Eating Disorder Recovery Beyond Food

Healing the Mind and Body

When people think about eating disorder recovery, the focus is usually on food—eating enough, gaining weight (if necessary), and breaking restrictive or binge-purge cycles.

While nourishment is obviously a fundamental pillar of healing, true recovery goes beyond food.

It's about rebuilding your relationship with your body, emotions, and sense of self.

In my practice at Aedra Therapy Services, I work with clients not just on eating but on holistic healing, (treatment of the whole person rather than just symptoms of the illness)—helping them reconnect with their minds and bodies in a way that fosters full recovery.

Healing Your Relationship with Your Body

Eating disorders commonly come with deep-rooted body dissatisfaction, body-checking behaviours, and an over-focus on weight and shape. But recovery isn’t just about accepting a changing body—it’s about learning to exist in your body without fear or control.

Some ways we can start to heal this relationship include:

✅ Body Image Exposure Work – Gradually reducing avoidance of body-related triggers and challenging harmful thoughts.

✅ Somatic Practices – Gentle movement, grounding exercises, and nervous system regulation to rebuild trust in your body

✅ Shifting Focus from Appearance to Function – Learning to appreciate your body for what it can do rather than how it looks.

👉 If body image struggles are keeping you stuck in recovery, therapy can help you work through the deeper fears behind them.

2. Emotional Awareness & Regulation

Many people with eating disorders use food (or restriction) to cope with overwhelming emotions—whether it’s anxiety, guilt, sadness, or shame. Recovery involves learning how to feel and process emotions rather than suppressing or avoiding them.

Some key steps in this process:

🌀 Identifying Emotional Triggers – Recognizing when emotions drive eating behaviours.

🌀 Developing Emotional Regulation Skills – Using tools from the multiple modalities I have been trained in, such as resourcing, mindfulness, breath work and self-compassion to manage distress.

🌀 Reframing Core Beliefs – Challenging thoughts like "I must be in control all the time" or "I don’t deserve to eat unless I’ve earned it."

If you struggle with emotional overload or numbness, this is a sign that deeper healing is needed. You don’t have to do it alone.

3. Reconnecting Mind and Body

Anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder often create a disconnection between the brain and body—whether through hunger suppression, dissociation, or rigid rules around eating and movement.

Recovery is about rebuilding trust in your body’s natural signals.

💡 Interoception Work – Learning to tune into hunger, fullness, and body sensations.

💡 Nervous System Regulation – Techniques like vagus nerve activation, grounding exercises, and mindful breathing.

💡 Breaking the Food & Movement Control Cycle – Learning to move and eat intuitively, without fear or compulsion.

4. Bottom-Up Healing: Why It Matters in Recovery

Many traditional therapy approaches focus on top-down processing—working with thoughts and beliefs to change behaviours. While this is important, it’s not always enough for eating disorder recovery. That’s where bottom-up work comes in.

Bottom-up approaches focus on healing the nervous system first, rather than expecting cognitive shifts to lead the way. When your body is in a state of chronic stress, fear, or shutdown, it’s hard to simply “think” your way into recovery.

Some key bottom-up techniques that support healing:

🌿 Somatic Therapy – Using movement, breathwork, and sensory awareness to release stored tension and trauma.

🌿 Polyvagal Work – Engaging in gentle practices that activate the ventral vagus nerve, helping you feel safer and more connected to your body.

🌿 Grounding & Regulation Practices – Using tactile, auditory, and visual grounding tools to shift from survival mode to a state of calm and safety.

If you’ve ever felt like “I know recovery is the right choice, but my body feels stuck in fear or control”, bottom-up work can help bridge the gap between knowing and feeling safe enough to recover.

Recovery Is About More Than Eating—It’s About Living

If you’re in recovery but still feeling stuck—whether in body image struggles, emotional distress, or food-related anxiety—know that healing is possible.

Full recovery means finding freedom not just with food, but with yourself.

At Aedra Therapy Services, I specialize in an integrative approach to eating disorder recovery, helping clients navigate the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of healing.

If this resonates with you, I’d love to support you on your journey.

📩 Book a free consultation today to explore how therapy can help you find true freedom beyond food.