I became a therapist because I want people to know they’re not alone in working through body shame and trauma.

My Own Story

Like many people growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I’ve had my own body issues for decades. As a kid, I absorbed a lot of messages while watching people close to me ride the diet roller coaster and develop eating disorders in response to body shaming from loved ones. As a teen, friends were immersed in diet culture and out of a desire for belonging, I started dieting, too. 

In college, an elimination diet to address digestive issues kickstarted both my interest in nutrition and wellness as well as a decade-long bout of orthorexia, the hyper-focus on healthy eating. I developed a fear of the foods I’d eliminated and received praise for the way my thinner body looked. After earning a nutrition certificate, I built up my practice, coaching clients to do some of the same things I was doing - elimination diets, raw veganism, detoxes, and the like. This version of wellness became my whole personality, the center of my life and work. 

When my son was born, everything changed. A labor and delivery that did not go as planned helped me realize that letting go of perfectionism and the desire to control certain parts of my life was just…life. I struggled with postpartum depression and hesitated to take medication because I was afraid of the weight gain that would occur. When I think back, that was a lightbulb moment for me. My values were shifting, starting with asking myself, how was it that I was willing to risk my mental health for a thinner body? Was my fixation on weight, size, and fitness helping my overall health or actually harming it? 

I went with the latter, and soon started learning about Health at Every Size and intuitive eating. These frameworks helped to free me from orthorexia and reminded me that wellness is about way more than our bodies.

This experience fueled the journey toward becoming a therapist, so that I can work with folks like you and help you remember: