Relationships

You may be concerned about your relationship with someone else, but what about your relationship with yourself? It's the most important relationship you will ever have. It's the only relationship you will have for your entire life. Your relationship with yourself is the foundation of everything else in your life and is the vital focus for recovery from suffering. Getting to know yourself deeply and becoming your own best friend gives you a sense of security, inner strength and confidence in the world. In sessions we can also practice assertive communication skills empowering you to have a stronger voice in your relationships with family, friends and at work.

Imagine if all the time and energy you spent focusing on food and body image was available for something else. What would your life look like and how would you spend your time and energy? Creatively? Politically? Professionally? Imagine if all the women across America switched their focus too. How might this nation be different? Worry about food and body not only distracts us from our real value, but hampers us from discovering our true purpose and potential to contribute to society. Allowing other aspects of our personality to emerge frees us to live our lives more fully.

Finding balance in your relationship with food and body is a process of discovery. Exploring how you developed your current attitudes and where they came from is the first step and can lead you to examining how you'd like to feel about your body and food. Part of the process is understanding how the negative messages from diet culture have impacted you. This empowers you to choose how you want to treat yourself with both food and movement. It also supports self-acceptance when you direct your social media accounts to body positive, intuitive eating and Health at Every Size influencers to support you in developing body kind attitudes.

I recommend group therapy to most of my clients because our connection with others on a similar path strengthens our recovery. It provides immense relief from the isolation of hidden struggles when we identify with others. It offers the joy of connection and it motivates us to take action when we are taking the steps together.   

Although you may not realize it, there are recovering addicts living and working in your community leading normal and successful lives. How do they do it? 

• Take one day at a time or even one hour at a time. Cliche, but it works and makes life easier to manage in small chunks of time.
• Do the next right thing. This is an example of how to keep things simple. 
• Focus on this moment, put everything else aside and breathe. 
• Reach out for help and don't be alone. People recover together and relapse when they get isolated or overly stressed. 

My own recovery experience helps me to guide you in the direction of freedom from addiction and fear, towards the light of laughter and joy. Take one small step for your recovery right now to begin the process.