist and the Director of the Eating Disorders Program at the Community Institute of Psychotherapy in San Rafael with extensive experience in working with eating disorders and body image struggles. I offer a non-diet approach to untangle the physical, emotional, and spiritual components of your struggle with food and weight.
What does your obsession with food and weight do for you? Every problem serves a purpose; otherwise it would not persist. Maybe being obsessed with food or your weight numbs you from other more painful feelings or maybe it provides a predictable routine or anchor in an otherwise unstable world. We can explore more life-affirming ways to accomplish these same things for yourself.
I assist people to come home to their bodies and reconnect to their appetite for life. Change does not happen by force, deprivation, guilt or punishment. Change happens with understanding and compassion. Healing a food and weight obsession can be a potential doorway to self-empowerment and a more fulfilling life.
I offer confidential individual and couples therapy at reasonable rates (sliding scale available) in Mill Valley and San Francisco.
I also run groups for women struggling with body image and/or eating disorders in Mill Valley.
- EMDR Trained
- Evening appointments available
- Blue Cross and most insurance companies accepted
- GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) friendly
- Couple (traditional, alternative and queer) therapy offered
Call for more information, or to schedule an initial session: (415) 381-1065 or email at ondinah@gmail.com
Videos of Interest
Ondina Interviews Judith Orloff, MD
Transforming the face of psychiatry, Judith Orloff, MD is an assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and author of the new international bestseller Emotional Freedom. She synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality to achieve physical and emotional healing. She passionately asserts that we have the power to transform negative emotions and achieve inner peace.
Select a topic below to listen to Ondina’s interview with Judith Orloff on her new book Emotional Freedom and how her concepts can help people who struggle with food, weight and body image issues.
The first audio is for “emotional empaths” who might use food plus weight to energetically protect themselves. Judith talks about the need to develop more effective and healthy boundaries.
The second audio is more about activating your heart energy and connecting spiritually with yourself as a way to combat addictions.
Recommended Books
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight by Linda Bacon, May 4, 2010
This book addresses the dangers of dieting and in Linda’s own words: “As long as we’re focused on changing our bodies — which the data shows isn’t going to happen for most people, anyway — we are missing the real benefits that come from caring for our bodies.” For more about Linda Bacon, PhD and the power of the Health at Every Size *HAES) approach go to her site: http://www.lindabacon.org
‘Your Dieting Daughter – Is She Dying for Attention?’ by Carolyn Costin (maker of the documentary ‘America the Beautiful’), 1997 Bruner/ Mazel Inc.
Includes a wealth of ideas: sound nutritional guidance, “fit or fanatic” exercise, a “What Do I Do When?” chapter, and discussions of eating disorders and the family. A unique feature of this book is its description and evaluation of popular diet plans—an eye opener for anyone who has been sucked in by the multi-billion dollar diet industry.
Body Traps: Breaking the Binds that Keep You from Feeling Good about Your Body (1992) by Dr. Judith Rodin William Morrow & Co., Inc., New York.
This book has useful self-help exercises for dealing with limiting “Body Traps.” Some of the exercises include “The Shame Trap,” “The Success Trap” and “The Competition Trap.” The focus is on feeling attractive whatever size you are.
Anita Johnston, PhD. Eating in the Light of the Moon. 1996
How women can transform their relationship with food through myths, metaphors and storytelling.
Geneen Roth. When Food is Love. 1991. Penguin Books, New York.
A very readable and engaging book about a compulsive eater’s struggle with intimacy and food. She describes her healing journey through the childhood hurts and her issues around food and weight to true intimacy.
Marion Woodman. Addiction to Perfection. The Still Unravished Bride. 1982. Inner City Books, Toronto, Canada
A Jungian approach that looks at the mother/daughter relationship and the repressed feminine. Marion explores how the addiction to perfection alienates women from their ability to nurture themselves. Finally, she explores the body/spirit connection and how food rituals replace the authentic need for spiritual ritual.
Fat!So? by Marilyn Wann 1998. Ten Speed Press.
Because you don’t have to apologize for your size! This is a wonderful fresh approach to reclaim your body and live healthy at any size. Check out her website too: www.fatso.com.
Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder by James Lock, MD, PhD and Daniel Le Grange, PhD, 2005, The Guildford Press
Parents, read this book if you want to become more empowered in the battle against the eating disorder that has taken over your child’s life.
Learn how to read the danger signals and know what to do about them. If your child is in treatment for an eating disorder, this book also has excellent explanations for understanding what you’re really dealing with.
Useful Websites
This community-based organization raises awareness about eating disorders and sponsors an annual professional symposium for health professionals and educators.
For more on the Health At Every Size Approach which allows you to move from a relationship to your body as “battleground” to body as “home and sanctuary” check out these excellent sites: www.sizediversityandhealth.org and www.HAEScommunity.org
A body loving site for everybody!
Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders
The Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders (APTED) offers low fee/ sliding scale psychotherapy referrals, support groups, and resources to individuals with food, weight and body image issues in the Bay Area.
This body image site is for women of all sizes and encourages a ‘Health At Every Size Approach’. Monthly articles, forums, body image exercises, fitness ideas for large women and activism ideas.
Eating Disorders Outreach has created an informative video about teens and eating disorders called ‘It’s not about food.’ It can be viewed online at this site.
A helpful, general information site for Anorexia and all the eating disorders. Includes a free hotline, and information on support groups and how to start one.
A useful general information site for Bulimia and other eating disorders. Includes an excellent list of books, articles, and treatment center information.
An anti-diet approach to dealing with “bad body thoughts” and compulsive eating, by Jan R. Hirschman and Carol Munter, authors of ‘When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies.’
An anti-diet approach for compulsive eaters and bulimics. Geneen Roth, (Author of ‘When Food is Love’) encourages a body-mind-heart approach that is about getting people back in their bodies, developing mindfulness and experiencing pleasure.
Support, inspiration, education, (including recovery issue articles and online self-help) and treatment opportunities for people with eating disorders and those who love them.
An excellent resource for parents with eating disordered children/ teens- Check out this site for a more empowered approach for parents.
The National Association for Males with Eating Disorders
NAMED is uniquely dedicated to offering support to and public awareness about males with eating disorders.
A short article plus video by Dr. Judith Orloff, a psychiatrist and energy specialist, about an energetic perspective on eating disorders. View her bio here!
Andrea’s Voice came into being following a parent’s (Tom and Doris Smeltzer) worst nightmare: the death in 1999 of 19-year-old daughter, Andrea, after 13 months of bulimic behaviors. Since then they have created various eating disorder prevention/educational presentations (which have now been given as Keynotes at hundreds of universities, conferences and organizations nationwide and internationally), and this web site to educate others on this so often misunderstood illness. It includes an ‘Advice for Parent’s’ Blog.
