Intuitive Eating
Intuitive Eating Counseling
Intuitive Eating is a way of making peace with food and your body after years of rules, guilt and second-guessing. In my work, it means rebuilding trust in your body rather than handing you another plan to follow.
What the Intuitive Eating Model means in my work
I work from the Intuitive Eating Model when food and your body have become a battle. In plain language, it comes down to a handful of skills that grow with practice rather than a switch you flip. We practice them in sessions and between them, at a pace that feels manageable, and we pay attention to whatever gets in the way. None of it requires you to be good at it from the start. Curiosity is enough to begin, and so is being tired of fighting.
- Rebuilding trust in your body
- Listening to your hunger and fullness cues
- Finding joy in nourishment
- Reducing guilt and shame
- Limiting the power food, body image and exercise have in your life
Not a diet, and not a disguised one
This is not another food plan or a disguised pursuit of weight loss. If you have tried plan after plan, you may be wary of anything that promises peace with food, and that caution makes sense. Here there is no moralizing about food and no new set of rules to fail. There are no foods you have to earn, no days that count as good or bad, and no scorecard. Your body and your history are treated with respect, and your worth is never measured by what or how much you ate.
Listening to hunger and fullness again
After years of rules, hunger and fullness cues can feel faint, confusing or untrustworthy. We start gently. You might notice what hunger feels like before it becomes urgent, or pause partway through a meal to check in, with no pressure to stop. Mindfulness-based practice helps here in a simple way: come back into the body when the mind has raced ahead. There is no right answer to find, only information to gather. Over time, the aim is for your body's signals to become something you can listen to rather than override or fear.
Guilt, shame and the food rules in your head
Food rules can sound like facts: certain foods are off limits, dessert has to be earned, one slip means the whole day is ruined. CBT gives us a way to work with them: notice the thought, test the rule, practice a response that serves you better. We look at where each rule came from, what it promised and what it has cost you. Guilt and shame can lose some of their grip when they are spoken out loud to someone who will not judge you. I am not a therapist who only nods through a session, though. If I notice a pattern, I will name it, kindly and clearly.
Where Intuitive Eating fits
Intuitive Eating runs through several kinds of work in this practice. It is central to binge eating therapy, where we address cycles of restriction and bingeing, and to therapy for body image, where the mirror has taken on too much power. It also shapes work with athletes whose relationship with food changed when training did, which therapy for athlete injury and retirement explores. Wherever you start, the model stays the same: trust, curiosity and respect instead of control.
Eating Disorder Intensives are grounded in the same model and run one to three days, with breaks and pacing built in, for times when weekly sessions do not leave enough room. Weekly work happens at my Southwest Austin office on Fridays and some select other times and days as schedules allow, outdoors as walk-and-talk, or by telehealth anywhere in Texas while you are located in Texas. Sessions are available in English and Spanish.
Food, family and faith, on your terms
Food carries history. Meals may have been tense growing up, or food may have been the one comfort that was always there. Culture, family traditions and sometimes faith shape how you think about eating and your body, and all of that is welcome here. If your faith matters to you, we can include it, only if you want it. Trauma-informed means the pace belongs to you, so I do not push into material you are not ready for, and you can say no to a topic.
Common Questions
Is Intuitive Eating a diet?
No. It is not another food plan, and there is no moralizing about food, no disguised pursuit of thinness, and no new set of rules to fail. The focus is rebuilding trust with your body.
Can Intuitive Eating be part of an intensive?
Yes. Eating Disorder Intensives are grounded in the Intuitive Eating Model and run one to three days, with breaks and pacing built in. We decide together on the free consultation whether weekly sessions or an intensive fits better.
Can we do this work by telehealth?
Yes. Telehealth by secure video is available anywhere in Texas, in English or Spanish, and you should be located in Texas during each session.
How is payment handled?
This is a self-pay practice. Individual sessions are $190 for 50 minutes or $275 for 80 minutes, and payment is due at the time of service. Monthly superbills are provided for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
The consultation is free and there is no obligation on either side.
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