Disordered Eating Therapy
In New Jersey
Break Free from Using Food to Cope with Your Emotions
Not all struggles with food, eating, and body image meet the criteria for a clinical eating disorder—but that doesn't make them any less painful or deserving of support. If you find yourself caught in patterns of emotional eating, obsessing over food and calories, struggling with intense body image distress, or feeling controlled by rigid food rules, you're experiencing disordered eating—and therapy can help.
At Balanced Brain and Body, Kristen Forman, LCSW provides specialized disordered eating therapy throughout New Jersey using DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), mindfulness practices, and HAES®-aligned approaches. Together, you'll explore the connection between your emotions and eating, and develop healthier, more effective ways to care for yourself.
Understanding Disordered Eating
Disordered eating exists on a spectrum between "normal" eating and clinical eating disorders. It includes a wide range of problematic eating behaviors and thought patterns that cause distress but may not meet full diagnostic criteria for anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
Common patterns include:
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Chronic dieting or food restriction
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Emotional eating or using food to cope with feelings
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Obsessive thoughts about food, weight, calories, or body shape
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Guilt or shame after eating certain foods
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Skipping meals or fasting to "make up for" eating
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Excessive exercise to compensate for food intake
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Feeling controlled by thoughts about food and body image
Disordered eating, sometimes known as emotional eating, isn't a formal diagnosis, but it's a real struggle that impacts your quality of life, mental health, and wellbeing. And importantly, without support, disordered eating patterns can escalate into full eating disorders over time.
You don't need to meet diagnostic criteria to deserve compassionate, expert help.
Common Types of Disordered Eating Kristen Treats
Emotional Eating
Do you find yourself reaching for food when you're stressed, sad, bored, anxious, or lonely—even when you're not physically hungry? Emotional eating means using food for comfort, stress relief, or distraction rather than to satisfy physical hunger.
Common patterns include:
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Eating to numb or avoid uncomfortable feelings
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Using food to celebrate, reward, or soothe yourself
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Feeling out of control around certain foods when emotions run high
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Eating past fullness to cope with emotional discomfort
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Feeling guilty, ashamed, or regretful after eating
Emotional eating isn't "bad". It's a coping mechanism. Food is readily available, socially acceptable, and provides temporary relief. The challenge is that food doesn't actually solve the underlying emotional need, leaving you stuck in a cycle of eating, guilt, and more emotional distress.
Through therapy, you'll learn to:
- Recognize the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger
- Identify what you're truly craving (comfort? connection? rest?)
- Build a toolkit of alternative coping strategies that address your actual needs
- Practice eating with awareness and self-compassion
The truth is that “emotional eating” gets a bad rap, but in reality it’s a far more nuanced experience than people realize.
Essentially “emotional eating” is when we eat in response to an emotion – both pleasant and unpleasant ones. Often times emotional eating gets negatively branded as a way to “suppress” or “distract” from emotions like stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness, and loneliness. However, it is so much more than that – it is a form of coping AND can be a part of typical eating. Examples of “emotional eating” that often get overlooked:
- Coming home from work and having your favorite dinner to boost your mood.
- Enjoying your grandma’s favorite dessert because you feel love for her.
- Having a piece of birthday cake at a party not because you are hungry but because you want it.
While emotional eating can be a part of normalized eating and a productive and soothing way to cope – it also has its drawbacks. When emotional eating is one of our only coping skills in our toolbox it is very limiting and can lead down a path to more disordered eating and or a diagnosable eating disorder. We don’t have to demonize emotional eating as a whole, however we do need to be mindful of when we are using it and if we are solely relying on it. This is where working with someone can be helpful in order to broaden your coping skills.
Body Image Distress
Body image distress involves persistent negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to your body. It goes beyond occasional dissatisfaction to a pattern that significantly impacts your self-esteem, mental health, and daily life.
Common experiences include:
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Constant critical thoughts about your appearance, weight, or body shape
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Comparing your body to others and feeling inadequate
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Avoiding mirrors, photos, or social situations because of body shame
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Spending excessive time thinking about perceived flaws
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Body checking behaviors (weighing, measuring, pinching body parts)
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Feeling like your worth is determined by how you look
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Anxiety or depression related to body image
Body image distress is often deeply connected to disordered eating. Negative body thoughts can drive restrictive eating, excessive exercise, or other harmful behaviors in an attempt to change your appearance.
Through therapy, you'll work toward:
- Challenging distorted thoughts about your body and appearance
- Developing body neutrality or body acceptance (rather than trying to force "body love")
- Reducing body checking and comparison behaviors
- Building self-worth that isn't tied to appearance
- Understanding how diet culture and societal beauty standards fuel body shame
- Practicing self-compassion and treating your body with respect
Food Obsession and Preoccupation
Food obsession involves spending an excessive amount of mental energy thinking about food, calories, meal planning, weight, or eating. These intrusive thoughts can feel all-consuming and interfere with your ability to focus on work, relationships, or activities you enjoy.
Common patterns include:
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Constant thoughts about what you'll eat, what you ate, or what you "should" eat
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Planning every meal or snack in advance with rigid detail
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Obsessively counting calories, macros, or tracking every bite
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Difficulty concentrating on anything besides food or weight
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Researching diets, nutrition rules, or "clean eating" guidelines constantly
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Feeling anxious or panicked if you can't stick to your food plan
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Mentally reviewing everything you ate to assess whether it was "good" or "bad"
Food obsession often stems from restriction. When you deprive yourself physically or mentally, your brain becomes hyper-focused on food as a survival mechanism. It can also be fueled by diet culture messaging that teaches us to fear food and our bodies.
Through therapy, you'll learn to:
- Understand the connection between restriction and food preoccupation
- Challenge rigid food rules and all-or-nothing thinking
- Practice flexible, intuitive eating that reduces mental obsession
- Redirect obsessive thoughts using mindfulness and cognitive techniques
- Address underlying anxiety, perfectionism, or control needs
- Reclaim mental space for what truly matters in your life
How Kristen Treats Disordered Eating
Building Emotional Awareness & Healthier Coping Skills
As a licensed disordered eating therapist serving New Jersey, Kristen's approach focuses on understanding the "why" behind your eating—not shaming you for it. She helps you build awareness of your emotional triggers and develop alternative ways to meet your needs.
Treatment Methods:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is highly effective for disordered eating because it directly addresses the emotional and behavioral patterns underneath. Kristen teaches practical skills in:
- Emotional regulation – Identifying and managing emotions without turning to food, restriction, or body criticism
- Distress tolerance – Sitting with uncomfortable feelings instead of using disordered eating behaviors to escape
- Mindfulness – Staying present with your experience and noticing urges without automatically acting on them
- Interpersonal effectiveness – Expressing needs, setting boundaries, and building connections in healthy ways
Mindfulness-Based Approaches
Disordered eating often happens on autopilot. Through mindfulness practices, you'll learn to:
- Recognize physical hunger versus emotional hunger
- Pause between urge and action
- Eat with greater awareness and satisfaction
- Notice body sensations and thoughts without judgment
Health at Every Size® (HAES®) Framework
Kristen's HAES®-aligned approach means:
- No dieting, no restriction, no "good" and "bad" foods—because restriction often increases disordered eating
- Focus on intuitive eating and honoring both physical and emotional needs
- Respect for body diversity—all bodies deserve care, regardless of size
- Understanding that health is about behaviors and wellbeing, not weight
Self-Compassion & Shame Reduction
Shame about eating and body image often fuels more disordered eating. Through compassion-focused work, you'll learn to:
- Replace self-criticism with self-kindness
- Understand disordered eating as a symptom, not a character flaw
- Develop curiosity instead of judgment about your patterns
- Break the shame-behavior-shame cycle
Who This Treatment Is For
Adolescents & Adults Struggling with Disordered Eating
Kristen works with adolescents (ages 11+) and adults throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and South Carolina who:
- Struggle with emotional eating, food obsession, or body image distress
- Have rigid food rules or guilt around eating
- Use food to cope with difficult emotions
- Feel controlled by thoughts about food, weight, or body shape
- Are tired of dieting and restriction that only makes things worse
- Want to develop intuitive eating and body acceptance
- Are looking for weight-inclusive, HAES®-aligned therapy without weight loss goals
- Don't meet criteria for a clinical eating disorder but know their relationship with food isn't healthy
Kristen provides a welcoming, affirming space for neurodivergent individuals, LGBTQ+ clients, people in larger bodies, and anyone who has been harmed by diet culture.
Your Path to Healing Starts Here
Initial Intake (75 minutes)
Your first session is a comprehensive assessment where Kristen will:
- Explore your history with food, eating, and body image
- Understand your current patterns and what triggers disordered eating
- Learn about your goals and what you're hoping to achieve
- Discuss co-occurring concerns like anxiety, depression, or perfectionism
- Collaboratively create a personalized treatment plan
Ongoing Therapy Sessions (45 or 60 minutes)
Sessions are typically held weekly or bi-weekly. Each session may include:
- Exploring the thoughts, emotions, and situations that drive disordered eating
- Learning and practicing DBT skills for emotional regulation
- Challenging rigid thinking patterns through CBT
- Developing mindfulness practices to create space between urge and action
- Building a toolkit of alternative coping strategies
- Processing setbacks with compassion and curiosity
Skills-Based Approach
Disordered eating therapy is highly practical. You'll leave each session with concrete tools and strategies you can use immediately in your daily life.
Location & Format
- In-person: Ridgewood, NJ office (Bergen County)
Virtual: Secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth sessions available throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and South Carolina
Why Choose Balanced Brain and Body
For Disordered Eating Therapy in NJ?
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DBT Expertise
With 10 years in a DBT outpatient center, Kristen is an expert in teaching emotional regulation skills—the foundation of successful disordered eating treatment.
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Specialized Training
Kristen has completed training in Mindful Eating through The Center for Mindful Eating, giving her specialized expertise in the intersection of emotions, mindfulness, and eating.
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HAES®-Aligned, No Dieting
Kristen's weight-inclusive approach means you'll never be put on a diet. Restriction often increases disordered eating, so recovery focuses on intuitive eating and self-compassion instead.
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Judgment-Free, Shame-Free Space
Disordered eating isn't a moral failing—it's a coping mechanism. Kristen creates a safe environment where you can explore your patterns with curiosity and compassion, not shame.
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Boutique, Founder-Led Care
You'll work directly with Kristen throughout your entire treatment—ensuring consistency, trust, and personalized care.
Frequently Asked Questions About
Disordered Eating Therapy
Ready to Build a Healthier Relationship with Food & Your Body?
You Deserve Support, Even Without a Diagnosis
Disordered eating is real, painful, and deserving of professional support—whether or not it meets criteria for a formal eating disorder diagnosis. If food, eating, or body image is causing you distress, interfering with your life, or keeping you from fully engaging in what matters, therapy can help.
With specialized disordered eating therapy, you can develop flexibility, self-compassion, and peace around food and your body.
Kristen Forman, LCSW is currently accepting new clients for disordered eating patients throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and South Carolina.
In-person sessions: Ridgewood, Bergen County
Virtual sessions: Available throughout NJ, CT, FL, SC
Let's talk about how therapy can help you find freedom.