No one chooses to develop Anorexia Nervosa.
Usually, people have been living with their eating disorder for a while before they realise what’s going on. While no two eating disorder experiences look exactly the same, if you’ve started to find yourself feeling more anxious about food or your eating has become a source of conflict with your friends or family, you might be experiencing an eating disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa is a type of eating disorder characterised by extreme food restriction, an intense fear of gaining weight and sometimes significant weight loss. As the illness progresses, as too does obsessive or rigid ways of thinking and behaving around food. The extreme dieting as part of Anorexia Nervosa may involve meticulous calorie counting, refusing food or fluids, and needing to follow strict food rules.
THERAPY FOR ANOREXIA WITH A DIETITIAN
Sometimes people with Anorexia Nervosa may engage in other dangerous behaviours to control weight including exercising excessively and self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. People with Anorexia Nervosa typically experience a disturbance in the way they perceive their body, weight and shape.
Some of the physical symptoms are a result of the lack of food, and some from weight loss. You might notice brain fog, losing hair, weak nails, or feeling cold all the time. Despite many of these physical symptoms being serious, some of the more common difficulties we usually hear from our clients are:
- 1You are driven to do exercise and will put it before anything else, even if you are completely physically and emotionally exhausted
- 2The thoughts about food or about your body never stop
- 3You find yourself fixated on counting calories and setting new rules for what you’re allowed
- 4If you eat something that you don’t think you should, you feel overly guilty and obsess over how you’ll make up for it later
It is normal to feel ambivalent or to have mixed feelings about whether you want to start recovery.
You’ll never be 100% ready to recover, but if a part of you wants to be rid of your eating disorder, it’s important to know that eating disorders don’t go away on their own.
You will need to take the first step and seek a team to support you. Intuitry Dietitians place importance on developing the right scaffolding to best support you, taking into consideration your experience of Anorexia.
SEEK THERAPY FOR ANOREXIA IN PERTH FROM OUR ACCREDITED PRACTICING DIETITIANS
At Intuitry, we value the importance in drawing upon evidence-based treatment models including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT-E), Family Based Therapy (FBT), Maudsley’s Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA) and Specialised Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM). We also draw upon our learnings in working with people with Anorexia Nervosa to make sure that our work together is enriched by lived experience.
Our dietitians can provide a sense of confidence in how to tackle each food challenge as it comes up throughout the recovery experience. We find most of our clients are worried that if they start to eat more, their weight will increase dramatically, or that they will lose control of themselves and their eating. Working with an Intuitry dietitian, you can set a plan for measurable and predictable progress.
We also don’t want you to be following an eating plan forever and ever, so whilst we start off creating a recovery intake plan with you, we then help you to let go of the plans and eat confidently, using your body cues to help guide your eating.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A CONSULTATION WITH ONE OF OUR DIETITIANS?
We understand that anorexia might be something you’re not sure you want to let go of. For some, it could be a big part of your identity, for others how you’re numbing some difficult emotions or thoughts, for others a domain of control and many other roles for others. We can support you in finding ways to tolerate or manage the difficulties that come up with recovery, as you gain practice in choosing not to engage with your AN.
Our Perth Dietitians understand the impact of diet culture in the development of eating disorders and the difficulties faced in navigating diet culture through recovery. As part of working alongside your recovery, we help tease apart what’s learned from diet culture and what’s genuinely important to you when it comes to appearance and health.
Anorexia Nervosa is a psychiatric illness, but comes with physiological consequences. For the best support in recovery, you will need to have a specialised team to support you. This is why we always work alongside other members of your care team (GP, psychologists, etc.) so that collaboratively we can navigate the complexities that come with recovery.
WHY INTUITRY?
We believe that it is possible to experience a full recovery, and that you can develop a healed relationship with food, your body and movement. At Intuitry, we endeavour to be as person-centred as possible in achieving this. We aim to bring together the evidence-based treatment models, our experience working in eating disorders and your expertise in your eating disorder together to provide a therapy that aligns with your goals for recovery.
GET IN TOUCH WITH US
Anorexia will always try and convince you that you’re not sick enough. You don’t need to be at your most unwell to start recovery. If you recognise that there’s something not right about your relationship to food, or you’re worried you might have anorexia and would like to work with one of our Perth dietitians, please don’t hesitate to contact us for an initial consultation.
BOOK A CONSULTATION
MEET UR PEPLE
PRINCIPAL DIETITIAN
RUSSELL PHILLIPS
I want to help people live a full life that aligns with their own values, uninhibited by preoccupations with eating or their body.
Russell (he/him) is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, ANZAED Credentialed Eating Disorder Dietitian, Fitness Professional and the principal dietitian of Intuitry. Russell has worked in fitness since 2010, and as a dietitian since 2014.
Russell specialises in treatment for eating disorders, working with individuals and families at every stage of an individuals eating disorder to help develop confidence in eating patterns that serve them well. Russell is passionate about the importance of a weight-neutral lens on health and explores this concept with all of his clients to strengthen their recovery journey.
When Russell isn't working with his clients, he is usually teaching Zumba classes, enjoying a Friday night in with takeaway and red wine or camping in the bush.
Kalamunda and Mount Lawley
DIETITIAN
EFRAT CARBONNE
Significant change, be it behaviour or thinking, is simply a collection of small changes outside of your comfort zone.
Effie (she/her) is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and ANZAED Eating Disorder Credentialed Dietitian, with over a decade of experienced in working with people with complex medical needs.
Effie believes that nutrition should be made easy and has a pragmatic approach to help influence how your network, support and lifestyle can support your food choices. Effie aims to help people discover a healthier relationship with food, with behaviour change suited to them. Effie is experienced in working with people who have eating disorders as well as those who have undergone abdominal surgeries, stomas, feeding tubes, dialysis and rehabilitation. Effie also has interest in working with recreational athletes practicing combat sports.
In her spare time Effie enjoys Taekwondo, kickboxing, BJJ and spending time with her family out and about.
Kalamunda and Mount Lawley
FEES AND REBATES
PRINCIPAL ACCREDITED PRACTICING DIETITIAN
$
215.00
Initial Consultation
ACCREDITED PRACTICING DIETITIAN
$
185.00
Initial Consultation